PressurePros

Classic, I hear you buddy. I have been doing 10-15 estimates per day. I am having great success with my silver, gold, and platinum levels of housewash. The decks are whats getting to me. Everybody wants to discount what goes into it. I get to this one house and its 2700 sf of wood, three layers, 10 4' wide steps, a spiral staircase. She wants the underside sealed. The crap thats on there is half worn off, its disgusting with mold, there are drips, lap marks, and pressure washer damage all over it. The lady waits til I get three quarters of the measuring done. I do my spiel about what a huge investment a deck of this size is, blah, blah , blah. She probably starts getting this "this is gonna cost me" feeling. She says, "can you give me a ball park estimate"? I say, "No, I have to plug everything into the computer and it spits out a number. I don't want to guess too high or low, it wouldn't be fair to either of us". She hounds me and says she won't hold me to it (yeah right) So I finally tell her it's going to be over three thousand dollars minimum. She says, "you're kidding me.. we were thinking maybe seven or eight hundred" My reply was "the stain alone is going to cost more than that" "Well we'd be willing to go to a thousand" Oh in that case let me get my hose and hook right up. She tries to tell me the stain they get at Costco for $49 for FIVE gallons is all they need. Her exact words were "what are you coating it in, liquid gold? I think I will just have my husband do it again" I don't usually let this kind of **** bother me but she really annoyed me. Sorry about the long story, just wanted to vent a little. Anyway, here is how I now qualify people for decks over the phone. I ask them what they are looking for in terms of appearance and durability. I ask them if they have ever had their deck professionally restored. I explain to them that I use the highest quality prenetrating oil and the cost is $30 per gallon.I ask them if this is the level of restoration they are looking for because this is the only kind of work I do. I have done it with seven people so far... five ended the call with "Oh no we just want a quick rinse and another coat thrown down" the two that said yes, I sold.

I never knew the stuff could be saved. Shane, what's the prep involved? What kind of stain..how many coats? etc

In order: 1) If the Restore is just sodium percar your mix was not too strong, if anything it was too weak. Usually one cup of percarbonate per gallon of water. I use a 12 oz Wawa coffee cup per gallon. How much pressure did you use on the rinse? I have continually lowered the pressure I use on decks to the point where I can stick my fingers in front of the stream with not even a sting. (about 400 psi) If you have furring and lap marks, my guess is your pressure was higher? 2) I know some guys swear by bleach. I hate the look it gives the wood. The key is the right dilution I guess. 3) I honestly don't know what you are doing wrong. You may be judging photos of projects that were stripped with sodium hydroxide as opposed to just cleaned being cleaned with percarb

I wouldn't do it, but you can make the customer happy and still make a nice buck. Explain to him that mold isn't always visible, but that spores are probably there and they will affect the adherence of the paint. If he insists no bleach, fine. Tell him in this special circumstance you will use common dish detergent, nothing stronger. I would also ask him if he would wash his dishes or take a shower with just plain water. Of course he will answer no. Great, Mr Homeowner thats why I will use dishwashing soap and I will match the other guy's price to bring you on board as a new customer. You can easily do this house in under two hours X-Jetting on some Dawn. His windows will sparkle, you take no risk of browning his grass or plants, and the rinse will be easy. You walk away netting $75/hr and everyone is happy.

Mr. Vajda, one can have all the terms and conditions clauses they want in a contract. You'll be lucky if fifty percent of the time they are actually going to keep you out of trouble. In this scenario, a signed contract with initialing of a damage waiver by every single tenant could have possibly eased the liability, but not for certain because this was preventable negligence on the part of the contractor. The management company holds no liability in this, Philip. Give the management company a heads up. It may already be too late as I'm sure as soon as the customer got home, they saw the damage. I agree with John Orr, it's going to be how you step up and deal with this that is going to make the difference. Best of luck, I'm sure everything will work out fine for you and the customer. Don't sweat it too much, it could easily happen to any of us. Keep us posted as to how it turns out.

5:25 = 1:5 I think that is pretty much the standard ratio everyone uses and is very effective for 9 jobs out of 10. More than that and I find the returns diminish.. window streaks, spotted foliage and heavy fumes. I never actually broke down the actual percentage of NaHCL hitting the wall. I can't look at a wall and say, hey that requires a 1.286% concentration of pure sodium hypochlorite and then go through the incurrent math equation. But I can look at a wall and think, that kind of substrate usually requires an extra gallon of 12% in the mix. So if I am reading your post correctly, Phillip, you use 10 gallons of 12% SH on one house? What kind of dwell time do you use? Have you ever had problems with warping the landscaping?

Time management is critical. I don't overschedule myself. I am usually home eating and tidying the truck waiting for the next scheduled job (which is rarely more than one a day) As you said, Mike, unforeseen problems arise. People understand this. As soon as you have the slightest inkling that you are going to be even five minutes late, you get in touch with the customer. If you think you are going to be 20 minutes late, tell them it might be as late as an hour etc. Last year, I made a huge blunder. Went down a one way dirt road in the bucket truck. Well by the time I could turn around I was stuck in three inches of mud. Called my kitchen cleaning crew and they were on their way to get us out. Called the customer, told them the situation. They were very nice and said another hour would not affect them, but the husband had some things to show me, so if it was going to be more than that, to call them. Well an hour and a half went by, all four of us were douched in mud and miserable. I drove to the house, and there tucked in the door was a message.. "waited to hear from you and you never called. We will call you to reschedule" Two calls to them yielded no call back. It was a painful lesson, one I will not make again. Communication is everything if you are a professional.

DeGraffreed, I'm surprised you get effective mildew reduction with that ratio. I mix my chems in a 25 gallon tank as follows: 5 gallons 12% hypochlorite 5 cups cleaner X-Jet on, no proportioner. I can do two houses the size you mentioned on one tank full.

The township is called Medina. I have a lead if anyone is interested. PM me

I like the Extreme Solutions products. They are formulated by a wood care contractor FOR wood care contractors. In the two times I have spoken with Russell on the phone, he was informative and very patient. His experience, coupled with knowlege of the industry is impressive. Now that he is offering Wood Tux Wet, I'm sold.

Thanks, I had forgotten how good looking I was.

In the end, we believe what we want to believe. I watched a show where ten college educated people who claimed to have an open mind to the paranormal were all asked to see a psychic. Before any of them was seen by this lady who admitted to have no psychic ability whatsoever, she wrote a generic life outline and predictive outcome speech. She quoted it verbatim to each of the ten participants. The outcome? Every single one of them were blown away by how "on the money" she was with their personalized fortune telling. Ten people all having the same life circumstances? Not likely..Their only commonality was the willingness to believe. When desire meets opportunity, you get a sale every time.

product and color?

This may seem silly to debate but c'mon..marketing? Any one of us could just as easily make an old lady believe $3000 is the going rate for a 300 sf deck. Is that marketing or taking advantage of someone? I know one could say, "hey if someone believes in this crap and wants to pay for it, more power to 'em" Morally, it's wrong. If also you look at the people bidding on this possessed toy, they have no history on Ebay (fraudulent). Not only that, the guy says he wants it gone, but hasn't been able to dispose of it. How does he figure selling it will change the inherently evil boomerang effect? If you justify the selling of this thing to someone as clever, your moral philosophy is a litle questionable. It's okay to take advantage of someone less smart or emotionally stable for the sake of profit?

Mark, the copy looks good, nice job. There are a few places where the spelling, grammar or clarity needs to be revised. First the spelling and syntax: 1)First line, "guarantee's" has no apostrophe. It's just "guarantees" 2) Long-Term needs to be hyphenated 3) "or if you would like a estimate please feel free to contact us and you will receive a prompt reply." "a" needs to be changed to "an" 4) Mildewcide does not need to be hyphenated. Clarity and Emphasis (these are merely suggestions) 1) This line "**Beware of.." would be better suited all capitalized and a larger font used. It is the basis for the page. 2) The quotation marks around "claiming" are not neccessary. I think they promote overly dramatic emphasis and gave me a feeling that the rest of the paragraph was going to be a slam or rant. Customers are looking for information, let them put their own inflection into the words. 3) In the second line, maybe you could change "big" to "recurrent"..in Oregon we have a recurrent mold problem. 4) The next line is vague. "For this product to work properly the entire board or log must be covered which can only happen if done prior to construction" What product? At first read it may confuse the person reading it. I know you meant the competing product, but perhaps you could modify the sentence to read something like this.. "For these products claiming 25 years of protection, you would have to coat all sides of the lumber. This is only possible at the time of construction." 5) "If this sealant is applied and mold and mildew come up from underneath there is no way to remove this product. You will have to replace your deck to get the desired results." It may read better like this "If this type of sealant is applied, mold and mildew may still grow from underneath the structure. Removal of a permanent sealer of this type is very costly if not virtually impossible. You may actually end up having to replace the wood to get the desired results" 6) The last line first paragraph.. I understand what you are saying and it is valid. Maybe a softer way, while getting your message across could read "In our experience, products claiming results that are too good to be true, usually do end up being too good to be true" 7) Second paragraph under Stains and Sealers the lettering you have in blue colored font should be changed. Most people expect that blue lettering to be an active link. I hope this helps. I know it seems like many changes but since you asked, this is merely what I would do in terms of changes. Best of all to you.

I stand by my original assessment

some loser trying to get rich quick. I imagine he is the one that put the bid in as well.

Now you're talkin'. That looks perfect. Do yourself a favor and don't make the same mistakes I did initially. Do a search on the deck cleaning and stripping chemicals. The consumer products like Wolman's will eat all your profits. Make sure you stay under 800 psi on cedar, too. I commend you for gettting your process correct before you venture out to start collecting money from customers.

I have used dishwasher soap in a home brew. It rinsed very easily and left sparkle to the glass. May not be the most cost effective or most agressive, but it does a nice job when mixed with bleach.

You will hate life stuffing a machine and a 250 gal tank into an E350. Even the 10 foot box truck will be tight quarters. Sometimes I wish I had a race car trailer when everything is loaded up for a big job. (Machine, surface cleaner, extension wand, chemicals, water reserve, chem tank,waste disposal tank, recovery vac and berms, ladders, chemical pump and deck sprayer might all end up in your arsenal. There are jobs where you need them all at once. It's best to think ahead and go with the largest cargo capacity you can afford.

As my grandmother might have said, "A 'metigon (the way Italians pronounce American) must have written that poll" Where is the lasagna, manicotti, or stuffed shells?

I agree with you. I don't like plastic decks..makes me think of cheap motels down the shore. Anyone that does their homework will find that an ipe deck will cost just about the same as any of the composites, is a thousand times more beautiful and requires about as much maintenance as any decking material. I am subcontracted by one of the first composite decking manufacturers that got mass distribution to clean thier installed projects. I won't mention the name but I'm sure you can figure out whom it is. These decks after 5-7 years look horrible. Between tannin bleed, mildew growth that is sometimes hard to remove, and poor wear characteristics, most of them look pathetic. Maintenance free my buttocks. Tony is right, people looking for something touted as low maintenance or maintenance free are prime pickin's for an agressive sales person.

Hey Beth, I tried to log in once before and again just now to see if I could get in. Says username/password not valid. I usually use the same password for the baords. Can you email me to verify i am using the right one. My TGS automatically logs in so I haven't used it in awhile.

I put my home number on the do not call list and I still get solicitations.. anyone else have this problem?

Here is a deck I was asked to estimate for a guy. He told me a few boards might need replacing and would I give him an estimate. Not a problem, I do minor repairs. Here are some pics of the wood. I think he needs more than a few boards replaced. I am not sure where to run with this. The whole deck has been neglected and shows rot over 50% of it. Structurally, the PTP supporting the deck is ok. I am unsure what to replace. Aesthetically, he could use a new floor. I'm waiting for a call back from him but in the interim I figured I would ask some opinions. Sorry about the shadows. These were taken mid afternoon.