PressurePros

Marketing, wood rest, hoods, computer help. Whichever shoes you can't fill.

Hey Mark, I'll answer the questions that stuck out to me. First off, a backpack sprayer is a good way to end up with second degree burns on your back and arse. For right now stick with a 3 gallon pump up with viton seals. There isn't really a way to apply too much stripper, but you can make the contractor products too hot. Result: excessive furring The only commercially available stripper worth a salt is the Cabot's Problem Solver™. At $22 per gallon, it's ridiculous to use it even if it does come with the brightener. Not only that it is a gel and you are lucky to get a 100 sq ft coverage rate per gallon. Homeowner products = Homeowner results. Color after applying sodium hydroxide based strippers? It varies, I have had cedar turn almost black if I used a hot mix. If you use oxalic acid as a brightener you will literally see the wood turn colors before your eyes. In under two minutes the color change wil be dramatic. (This is where the homeowner comes outside, oooh's ahh's, and says, "Thats the color stain I want!") If you have properly removed all the existing sealer, when you brighten/pH balance the wood will be as uniform as it is going to get. Variations in mill, growth cut etc will still be evident but that is what gives a wooden deck it's beauty and uniqueness IMO. Be sure you rinse, rinse and rinse again. I run through my strip process all the way through the entire deck, then when I go back and rinse I find more oils have come to the surface and will wash away. You can apply brightener immediately follwing stripper while wood is still wet. One more quick rinse and its a wrap. I have an HVLP sprayer but I often find the prep work to be tedious. If the deck is small enough and the customer wants a top rate job (ie is willing to pay for it), I will bring out three or four guys and we hand rub the sealer into the surface. I am not an expert at spraying yet, I get the ominous cloud of doom and I watch nervously as it dissipates and floats towards the neighboring property. There are others here with much more experience that can clue you in on this one. I landed that huge job and the stripping is booked for the week of the 16th. If you want to bring a rig down I will make it worth your while.

I have heard many good things about TWP. I search and search through the web and get different answers as to what type of finish this is. For the most part it comes up as penetrating. But then I see authorized dealers for the product (including TWP themsleves on one site) suggest multiple thin coats for a furniture like sheen. From what I understand, a sheen that remains after curing is the sign of a film former, right? Also from what I understand this type of finish is begging for early failure but I talked to a guy out in the midwest that says he has been using up to three coats of TWP (100 series) on his projects without any problems. Whats the deal with this stuff?

Looks awesome, celeste. Very nice job. Whats the scoop with colors?.. So far I have seven decks awaiting sealer, only four of them want the Honey Gold. Any word on a tint from Russell?

Hey Mike, 90% of what I do is done with under a thousand psi. I am meticulous with technique and I don't leave anything half cleaned. A pressure washer is but a tool in my arsenal. A contractor that does construction does not refer to himself as a hammerer or a nailer. I would like to leave behind people's myths of "pressure washers" by educating people to what we do and raising the bar on standards and equipment. With all due respect to guys/gals that are new in this business, when I see posts that start "I have a 2.5 gpm 40 gazillion psi pressure washer, and I'm looking to make extra money" my skin crawls. I have extension wands that cost more than the machines at Home Depot. From a business standpoint, I don't sweat them because they find out how difficult and expensive things really are, and they disappear after the first season. But from a public image perspective, the customer gets the same result..ultra cheap price, **** job and a bad taste in their mouth. I don't want to be grouped with those kinds of "companies" or to eb known as another pressure washer. Last night I was presenting a proposal for a monster deck. I was the highest price by double. I actually thought I was low bidding. Anyway, I kept the dialogue open and found out through Q&A that the people were not upset with my price they just wanted me to legitimize it. It wasn't too hard because they said the last company used so much pressure on their cedar deck that they were scraping splinters from the deck off of their stucco. Amazing. The name is not as critical as to where you advertise. In the yellow pages here we have a special section for deck cleaning. I get 80% of my calls from there.

Tony, you missed your true calling as a novelist. I was reading your story and my heart started racing. I couldn't read fast enough to find out the fate of the goliath Behr versus David and his rock or in this case the 80 and some boost. Looking forward to seeing those pics, thanks for sharing the story.

Exactly, Mike. Of the $20 an hour, I might net $10. No thanks.

I dba Pressurepros, Inc and Grease Doctor™. I am selling my share in Grease Doctor but I am thinking of renaming the residential business and keeping it under the pressurepros umbrella. I want to get away from the word pressure.

Walmart sells mines now? Just teasing, Eads, welcome to the board.

what do painters pay you for a prep? I had a couple approach me and they wanted to give me $20/hr + expenses.

When it comes right down to it, it's a matter of paying the bills. Can you survive the winter months? Do you have the dollars to get you through lean times and to put into marketing the company? If the lawn company is already a money maker with an established (and contracted) customer base I would be sure of the value I would be paying. I would also allow for that customer base shrinking by 30-50%. Will it still cover what you need it to financially? Are the terms for repaying the borowed capital flexible enough to not make or break you should some type of tragedy hit? The downfall of this type of business (where we are the guys making things happen out on the street) is, what if you get hurt? Make sure you have a healthy disability policy.

Is there anyone within a couple of hours of Philly that can spare wood stripper? I am not picky on the product whether it be HD-80, F18 or whatever else is effective. An expected shipment did not arrive on time and I'm screwed. I will drive to you and pay you twice what you paid for the amount you have. Please call me asap or I am going to have to use something retail (groan). It's wednesday, i would have to drive out to you tonight. Thanks in advance if anyone can help.

The general area is the only info I have right now, anyone interested?

You will not regret going with a five gpm machine. I have used both a four gpm and a five for residential and everything goes faster with the higher flow. Time is money so your investment will return itself. Rarely have I come acrossed municipal water that cannot keep up. If the situation arises you can back off the unloader so your flow is lowered. Of course the best case scenario is to carry a reserve tank but that is not always feasible on all rigs. I too like the honda motors but then again I am not a tech guy or small engine mechanic.

Duane, thank you very much for the outreach. I did end up securing some product and my shipment of 80 came in, so I am set. I will give you a call one day this week, anyway as I would like to talk and see if there is any way we can help each other out in the future.

Hey that looks great! Just wondering, was that a school of bass I saw floating by belly up?

M Pearlstein, welcome to the board. There are many factors that will influence price but the difference is not as great as a single factor like the cost of living index might indicate. Florida guys work year 'round and have more repeat cleaning so that factors into pricing. An above board contractor with all the neccessary insurance, equipment and legal/accounting assitance will obviously need to charge more than a fly by night'er, and of course market saturation casts a strong influence on pricing. If you look at labor rates acrossed the US, the difference between high and low is usually under ten percent. Yet the differences in final prices charged even within one demographic may be as high as 50%. (I am usually double the price of the weekend warriors in my area) To me, the time when someone errs is when they work their tail off for average wages they could earn in a regular job with a helluva lot less stress. Stick around, MP, you will learn much.

Here is the deck I am doing tommorrow. I had to ask the customer three times if he was sure it was three year old Austalian Timber oil on there. Anyway, here is my question, come late summer, he wants me to do his cedar shake roof. I have no idea what to charge him. Just looking at the pics (vague I know) where should I begin? I have done some roofs but small and low grade, just eyeballed the estimate. You can see the roof in this picture I took of the deck, factor in about double for the other side. Here is the other part of the deck. Wait til you see the pics of the deck and house we are doing next week... HUMONGOUS

Regardless of what is on a deck, if I did not do the prep, I strip it. I lose many bids because of this but I know everything out there with my name on it will last.

Here we go

I did some research on this last year after a similar request from a customer. After tallying in rental, learning curve and potential damage from improper use of a belt sander, I subbed it out. Call a floor refinisher. Do all the prep yourself (countersinking nails etc) and get an estimate to just have a guy come out and make a few passes with progressively finer paper. I wouldn't go higher than 100 grit and if the customer is satisfied with the floor feel at 80 grit, I would stop there. If you decide to do it yourself, take a good look at the decking. Run a 4 foot level, cross grain, to check for high and low spots. If you have a very uneven surface or minor cupping you are going to have make the first cut with a coarse paper, maybe a 40 or even 20 grit. The problem is, with a coarse paper there isn't much margin for a learning curve. Too long in one spot and you just made the job more difficult. If you cut too much material from the floor, you are gonna create a a high edge where the floorboards progress under the rail system. (Its hard getting under a rail with a handheld random orbital sander, so leveling that high edge would be a treat all it's own) You can see why I decided to let a more seasoned pro handle this aspect of the job. After the sanding, I let it sit for two weeks before I re-washed it with the percarb like Beth said. I don't know if this "aging" was neccessary but this deck was six month old construction and I wanted to let the freshly exposed wood acclimate to the elements. It came out beautifully. I have the pics of the finished deck on my drive somewhere. I'll post them when I find them.

Krud Kutter diluted 1:3 (as a mix) then X-Jetted on also works very well on gutters

Shane you were pretty close in your estimate of squares.. 1280 plus 120 LF. The killer is, the underside is getting sealed also. So total wood sf is over 2000. Jim, wow. I was way off. My plans for the roof are for a percarb washing. The shingles are only three years old and have been sealed. Light mold. All the roof runoff is "guttered". As far as the order of cleaning.. The customer dictated that. There was a rush on the deck as the people are having some big party May 7th. They don't want the roof approached until September. Which is fine by me, I can research everything more fully and it gives me guranteed end of season work. Oh yeah, to answer the other question, the deck is getting hit with Amberwood tone Aussie Oil. Another update.. the guy just called me and wants us to wash the tennis court (it's baaaad), his driveway (which should have it's own street name), clean and seal 100 or so irregular sized flagstone pavers, do his teak deck furniture and clean all the concrete around his pool.. by FRIDAY. Ordinarily, no problem.. but this time of year, ain't happening.

Hey Mike, this is the first time I am seeing the post. Either it says there are no new posts or it syas there are 55. Count me in if my limited knowlege can be of any assistance. I am more of a business guy than a tech guy so maybe I can throw in a few things that people have taught me that have helped me tremendously.

The deck I had no problem with..it's the cedar shake roof that I am unsure how to bid. I don't know whether to tell him 2K or three times that. Any ideas or thoughts from your roof guys?