PressurePros

It is open source, Rick. I'm fairly certain it is portable. Is that the right word?

Rick, you'll have to learn the back end of content management systems such as Joomla. Scott is a master of Joomla now. I wrote the ***** site with Joomla. Its a little bit of a learning curve but once you get it down it is very powerful.

The black streaks in gutters are in the oxidation layer of the paint. F-13 removes the oxidation and in turn removing the streaks. - CHEMICALS HOUSE WASH / GUTTER / WOOD CARE / MULTI-PURPOSE

It is comin down like cats and dogs now but the western horizon is already clearing. You should be good to go. I have three cedar decks on tomorrow's schedule :grrr: :bluecry:

Rick, I hope its dry.. its about to hail and the sky is black as night here.. comin your way brother!

Just about every finish for ipe will scratch easily. You can cover by doing what you said. Apply a bit, wait a few minutes then wipe off so deck does not remain wet. Its not a perfect solution but it will cover the bare wood exposed. Use your finger under the rag to make a thin line of stain over the problem spots. To lessen future occurrence, get yourself some of those teflon coated half moon disks that are used to make furniture slide around easily for moving. They make small ones that will adhere to deck furniture leg bottoms. If you have a dog, knit him some socks. :D

Then Jim's suggestion of bleaching is the way to go. You will have a uniformly, albeit artifical looking, white playset. My apologies.. the way you described your technique made it sound like your first experience with wood.

x2 Good Stuff

You may be shooting yourself in the foot. Unless its really dark or has tannin issues, go ahead and stain. The "whiter" you make it two things will happen. Any red pigment in your stain choice will look orange or bright red, and you will increase the amount of stain you use on the deck. Is this your first wood project?

Here is how I would do a quick analysis of this company: Gross profits of $25K per year. Let's assume an annual net profit of 15% which is $3750. With no contracts in place and allowing customer rescission for change of ownership its sketchy. I don't know the exact formula but I would subtract 50% of the net profit when making my calculation. Its hard to factor this stuff when a company is owner operated. The people may not like you as much as they did him, etc. So now we have a number of $1900 per year in net profit. The formula I use when evaluating a business is to triple the net profit. So those accounts may be worth as much as $5700. That is even being a bit generous as again, no contracts, no guarantees. Based upon everything you have written the truck is the company's one true asset. I don't know if I would go by the KBB for a value. You have to assess a value for quick sale. In other words what would a dealership give you to steal it from you. That's probably closer to ten thousand than it is fifteen. 25K seems a little ambitious but that is to be expected from an owner. If you could walk away with everything for $15K it may be a decent deal. Keep in mind a few things. I am not an accountant. I do not have access to his books to evaluate his true numbers. I don't know the true value of the truck. The machines are well worn and are not, in my opinion worth all that much. Look for a multiple year history of this company doing the same numbers and achieving growth.

If you could answer some questions.. • Are the current customers under contract? • Is the company owner operated? • When you say the company "makes" $2500 to $3500 is that gross billing, gross profit or company net profit? A company's net profit (also referred to as cash flow) on a $2500 billing is usually between $250-$750. (that does not include owner's salary). The equipment has a good amount of hours and to me is not worth much. If the company is owner operated, the value of its contracts falls even further.

LOL, Rick.

You artisans! I offer one color.. cedar semi-trans.. LOL.

Tony.. strange. I'm gonna guess you have a mold spore issue. Your fence pre-wash pictures' bright green spots correspond almost perfectly with the blackening. I'm gonna go have to urge myself after suggesting this but.. maybe a light bleach wash? Its unfortunate that ESI had to go through so many issues trying to get a uniform quality Wood Tux. I have some Wood Tux decks that still look good after three years with no maintenance. Unfortunately the majority of them look like hell with some having to have been stripped in less than six months.

A customer's gratitude is shown in full when he hands you a check. That makes me feel pretty good. :D

Dan, you just don't like to work. I'm not saying I blame you, its hard work and it certainly isn't for everyone. Your tisket is going to be to get your advertising machine into high gear and hire a couple guys to do the actual work.

Here was the deck and furniture we were working on last week. 25 pieces total (several are off to the side). This was a hodge podge of cedar and teak pieces all built by the H.O. Some of the pieces were coated with a urethane, which i was not made aware of. We're not staining the pieces though, the H.O prefers them gray. You cannot tell in the pic, but almost every piece of wood had lichen and heavy mold groth. What a PITA that job was.

That seems to be a fairly extreme environment. I'm guessing equivalent to two full seasons here, Rick? Very impressive. I agree its a tad opaque, but not horribly so. In fact, most people would probably love that evenness of tone. Another semi educated guess would be that that deck will not need any type of maintenance for at least 24 months. I've been holding off on going to the A/C exclusively as it is double the cost of what I have been using. The more I see though, the more I am getting convinced this is the best product on the market (of its type)

Nice and very tranquil.. sure beats my Sunday. Arrived at a condo complex to finish three decks and found not one of the homeowners (second story decks, no steps) had removed their furniture and all three were away. Ended up doing a house wash and deck and not finishing until 6:30.

Mike, great job.. a true labor of love. Enjoy your summer.

Your only recourse at this stage, Michael, if you wish to restore the look to fresh wood would be to rent a floor sander and do the entire floor. Was the deck ever pressure washed? There appears to be stop and start marks throughout the wood.

Jim, my advice is outside the realm of what machine will work best. I could do jobs with a water pic and a scrub brush if I had to. The bigger obstacle is the money you are going to need to get insurance, registered and advertise. There are a ton of guys that have great looking rigs and from speaking to their neighbors on these boards (fellow contractors) their equipment sits in the driveway 5 days per week. The ability to generate customers (making the phone ring) and having the ability to sell yourself are what makes or breaks a business. Continue reading what works best for guys when it comes to generating leads. We all have different methods that work best in our markets. Partner up with a pro in your area before you buy equipment. Driveways and residential concrete will not keep you in anything more than pocket change. You'll probably have to branch into roof cleaning, house washing or deck cleaning and staining to make the business sustain. kitchen exhaust cleaning is also a viable option for relatively low startup costs. You just have to be trained right in your chosen type of work. Please get insured. That's self explanatory. Sorry about taking you off on a tangent, Jim. If you have the drive, the financial backing and determination to stick with it, you can build a good solid company.

Stucco is capillary so it tends to suck up whatever hits it. I'm not familar with the product you used (other than trying to strip it, which is a nightmare). Your next plan of attack may be to dry brush some paint on there. I' not a painter so that may not be the right word. Take a piece of the stucco to a paint shop and have them match the color. Water down the paint and using a dry paint brush get a little on the tip and work it in over the stain. A little at a time and working the area to blend it. It takes some time but with good technique you can almost completely cover it.

Absolutely. It also is a good idea to tarp under rails also when you are spraying. You never know when you are going to get back to the floor. I've experienced some flash drying with the A/C. I'm fairly certain the few times I have witnessed it was under circumstances that all products would have done the same (direct sun, hot, dry wood). Are you folks out there having any issues? In addition to the above, what type of spread rates are you getting?

Mike, question about the legs and cross supports in the last picture. Missed spots? Otherwise an outstanding job. It may just be a trick of light.