PressurePros

Rick, you nailed it. All Olympic here in the northeast is the water borne acrylic garbage. It can be like iron on the verticals.

I'm not sure I am following you, Chris. I would think there would not be enough velocity of flow with a shurflo to create the venturi to draw chemical but I could be way off base. Dan T (plainpainter) is a physics and mechanics guy. PM him, he would know.

I don't see any advantage in not using one. Without one you cannot dislodge wasps nests, clean foundations or do concrete.

I'm with Rod.. rinsing is the most critical part of a chemical deck cleaning. Make it thorough. If you end up going the downstream route, you have to be sure to neutralize as much as you can with water first.

Hey Richard, the e-store is down while some transitions are made. I cannot give you a definitive date as to when the ordering will be back up and running. Your inquiries are definitely appreciated!

Here is why we would be so quick on this deck. I'm not advocating either stripper or percarb, that choices is yours. Truck would roll in. Customers are told in advance to have everything off of the deck and have water on. - Crew leader would check the deck and make contact with customer. Helper would be rolling out supply and pressure lines. - Helper waters down plants and wets windows and siding. - Drop downstream tube into stripper tank. - As fast as the crew leader can move his arms with a dual lance, deck stripper is applied. I have found Penofin to come up very easily. That finish is shot so I would expect no issues. In addition there are no rails that have to be stripped. - Within a ten minute dwell (about as long as it would take to coat the deck and then rewet all surrounding plant life) the deck would be washed with 800 psi leaving the nozzle. 60 degree spread. 20 minutes done end to end. - While one guy is rinsing down all soap residue, the downstreamer is moved to a plain water bucket and run clean. Its then dropped into the acidic cleaner. - Dual lance is again opened and acid is applied via downstream. While this is happening, crew leader is picking up 50% project cost check from homeowner. - Deck and surrounding property are given a final and thorough rinse. Both guys reel hoses and out they go.

With the right chem and application method.. in and out of there including brightening in less than an hour.

Dan I would say most guys are probably thinking that your lack of confidence should not be in GM but in a 14 year old vehicle. I'm not knocking you, I have a 96 E-van and 97 box truck on the road in great condition each with under or a little over 100K, but at that age, parts that can rust through or take a ton of stress just wear out. I'm sure you'll find your part on the net, like David mentioned.

Beth, you do what you have to do to keep this place professional. I got my real start here and have always been in your corner when it came down to people bashing heavy handed moderation. Its always the same people causing problems believing rules do not apply to them and then bad mouthing when they get spanked. In a perfect world professionals would govern their own activities and no mods would even be needed except maybe to eliminate a spam post or two. Unfortunately maturity levels vary and ego steps in so being "liberal" and allowing people to hash out their difficulties in public doesn't work well. There are many more of us that appreciate your efforts than condemn you for them.

$.10 per gallon? Wow is right! Cost to average homeowner if I use their water = $5 per 1000 gallons. I might use that on a big house. Cost if I have to bring water with no hookup on site = add $150. When you explain it that way, you can sort of predict how the customer will lean.

Dirty stucco often requires a stronger mix of bleach (applied by X-Jet). Stucco is harder to clean than dryvit because it is capillary.. water is absorbed deep and carries mold spores deep into the substrate. It's also a good idea to use a proper house wash mix, something with the right sufactants and detergent builders (such as sodium metasilicate). We do a ton of stucco up here.

Tony, this is what immediately came to mind: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhs7eCliAHA]YouTube - Bobby Brady overflows washing machine with suds[/ame]

David, the prep you do is over half the battle. Don't use anything with high silicone or acrylic content and you will be fine.

I have sold CretoWood in my online store so I am familiar with the type of product you are seeking. These products contain a silica that cures over time acting as a petrifying agent. Keep in mind that petrifying wood and protecting it from UV rays are two different things. The two environmental factors that affect wood are UV (sunlight) and moisture. Using a CretoWood type product will help with moisture issues and stabilize the wood. But.. sunlight has to be reflected or absorbed by pigment. That pigment becomes sacrificial. That simply means that for a time the pigment in the product will be taking the hit instead of the wood. Eventually that pigment will give up its life and fade and then disappear. This is when graying starts. I liked the Cretowood because it penetrated the wood. As long as one doesn't overapply and form a film, this means the top layer of wood acts the same as any other untreated wood. You can wash it and restain it every two years. The advantage of these silica sealers is that the wood is stabilized. As far as 25 year warranties... don't believe the hype. The surface of wood always has to be maintained regularly to look good.

Homeowner just called me desperate. Is having pictures taken on Friday to sell the property and wants the mold knocked down. I cannot get in there and he was not willing to pay my $450 minimum. I think someone can upsell this guy. (Ooooops.. edited out). If anyone is interested, please pm me. I'll give you his number.

Dane, looks great! Definitely take a peak at downstreaming. I don't know how long that fence took you but using the downstreamable stripper and acid from www.theprosealerstore.com would have you in an out of that job (both sides of the fence) in about 40 minutes.

I won't any more fluff around websites. The guys that have them get work. As to a cost.. You get what you pay for just like anything else. Expect to pay $200 per page for a well designed, web optimized page that sells. Add in any bells and whistles like data bases for email harvesting, forum and blog bridging, etc and you can hit several thousand in no time. A recent site that I was shopping to have built was receiving quotes up to $15,000.

Hey Craig.. good to see ya, bro.

Wait until the hyper inflation period hits in a couple years because of all this money being dumped into the economy. Rick, you may be surprised what raising prices 20% will do for your bottom line. Depending upon how much you gross, a 20% increase would allow you to do 40% less work and make the same profit. I'm not advocating anyone do that but eating cost increases is slow suicide. You bring up a good point about the current deflationary trend. I'm still waiting for it to reflect in the cost of milk, bread and eggs and all the rest of my consumables.

What are you gonna do? Everything is going up. You pass the cost on to your customer. Everybody has to raise their prices even the lowballers. Charge 5 cents more per s/f and you'll be on even ground.

Approximately 350 jobs listed in our county paper/website. Ironically 200 of them are in retail.

Beth, are individuals/homeowners subject to VOC compliance?

Maybe I should have hired someone to do mine.

Dan, I was beginning to worry that I was conveying the wrong message to you. Your summation here, a couple of lines which I bold typed, is a revelation. I would say strongly that yes, you now get it. Its not about price to a select group, its about confidence in your service.. more directly, about the confidence in you to perform. Continue to target market that group. Everything else is falling into place. A sales script is an outline that will get you going but as Beth and you yourself mentioned, its about communication. The customer could care less about you, your rig or your techniques unless you can show them how those things can benefit them. A good sales call is not a speech, its a fact finding mission. What makes you tick, Mr Customer? Whats most important to you? What problem do you have that I can solve? Dan, if you can pull this off, I can feel confident I helped someone in small way succeed. As part of the bigger picture that's why I am involved in the *****. Your post makes me realize that is still about helping one person at a time. Even though I tend to blush reading my name in print so many times, your post was great reading, Dan.

I find a much better selection of local business listings in the book. I just got Verizon's and was happy to see it. I know what ads cost and I know there aren't many fly-by-nighters in the phone book. Actually many of my customers (business owners) have told me they keep books that are a couple years old as an instant determination to tell if a business has been around.