Chappy

Ken, did you change your opinion of wood tux? PS never heard back about the deck in sarasota.

Isreal has always been fighting Hezbollah, along with every one else who ATTACKS THEM FIRST!!! the middle east has always been a powder keg and always will be. The countries that control the oil will have the ability to break off supply anytime. What GW Bush is trying to do is bring some sense of normal government to the arabs who are used to hundreds of years of dictatorships. a normal govmt, who is part of the WORLD COMMUNITY will not be so quick to screw everyone by shutting off the oil supply. and disrupting commerce for everyone. We need to be reminded that EXXON could have made $15 billion in profits if it hadnt put $5 billion back into exploration and development. I agree that we are being misled by the media and by the government. Right wingers will only beleive that the media lies, left wingers will only beleive that the government lies, (With a little bit of Bush hatred to solidify that belief.) But Bush did not lie. Read the text of what he said in his reasons for going to war. Do you really think that if we werent in Iraq, the situation would be any different with Iran, Isreal, Korea or any of the other hot spots in the world? Chaos will always reign, and peace will always be a dream until the end of the world.

their is absolutely no possible way the house wash mix could have done that. this home owner is trying to get you to replace already damaged screens. Those are cat claw holes, and are just plain degraded at the edges and the cat pushed them out. I would take your house wash mix with you, take a peice or new screen with you, get a him to cut out a piece of screen since hes going to replace them anyway, then dip them in the bucket of mix. if the old screen comes is damaged by your mix then do the piece of new screen. I guarantee you it will not be damaged. you should have somewhere in your contract that you are not responsible for things like that that are previously damaged or degraded. his fault not yours!!

Neil, My hometown is Banner Elk. Just a fer piece north of you. I want to move back their so much and do wood restoration. I took a drive up to Beech mountain last year and their were so many decks, I was making plans as I drove. Unfortunately, my wife is a native floridian and wont leave. I envy you. What a beautiful job. Kudos

The Science of Sealing & Coating Concrete with regards to: Preparation, Sealers, Coatings, Care, Marketing the Service, Expectations & Repair in October 2006 Just stuck my head in here Sat. and saw your message. Thanks for taking the time to help and clarify for the board. We now have probably talked to over 10,000 Power Washers, and we have picked up over the years many common threads. Topics like how do you really prep different substrates, identifying them and their state. What are the sealers out there, how are they different, why use one over another. When do I use a coating as opposed to a sealer or none at all. How do I apply. What are my costs. What are realistic expectations from sealers and coatings and how do we explain to the customer what that is and how to maintain them. How do we get the word out, what are some of the buzz words the customers need to hear and what motivates them to buy the product and continued service. These are just a few. Big transition you will see from the class is a comfortable knowledge of what sealers( & types ) are out there and what they do or were originally designed for, increasing your credibility and ease to speak convincingly to the customer, no matter what level, home owner to architect. An example of this is, when we speak to customers and have their ear for 10 minutes, we have a closing rate of appx. 90%. That's high, it is because we are killing them with common sense, not sales. You know some people just aren't going to get it, no matter what you say or do. So here is a start. We really want to open the room to many questions so all of you can hear each others questions and concerns as well. We want to be equally reactive as opposed to totally proactive. We are here for more questions. Thanks for your intervention Jon. Spread the word. We will probably cut the class off at 30-35. take care, Jay Tarantino

Ive talked to Jay in the past. Hes very knowledgable in concrete science. I also used the V-seal on a driveway. its nice stuff. Im not sure the info would translate well to realworld business building so Im curious to see what the class is about also. I think Ill call him again.

Agree with lance. 7700sf Tile roof 12-1500, shingle roof 6-800. the variables include gutters/no gutters, type of landscaping, etc. Even if it were tile I could do it in less than 8 hours by myself, including tarping and rinsing. Shingle roofs are much quicker and use less chem. In my area I am a little high priced and regularly get the door slammed, but I still close about 40-50%. and make money. As slow as I have been, I still will not come down in my price per sf. nor do I raise it when Im busy. Its fiercly competitive in pinellas county. I dont sweat it because the guys that will do it for too cheap wont be around next year or the year after. Im pretty sure you guys in Hillsborough are in a similar situation. My price is fair to the customer who wants quality work. its fair to me, I make a nice profit. You have to strike a balance. Apple may be able to charge a premium but he's been around since dirt. He said himself most of his business is repeat customers, and referrals. I dont know about you, Thomas or Kory, but Im still trying to build a customer base. Too high a price and they dont hire you- lost business now and future along with lost referrals. too low a price and you go out of business because your not profitable, not to mention this work is too hard to do long unless the money is good. Gotta figure where that balance is and land that customer.

heres the article I was looking for: This article is from April '96 Discovery Magazine. It's long, heavy and written by a doctor for science people. Keep reading though, it may save you some serious injuries, perhaps your life: An Invisible Fire By Jeremy Brown During a scene in the movie Alien, crew members are startled to see a fist-size hole in their spaceship’s ceiling, still sizzling from some substance that has just burned clear through the metal. That metal-eating stuff is, of course, the “blood” from the alien. I have met the closest thing there is to that alien’s blood. It came in a small plastic bottle, and it was eating its way through my patient’s hand. On an otherwise ordinary evening, William Turner, a 37-year-old truck driver, noticed a paint stain on his coat. Looking for something to remove the stain, he wandered into the basement of his rented house and rummaged around. At the back of a dusty shelf stood a small bottle labeled Industrial Laundry Rust Remover. The side of the bottle carried the warning CAUTION: DO NOT USE WITHOUT GLOVES. William didn’t read that bit, however, and he removed the cap from the bottle, spilled some liquid onto a rag, and began rubbing it into his stained coat. But as the stain began to fade, his right hand, the hand he was using to apply the liquid, began to hurt. After 20 minutes the pain was so intense that he had to stop. Within 40 minutes he could no longer move his fingers. Frightened and in terrible pain, he managed to drive himself to our emergency room. Fortunately, he brought the rust remover with him. While William writhed in agony, I took a close look at his right hand. Except for some mild swelling of the fingertips, it looked just like his left hand. But if I even gently pressed on his fingernails, he grimaced and begged for a painkiller. When we burn our skin by touching something extremely hot, it is the high temperature that kills the cells. Chemical burns are different: cells are killed by a chemical reaction on the surface of our skin. Probably the most common type of severe chemical burn comes from the sulfuric acid in a car battery. But sulfuric is not the acid to be most feared. That distinction belongs to hydrofluoric acid, a compound commonly used in solvents and rust removers, and so powerful that it can be used to etch images on glass. Although the burn it produces initially causes no blisters or changes in skin color, it can leave behind a scarred limb. Hydrofluoric acid can severely damage the deep tissues of the body yet leave little trace of damage on the skin surface. It can even kill. People have died after a patch of skin no bigger than the sole of the foot was exposed to the substance. Counterintuitively, perhaps, what makes hydrofluoric acid so deadly is not that it is a strong acid. In fact, compared with hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid, it is actually weak. Acids are formed when charged hydrogen atoms bind with nonmetal atoms, and they are judged strong or weak depending on the tenacity of that bond. The weaker the acid, the less easily the bond is broken. A charged atom, or ion, is an atom that has gained or lost one or more electrons, and it is the attraction between a hydrogen ion and a fluoride ion that creates the chemical bond in hydrofluoric acid. The bond is relatively stable because the fluoride ion--which can hold an electron more strongly than any other ion can--wants the electron that hydrogen has to offer. Yet under the right conditions, that stable bond can be broken. Because fluoride is so electron-hungry, it will latch onto chemicals that can provide electrons. And unfortunately, the tissues of the body are swarming with chemical partners that are far more attractive to fluoride than hydrogen. To do its deadly work, hydrofluoric acid must first pass through the skin. This is easily done because hydrofluoric acid doesn’t carry a charge, and uncharged molecules can easily slip through the fatty surfaces of membranes. Hand in hand, as it were, the hydrogen ion and the fluoride ion pass down through the stratum corneum, a tough, waterproof layer of dead cells. Eventually they reach living cells in the epidermis and dermis, where they meet up with a slew of new chemical partners. And that’s when the terrible damage begins. The electron-hungry fluoride ion breaks free of the hydrogen ion and binds to calcium or magnesium, two electron-rich minerals. The hydrogen ion, now free of its fluoride partner, binds to enzymes that neutralize acids and keep the pH in our blood and tissue stable. This devastating disruption of the normal chemical balance--both inside and outside cells--kills cells beneath the surface of the skin. The worst damage occurs when fluoride grabs onto calcium and magnesium, minerals crucial to a host of electrochemical reactions. Without enough free calcium and magnesium, nerves fail and cell membranes collapse. The degree of damage depends on just how low the levels fall. A mild decline can cause numbness, cramps, or horrendous pain. A more severe decline can cause extreme muscle spasms, convulsions, an irregular heartbeat, and even death. When William first arrived in the emergency room, the doctors flooded his injured hand with water to wash away the hydrofluoric acid. Then they applied a gel--a mixture of calcium gluconate powder and surgical jelly. The reasoning was simple. If the tissue damage occurs because hydrofluoric acid causes dangerously low levels of calcium, then providing extra calcium to the affected tissue should prevent the damage. But William was still in excruciating pain. That meant the hydrofluoric acid was still at work deep inside the tissue. Something more had to be done. Without treatment, William could lose his hand. Hydrofluoric acid burns are rare enough to require the advice of an expert. When I called our local poison control center, the toxicologist advised that we boost William’s calcium levels by injecting calcium into his bloodstream. There were two ways we could do this. The first was to inject calcium into a vein. Technically, this is very easy to do. The problem is that veins carry blood away from tissues, so any calcium we gave would quickly be washed away from where it was most needed. The second way was to inject calcium directly into William’s radial artery, the artery in the arm that carries blood to the wrist and hand. Since arteries carry blood into the tissues, calcium injected into an artery would be most likely to reach the affected area. The problem is that arteries are much more sensitive to injections than veins. An injection of calcium into an artery could cause it to spasm, cutting off the blood supply. That was the last thing William’s already damaged hand needed. I decided to inject calcium into his vein, but I would use a variant of a technique that the toxicologist told me might decrease the blood flow out of William’s arm and thus increase the delivery of calcium to the injured tissue. The technique, long used for local anesthesia, is known as a Bier’s block. After placing a small needle into one of the veins in his right arm, I raised William’s arm up above his head and wrapped an Ace bandage around his fingers and up his arm until I reached his elbow. The pressure of the bandage squeezed blood out of his arm. I then inflated a blood pressure cuff to a pressure high enough to prevent any more blood from leaving his arm. William now had, in effect, a right arm that was almost completely detached from the rest of his circulation. Any calcium we injected into this arm would stand a good chance of staying where it was and raising the calcium levels back to normal. The Bier’s block went according to plan. As I waited to see if the treatment eased William’s pain, I thought about what he would face if he lost the use of his right hand. William was the sole breadwinner for his large family and ailing parents. Saving William’s hand might also save his family. But after nearly an hour, William felt no better. His arm looked just about the same as when I first examined it--almost normal, though very pale. But the danger of hydrofluoric acid is that the burn it causes just doesn’t look like a burn at all. It was time to use the last weapon we had. I asked the nurse who was caring for William to infuse calcium directly into his radial artery. She knew this was an unusual procedure. Although patients in the intensive care unit often have a catheter placed into the radial artery, the catheter is typically used to measure the pressure within the artery. It is rarely used to give drugs. Infusing calcium through the artery made the nurse uneasy. She worried that it would constrict, cutting off the blood supply to his hand and fingers. After I explained why we needed to do the procedure, she shrugged and made sure that I signed the patient’s medical chart. That way, at least, if any problem occurred, it would be clear that she was just following the doctor’s written request. A half hour later, I returned to William’s bedside. He was smiling for the first time. The throbbing sensation in his arm had eased, and although his hand remained tender, he said the pain was subsiding. Within two hours he was totally free of pain, and to prove it, he extended his right hand and gently shook my hand. William remained under close observation until the next morning. His pain had nearly vanished, and I discontinued his calcium therapy. I checked on him the following day, just before he was discharged. He was still very sensitive to pressure on his fingertips, but there was almost no trace of the burn. Our treatment had worked. William had uncorked a flesh- eating chemical monster in a dusty bottle of rust remover but would survive unscathed. — April 1996

Im going to go. Id like the wood certification, but I think it would do more for me to get the concrete course. Still debating, but will definately be there.

Lots of seamingly wealthy people are cheap as hell. Many are just plain overextended. There are also a lot of very cheap PWers out there. Im willing to bet she gets a quote for less than $800. I probably would have gone 12-1500 depending if there are any gutters. (cant see them in the pics.) I love the customers that when you give them the price they say, "when can you start?" Makes you wish you had gone up 10%

Well shoot Howard, Its your motto. You saw that bush back their and just had to clean it, it was dirty!.

Stay away from anything with hydroflouric acid in it. nastiest stuff in the world. Doesnt burn the skin, but goes right through to burn at the cellular level. dont even know that you spilled it on yourself until until the severe pain kicks in. It will kill you! http://www.research.northwestern.edu/research/ors/emerg/firstaid/hfburns.htm

I hope you suggested sealing to keep it that nice.

that was a sweet job, very well written article too. Congrats Beth and Rod

I had the worst charlie horse in both legs yesterday. I had had at least a half gallon of gatorade and almost a gallon of water. Today I ate a bunch of fruit too. But its hard to eat when your drinking that much.

last summer, 350,000sf. 3 schools. more gum than you can imagine.

My bearing just went out again in the GP Pro wash. Has been almost a year since I replaced it, but I only use it part time. as a back up to the roto blaster. Of course water cannon refered me to General pump. Ill see if I can get anything done about it, but I sincerely doubt it.

just remember to rinse out the pail. dont want the cusomer to think youve been drinking on the job. Or you can explain that the beer smell is a secret ingredient you added to your mix. "nothing like hops for a good rinse aide, Mr Smith."

If you have to remove the screens to clean, its a good price. Sounds like its in a high end area so you may get it. Course their will be some shmuck out there that will come in at $250.

I felt like I hadnt had the respirator on after my last roof clean. I hadnt thought the cartridges wore out so quickly. Gloves always, but some times they get taken off to do something and dont go on right away. I hate that bleached hand feeling.

My wife got hit on I-10 in some little poDunk town in TX. She was wondering why all of a sudden EVERYONE slowed to the speed limit. Pulled her and the guy passing her over, clocked at his speed of course. Bad thing is it wasnt 250 feet from the Lousiana border. She should of just floored it.

I had 3 contracts last summer totalling $63K usually they pay in 30 days but this took 2.5 months for the last 2 contracts. I knew they werent going anywhere, (school board) but I did sweat a little. I make sure I have enough in the bank to cover expenses before I do the bid. With the exeption of payroll, everything goes on CC. then I can take a little time to pay that up.

I jsut take the distrubution of profits.

I know Ive lost bids when listing the services seperately, especially when they have a long list. adding the gutters into the price of a roof usually works better than pricing seperately. I also wait till im on the job to ask them if they want their concrete cleaned for whatever$ ammount. that seems to work a little better for me also.

Ive put in tile bathroom floors, lots of painting inside and out, and landscaping. New house now and replaced all the doors, door handles, added a pantry, painted all the walls, (although i am pretty good now at getting my wife to do most of the painting, since she wants to try a different color as soon as were finished with one.) and am slowly reladscaping. it never seems to end with the things that have to be done.