PressurePros

70% of my gross dollars still come from wood so it is hard for me to let go. I would switch to all vinyl in a heartbeat but I would have to triple my customer database and incoming leads to make the same money. That's not real easy to do. So I stay a woody. I love house washing and I don't mean from a lucrative viewpoint. It is as, if not moreso, gratifying to take a nasty house and completely change its entire curb appeal in 3 hrs or less. If you want, come over the bridge and I'll take you on one. It's much easier than woodcare. you can stay home when its cloudy and looks like rain and send the kids out to bring you back a check.

Rick, it is a great fill in for your guys. I have three crews out today that will finish 4 house washes by 1 pm. Here in the midatlantic house washes average about $600.

Rick, hahahaha you have me laughing out loud. 4 greenies and I'd be sputtering sentence fragments. Its must be the nicotine in the Kools that balances out the effects of the alcohol.

Are you seeking canonization? Been diagnosed with a terminal illness? Good to see you here anyway. One more woody to add to the fire. We are a nauseatingly agreeable bunch though. If you wanna stir up Jim.. tell him to NEVER use bleach on a deck. If you want to get Rick going.. wait until he has had 4 Heinekens (6pm?) and declare that a good film forming stain beats tinted baby oil any day of the week. :D

I'm kinda tired of arguing this week, Rick. I mean no disrespect to you but we do things differently.

Nah, Rick, even with perfect prep, transoxides look ehhhh.. Just my opinion.

Exactly. Good explanation St. Jon. That's exactly how I train my guys to backbrush.

Again, different business model here. I'd rather spend the money on the plastic and market the dog and pony show of putting it up. One guy is sanding the other is putting up plastic then its fast spray which can get caught by even a small breeze. Its cool to hear the different ways we all do things.

Our government should be completely broke by 2010. I am going to make a home brew stain with 50% VOC and sell it out of my basement. Rick will buy it.

you mean "such as".. I love doing that to you because your mother is an English teacher. We'll catch up on our weekly call and I'll bounce some things off you. The first and foremost is I won't have to tell customers we are booked for 45 days before I can get to them. I have to maximize spring and that is where my changes have come. Unfortunately rain makes all of them moot.

Rick, I don't like the way they finish. The finish is often dirty looking (unless you have completely sanded). Even under sanding, transoxides highlight blemishes and imperfections. Most people are looking for uniform finish. Clay or copper pigments give that. I just looked at a Baker's deck this afternoon that we did last year. I wish I had my camera with me. The spindles were actually the kind you would see inside, turned on a lathe. The grain running through them was awesome. The Baker's just dives in and picks up that grain while at the same time finishes with halfway decent hide but not quite as opaque as other stains. It of course has its own negatives like any finish. To me and for my customers, Armstrong (which has a mix of clay pigment and transoxide), Bakers or TWP are the finishes of choice.

My biggest problems would be translating that "be cautious but don't be slow" mentality to employees. I Figure it is worth the $2 to let them slam the brushes into oblivion. I like oil worked well into the spindles. Actually we have started using the 18" floor brushes for backbrushing and that really kicks arse. To be honest, when a person says "I don't backbrush" I used to gasp like some kind of wood snob. I'm not even convinced that backbrushing makes all that much difference with a good penetrating oil. Some other Kenclusions: I don't like transoxide pigments. A good stain blends blemishes. Every square inch of wood does not have to be immaculate and perfect. My goal is 40,000 s/f of wood per month during peak season. We fell short this season, but I have been out in the field very often this year. I really opened my eyes and looked at what it is we do. I've made some changes I think will help and that will allow my customers to get better service. Alright I'm completely hijacking the thread. Just thinking out loud.

I'm just gonna clean vinyl in massive volume.. no big EPA hassles (yet), 5% material cost, no call backs and everybody loves the results. Jeff has the best model in this industry.

Sanding cures all ills. Rick, take a look at this one. Its probably the worst case I have ever run into of an underqualified contractor attempting to prep a deck.

Rick, even using a non-curing oil I would still go this route. I try to promote manic speed (but thorough) on backbrushing. I've tried even $25 brushes and they get hairy very quickly. I know we are just too rough on them but how do you guys prevent that from happening? just by being more cautious?

I buy approximately 300 brushes per season at $1 per. All are 4". I agree with Tony that cheap brushes work just as well. We throw them out after a job or two. We backbrush hard and fast. They start looking like those things kids put at the top of a pencil after a day. I recently had a brain flatulence and though about cleaning the brushes then I was reminded by a friend: Brush: $1 Mineral spirits and time to clean a brush: More than $1

Composites, especially in healthy mold environments, can be a twice a year maintenance. We do the same process every time. You need 3% + hitting the deck and usually brushing, to get it completely clean. How ironic that to keep the deck looking good you have to clean and seal on the same schedule as you do a wooden deck.

Steve, if your original finish turned out dark, you did probably receive one of the lovely bad batches of WZ. You will have to strip off the product. If you decide to do this chemically, you will definitely be generating a fair amount of water. Deck Stains Cleaners Sealers | Staining Decks Wood Decking Sealing | Concrete Paver Restoration sells stripping products you won't have to mix up yourself or have any special applicator. Attach to a hose and spray away. You will need a stripper and a brightener. At the two year point of the finish you should not need much pressure at all to rinse.

Hot water rinse down and move on is what I would end doing. I'm a big believer in upsell but this like you would be upselling yourself into a headache. Look into maybe using a percarb cleaner.

ugggh..

Flawless! Great job on that one guys.

LOL.. no it doesn't. I think that's just the sunlight. the tones are definitely way different though.

Another suggestion. If someone posts a job lead and you want it. Pursue it with that person. If I post a lead I never respond to people that put their email addy in a post. I'm not going to track you down to give you work.

I agree with Rick. I think it looks good on that project. You are right, Tony. This product sometimes does finish very similar to WT. The difference I have noticed is that it settles better and gives a more uniform finish than the Tux did.

Why would you say "I don't care what anyone says"? It look great, Pete. If you look closely at picture#1, even the fence looks excited.