PressurePros

I have found nothing more effective for floor staining than a regular soft bristled truck wash brush. Gets in the cracks and doesn't shed on nails or split wood.

We have this version running at the ***** BBS as well. I am still trying to figure it all out. Congrats on the successful migration. This board should hum now.

All day today (15th) at Dunkin Donuts

I know what you mean, Beth, there is a little "in your face" emotion in there. I used this example because this company is out lowballing bids and they still aren't getting jobs. That ties into the original poster's theme and the message I was attempting to parlay. The A List customers are not sold on price. Its not smugness as much as irritation. Perhaps I am being harsh as maybe they just don't know any better. There is more to the story though that I cannot share.

That's another reason that I have shut my doors to new customers unless they can meet with me. If they can't, they can hire someone else. The rest of the high volume, git-r-done crowd can handle these type of homeowners. (Company name ommitted from West Chester), you just lost a bid this past weekend because you did not address the customer's needs. You bid $1800, and I am doing the job for $4000. I don't know how you came up with that bid, there is 3000+ s/f of wood. Original poster, let those price shoppers go. They aren't loyal. They aren't friendly and they will jump ship on your for $50. You set the precedence on this bid by worrying about the price. You may have mentioned "the deal" you gave them. Guess what happens? Once someone smells a deal, the service becomes a commodity and there will always be someone behind you bidding cheaper.

You getting an even hundred on building washes now, Ron?

Purple and green deck.. interesting. Matt, one thing you will learn the hard way with wood.. don't ever "hope" what's on there will come off. Sometimes what appears to be an easy strip will take twice as long as you expected. Put together a little test kit of spray bottles with a diluted stripper (the strength of something downstreamed) and a more potent version you would have to apply direct. Also mix up some acid. Put them in a little hand held cart like the house cleaners and janitors carry and do a test spot. Sometimes what appears to be very faded stain could be the last remnants of an acrylic that will stick to the verticals and drive you crazy. The extra few minutes are well worth the surprises that can cost you in the end.

Russell beat me to it.

WoodTux is loaded with resin. On a scale of extreme viscosities it would be more towards maple syrup then it would be water. The oil makes it dive a bit deeper into the wood and makes it easier to work with. The caveat is decreased longevity or the requirement of a two coat application.

Rick, I have a great cure for tennis elbow. Get yourself a couple of young buckaroos you can supervise.

I actually ran out of my choice strippers waiting for an order and purchasedsome straight sodium hydroxide to tide us over. The difference was night and day betwen what we are used to using and I don't mean in a good way. Multiple applications, very furred wood, some curled leaves on plants. I'm very happy my stuff is coming in today. Definitely stay with a product made specifically for wood. Bleach (sodium hypochlorite) is, in my opinion, terrible on wood. Its a very strong oxidizing agent and turns wood an unnatural color. It also dries the wood out. I can always tell a deck that has been maintained by a homeowner with off-the-shelf cleaning products. If you have a deck that is just gray with some mold, sodium percarbonate is a much better choice for cleaning.

My first year doing kitchen exhaust we cleaned this greasy spoon. They were impressed enough with what we were doing for them that the owner mentioned my name to his B.I.L who was a bigshot with Trump. I was asked to bid all of his casinos. They put us (myself and the other bidders)up for three days and treated us well. I knew I was out of my league at that time but it was a great experience. I don't know what the final contract amount was but I bid $1.3M and was tossed as lowest bidder.

Jeff nailed it. Mold migrates into masonry and gets a foothold. I am guessing there is not much to worry about in the way of grass or landscaping. Presoak the windows and X-Jet straight 12%. That building will look brand new and all of those streaks will most likely be history. I doubt you will need up close and personal washing. If the top is painted, you won't even need a mix that strong. Another caveat if it is painted.. you may have some shadows left if the mold has compromised the finish.

Google just updated page rank. All my sites went up a point. Its not really an indicator of how well you rank on the search engine pages but it will tell you how you are doing with your inlink structure. Google PageRank Checker - Check Google page rank of any web pages

Rick, that is the way its done. You are an artisan and a credit to the craft.

Clearer head this morning.. I looked at your numbers more closely. Your final numbers are not that far off. I was a bit thrown by your cost estimates for cleaning chems on the decks but everything else more or less adds up. Your time estimation might be a tad low for a guy new to wood resto and working solo. Good luck, hope everything works out wll for you.

Two times your material cost is way too low, especially for this industry. With that being said, your material cost seems out of wack. Even using premium products your cost for stain and cleaners/brighteners will not exceed $.30 per s/f. Mark it up to $.35 and you'll be good to go on margin. Another question is how you are measuring the decks. Are they 500 s.f for the floor only or including rails and spindles, steps etc? You obviously have to factor all the cost to figure your T&M. Don't fall into the trap of "needing the work" or "this job will get me more work so I'll discount it". That's not how things work. I don't care if you scrub every inch with a toothbrush and treat every homeowner to a steak dinner. Its highly unlikely you'll get more work from it at this stage of the game for your company. If you do get referrals from an underpriced job, they will expect to pay your lower rate as well. You'll get busy, you'll make no money and you'll be out of business in a year. That is the way this plan ends up more often than not. Looking at your numbers, $78 per hour for labor is a good start. I just think you have to get a better grasp on your operating costs.

I used to take measurements and then do a bid and request to meet with the homeowner. It worked well when I first started in residential. Now I do on the spot bids. If the customer won't meet me, I won't bid the project, its a waste of time. I do estimates Saturday and Sunday to make it convenient for homeowners.

Kev, PR is primarily a function of "link juice". Every time a webpage links to you it passes along some of this juice. Google's theory is that if an important (higher PR) page links to you, you therefore must also be important. I know every link counts for something and the effect is cumulative towards your PR. There are of course other factors that affect PR but that is the main one. Kevin, the formula is out there. Micah, you have to get people to link to your site. You can do link exchanges, submit to web diectories, write articles, write blog posts, etc. Here is a good explaination: The original PageRank formula: PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn)) For math wizards: PR(x) is the PageRank of x, C(x) is the number of outbound links on a page x, d is a damping factor set between 0 and 1 and is controlled by Google. For the rest of us: Your sites PageRank is almost completely dependent upon links to your site, backward or reverse links, reduced, to some degree, by the total number of links to other sites on that page. A link to your site will have the highest amount of impact on your PageRank if: 1) The page linking to yours has a high PageRank. 2) The total number of links on that page is low, ideally, just the one link to your site. A site with a high PageRank and a large number of outbound links can nullify the impact on your PageRank. To increase your PageRank, simply get as many links to your site from pages with a high PageRank and a low number of total links. Theoretically you can obtain a PageRank of 100% . You can also increase your PageRank by attaining many links to your site, no matter what their PageRank, as long as they are ranked. This is a good overall strategy since it will help you across the board. Another contributing factor to your sites Google ranking is the IR score. This score relates the relevance of the search query to the actual text in the linking page and your site. One of IR factors is the anchor text, or the text in the link to your page. According to a Google's creator, "Anchors often provide more accurate descriptions of web pages." Thus, for sites that allow you to add URL's be sure to put a link title with descriptive keywords. Google also uses your page title, font sizes, formatting, keyword positions, and proximity. Remember this though: Computers determine the search results, but it's humans that will, or won't, click on the links, so be sure titles with keywords make sense. In Summary: Whether it is Google, other search engines or pay-per-clicks, the meticulous selection of key-phrases, and descriptions utilizing these key-phrases, are crucial to successful Web marketing campaigns. The final piece, probably the most important to determine ROI, is a tracking system to inform marketing personnel if the clicks being generated with any campaign result in sales. There are many campaign variables that even though you produced a 5% click-through rate, might still not result in sales.

Good morning, Jeffrey.. what did you do, sleep in today? I'm looking at a condo complex this morning (16 decks).

I advertise in catholic church bulletins both in my parish and neighboring parishes. Half of the money goes to the church.

Best results/easiest upsell: In five gallon bucket 1-2 gallons 12% depending on severity of mold spotting 16 oz Simple Cherry is a multi-surface cleaning product that is safe, effective and simple to use! Simple Cherry is sold in 10 lbs packages. - CHEMICALS HOUSE WASH / GUTTER / WOOD CARE / MULTI-PURPOSE Fill with water Brush on, rinse with garden hose Sell based upon your technique (hand brushing/no pressure) $1-$1.50 per s.f.

Anyone know a dealer that handles Coress extension poles?

I have absolutely no idea what the above nonsense means? Do you understand the terms lead, customer acquisition cost, indicators? .. if so.. great. Most people, do not. (not sure why you highlighted lead in red???) If you know how to target market and actually do it, cool, you can share some of your secrets.. again most people, do not. I'm not seeing where anything is "duh". I'm not your friend, I'm not your employee, and I'm certainly not family. Keep that level of familiarity and lack of respect to the above mentioned. Lets try to follow your own creedo and avoid the juvenile stuff. People are allowed to disagree with you, Beth. Coming back at a person's posts with a follow up of "duh" is the ultimate in unprofessional behavior from a purported industry leader. If you got it all figured out Beth, we're all happy for you.

Beth, I'm not saying don't watch your costs, thats more of a given "duh". Economic indicators will tell you nothing about your lead and/or close rates. Your real world actual lead/close rates are the only things that tell you your story. As per certain indicators, the economy is down yet I will have my best April ever. I keep raising prices, minimum job, etc.. people still won't stop saying yes. So I do nothing but continue the path of what my budget dictates in terms of advertising and purchases. "Indicators" haven't told me anything. We're selling barbecues and curb appeal not SUV's or real estate. It still comes down to raising prices.. period. If my close ratio starts to fall because I cross a pricing threshold, I just increase my advertising to compensate. I know what it costs to acquire a customer and have accurate ROI projections on very method of marketing I use. One can equalize economic downturns and stay profitable. This type of economy is a blessing to business owners. It forces us to become like Roger mentioned.. much more streamlined and efficient. Keep in mind there is a diminishing return on that path. There is only so much slashing of project time and material cost you can perform before you plateau. Then what? Everything is going up.. why should we try to hold prices? Things cost what they cost. Choose your customers wisely by performing target marketing, sell benefits and customer experience over a pressure washing job and you don't have to worry about the economy other than streamlining your internal operation (which one should be always be doing anyway). Fuel costs are at most 2% of my gross sales. If they rise 50% this year, my operational expense rises by 1%. I'll raise my prices 2% to keep my margins constant. I'm not going to lose any customers over a raise of $20. My customer database is not going to balk or have to cancel family vacations or eat Ramen noodles because I am taking $20 more from them. They are not going to cancel their service or hire a lowballer. I took 3 jobs from my competitors (Rolling Suds, Mr Powerwash and Gallagher's PW) yesterday and I was at least 30% higher than their estimates. People don't shop on price anywhere near as much as many business owners would have you believe.