PressurePros

It seems every deck this season has been southernly oriented and it's been very hot and sunny. Does anyone ever mist down a deck prior to sealing to overcome this effect?

Looks great, Jason.

In this market, Behr is advertising like crazy offering three year product waranties. Now of course, noone wants Wood Tux or Ready Seal. Consumer reports didn't help much either. That looks great Michael.

LOL .. it could be worse. Tommorrow I am going to the courthouse to file a lien against a deadbeat b---- that won't pay the remainder of her balance due. I am out $1500

nice work all the way around, Carlos

The Wagner Power Stainer works fine. I used one for awhile until I got the hang of spraying. The only disadvantage to using it is you have to keep filling the little reserve. Most guys can easily overcome that. These things are like $50 at Walmart or Home Cheapo. It is a good way to see if you like the results before invest in an HVLP or airless.

I think it comes down to how you sell it... an agent/homeowner team just may not realize that the homeowner spending $500 for a property cleanup can get them back $2000 in selling price. The property turns over quicker. The homeowner makes more money, the agent makes more money, and we generate more income. Certainly sounds win/win to me. If you doubt, watch the show called Designed To Sell. If one goes with the status quo and believes homeowners and real estate agents don't need our service (they do!) or aren't willing to pay for it, then that person may not be successful in entering partnership with a realtor. I have three individual agents with whom I am working. This is a new area of networking for me as well. I approached probably twenty young, aggressive agents (succesful ones with a little savvy). These three were the most receptive. I met each one individually and after a relationship was formed I closed by offering them a free property cleaning so that they could see for themselves the value of curb appeal. To keep costs down I used no labor. Some may cry "unethical" I say bullcrap. The world still works the way it always has... You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. For one Sunday job and about $30 in chems you can have a salesperson that may produce work for you for years. Are agents "money hungry"? Sure they are, they are in commissioned sales, they are supposed to be. All the more reason they should want to maximize the value of every property they sell.

Hi Jennifer and welcome. Just wanted to send you a quick note. While this topic is sometimes covered here, it's rare. Most of the guys here are exterior cleaning and wood restoration contractors.

I like the Honey Teak on mahogany.

Yorktown, New York... anyone interested ?

Awesome job, Beth. Was the customer happy with the color? Both times I put it on cedar, people were a little shocked at how red it was.

I second E-specs lousy customer service. They prove the point that cutting cost still can cost you. I placed an order they filled it, billed me, then just addd another $50 to my order the next day, no explaination given.

The "corrrect" answer is no. We used the same test at Tweeter. It's put in there to guage if you are being honest or are just answering as you think you should answer. The data to back it up is one thousand people were sent a $1 retail item from one of the big shipping houses. Out of that thousand, something like 85 people returned the item. The conclusion is that most people assume it promotional and never give it a second thought.

Tee-Totaler? You forgot Bud, Miller, Heineken ;-) Personally I'll take some ice water it's been over 90 and sunny here for three straight days.

Rick, after reading the post from a respected wood guy on here, I tried the HD-80 with boost on an acrylic and was successful at removing it. When I get done sealing the job later next week I'll post pictures. On another note, I'm not sure that the problem the people are having with rot is from using an acrylic. The ones I have removed were intact. The stuff forms a fairly impenetrable water barrier so unknown variables like poor maintenance or bad prep are probably at fault.

actually there is another guy that has one for even less. I am not comparing the rigs quality I just remember the price was for a hot water, 5.6 gpm machine with trailer, something like 50 hours on it, $4500

awesome rig posted on Delco's site. Right near you too.

First using what little information I do know about sealers, Wood Tux is a very well made product. I believe it needs a little refining though. Three reasons I have not used the Wood Tux Wet exclusively this year: Only comes in one color (is the tiniting system available yet?) It's incredibly thick and needs to have spirits added to raise viscosity, then mixed and if you end up needing maybe a gallon more you may run into troubles color matching the rest of the deck. It clogs sprayers as it is distributed. I have not tried thinning it with zylene (?) yet. It requires a little finesse to get it down without laps. I went back to my first deck of the season with the Tux Wet and everywhere the sprayer started clogging or misfiring dried a little thick for my taste. (yes I vigorously backbrushed) It's main appeal is the ability to apply wet. After thinking about that though, there are only certain situations where I'd actually do that. One might be on relatively new PTP deck that was cleaned with ultra low pressure. If you have any fuzzing you are going to seal it right in. Homeowner may not care and depending on how you price, he may be fine with that. My customers definitely would not. Taking this novel to an end.. I think I will let others test market this product for durability and let Russell play further with molecule size before I committ to its use.

Hey, Tim. Welcome.

Sodium Percarbonate, TSP and a surfactant.

I have used about 200 lbs of HD-80 so far this season versus maybe 20 lbs of EFC-38. All of my repeat business (maintenance cleaning) was done early in the season. I might have one tub of it left on the truck. It has it's place and I know when to use it but I agree with you, anytime a strip is needed or mold growth is heavy, I use the HD. It's faster and more economical.

Cabot's SPF = Nasty. It's acrylic so it will be a stripping nightmare and it just looks ugly when it dries (to be fair I have only seen two and both people regretted using it)

I finished a deck yesterday by about 1pm and last night we had torrential thunderstorms. Went back today and all was well (thank god, 980 sf of floor). The temp was very hot and the deck was south side, the wood was about 12% when we applied MAB semi trans. I am a pain in the a** about backbrushing and wet spots, so I guess it paid off.

Just walk away from this guy. It isn't worth your time. The deck alone probably measures more like 1200 sf of total wood. At .25/sq that is $300. Up here the driveway would be another $250. Housewash another $350. Even throwing in the other stuff for free, how could $900 compare to $150? Up here that package would definitely be over a thousand. If the deck was a restoration, it alone would be $1400 with materials.

Celeste, what is SC123?