PressurePros

That's purty durn big. Is that on the Main Line?

You could also use it during a sale. Here are some options: • Have a slide show of before and after pictures. • Make a PowerPoint presentation to act as an outline for your sale. • Make a video for customers to watch.

Stucco is a funny beast. Up here we have much more real stucco than what the guys in the south call stucco (Dryvit). I've encountered new construction with a bad stucco mix and oxalic or phosphoric will cause efflorescence. Its not commonplace but it does happen and having SafeRestore in your inventory isn't a bad idea. Brian, I asked about the application and pressure because of the yellow noodle. We can usually get away with X-Jetting a buffered acid on.

Looks like a paint job! How are you applying, Brian? Also, do you find you need pressure when removing rust?

I will Russ. Butyl, oxalic, sod hydroxide, and sodium metasilicate top the list.

Awesome, Pete. I am not a surfactant chemist by any stretch, but I have had good luck personally with that chemical.

Luca71, I have read Joe Girard's book. Its old school selling and was effective for the time. You are coming to a mindset that selling is the solution. That's not what I am saying. Its a part of the solution. The first stage that you are missing is the marketing. If your marketing is putting flyers on windshields at the Walmart and placing an ad on CraigsList, yes, you are going to be limited in how much of a premium you can charge. Your contention that you can profitable doing low priced jobs is flawed. Your new to the business (I am not implying you don't have a business sense). You may not be seeing the big picture. Busy is just being busy. Hypothetical situation for two startups. .. one does 3 $500 houses per week. .. the other does 15 $100 house washes. The first owner spends more time marketing and selling so the time outlay may not be much different than the second owner who lives by "just git-r-done". The first guy spends more on advertising and the second guy has higher direct costs so again, fairly similar profit margins. Here is where the second business plan falls apart. Lets say both companies do great work and start getting referrals. The higher priced guy gets the higher end jobs. The second guy starts running around like a chicken without a head. He feels successful because he is washing from sunup to sundown. They are still grossing the same dollars.. here is the magic point: The second guy now needs to hire someone to help him. The first guy still has plenty of time in his week to perform extra work without hiring labor. The low priced guy may have to hire two crews to do the same gross dollars as the higher priced guy. What do you think that does to his profit margins? Low priced guy does $140K with a $45K payroll. His operating expenses are higher because his crews are running from job to job. It doesn't matter how state-of-the-art your equipment is or how fast your guys are. Setting up on 5 jobs will never be as efficient as setting up on one job. This guy also has more equipment that can break down, employee headaches, more liability risk, higher materials percentage, etc. High priced guy does $100K, is home by 3 pm every day, doesn't worry about payroll and actually makes more profit with less things that can go wrong. Its not the model for everyone. Some guys refuse to get into the sales and marketing aspects of a business. From your standpoint and background Luca, it may be prudent to keep your mind open and revisit your stance down the line. If you haven't already read it, E-myth is a book every business owner should read.

Pete a good surfactant to look at is NP-9. It works well with NaOCl. A little goes a long way. A few ounces in a pail makes a clingy/soapy mixture. This works well for a house or building wash where the rinsing is easy. On a deck or roof, you have to use as little as you can or you will be rinsing forever and or filling gutters with suds. NP-9 by The Chemistry Store.com Inc

Thanks, Andy. There is a set of steps going up to the back door that is not visible in the picture. That three hours is after spending 5 hours on multiple chemical strips.. two major ones and and another spot application. That's two guys, one using a random orbital, one using an osborne brush. Those clear cedar spindles were tore up. Many of them had to "bishop" sanded by hand. That's what we call it anyway. I won't touch a deck this size with a solid acrylic for less than $2500. Most people tell me to go pound sand. The ones that will pay, we'll do them.

I'll raise Daniel's amen.

Tom, I understand where you are coming from. If you are selling a pressure washing job and you are selling it to older people on a fixed income, there is only so much you will get. Two answers I would give you for that are summed up in one reply. Try to sell the benefits of what you are doing to people that can both appreciate and afford what you are offering. People buy Lexus and BMW's down in Florida like they do everywhere else. Let's face it, a car gets you from A-Z. You can buy a $20,000 Nissan Altima that is a nice vehicle yet some people will still prefer to pay more to have a better driving experience. Its all in who you market to and how you market to them. I doubt you will find a Porsche dealer two blocks from a trailer park. When you do find that Porsche dealer the salesmen are going to be a different caliber and have different techniques from the Chevy salesman.

Chris if you swim in a poll with sharks, you'll be lucky to collect minnows. Try to target a better demographic.

A solid acrylic will often require 2-4 strips with incredibly strong stripper that will also mar siding, remove paint from metal and kill every plant within spitting distance. Follow that with 3-5 hours of sanding and you may be lucky to get 85% of it removed. Tell them you closed your business. I'm kidding of course dou and what I said above is the worst case scenario but unfortunately, its not rare. If the stain is intact (ie looks like a paint finish without a ton of peeling and flaking) you are in for a good time. I have charged $5 per s/f (as in $10 per s/f of floor measurement) and lost money on these types of jobs. Here is one we did this season. Stripped it once and little came off. Second round we turned up the heat and despite soaking down the back of the house, we had to repaint the door, trim and two windows. About three hours went into sanding this little deck. Stained with Armstrong Clarke Cedar Semi Trans

+1 The mold goes a lot deeper. Sometimes you have to X-Jet str8 12%

Dryvit.. You southern guys don't seem to have much real stucco?

I haven't spoken to Shane in a couple years. His number is still in my phone. I'm like that last rusty nail holding in that 12' long 2x6 that just won't give up its hold.

I still have the spreadsheet Reed sent to me when I was first starting in wood. I think Reed was from the St Louis area. I met him at Don Marler's R/T. Super nice guy.

Remember Shane from Texas? I would be talking to him at 8 pm and it would be pouring raining. The next morning he would call me and when I asked him where he was, he would tell me, "staining a deck". LOL. He never worried about any of the stuff we slave over.

Thanks for the spam. Come again.

Hello. The deck should be prepped with a cleaning agent that will remove the remainder of the oil finish then pH balanced and brightened with a neutralizer. I would never a) put a water borne over an oil (or use a waterborne at all) and b) apply a new coating over a failing one. Rethinking your handyman route may be something to consider.

I've had the discussion with builders around the country. One in particular has been working with hardwoods and ipe for over a decade. He stopped using end grain sealer and said he sees no difference. The decks I maintain that have no wax or sealant, while I don't see every one, also look fine. This is another one of those bleach/don't bleach topics I suppose. Normally I would say err on the side of caution and seal the ends. But as Rick mentioned, the stuff is permanent. If you get even a drop anywhere but that end grain, its never gonna take stain.

John, both are correct and the difference is in the semantics of language. I have visited .edu sites, physics sites, mathmetician forums and the answers are just as diverse with convincing debate on both sides. I can list hundreds of websites (.edu sites, mathematician forums, etc) as well as draw from my own education (which only went as far as number theory and advanced calculus before I switched from an engineering major) to support my viewpoint as it is in the context of this discussion. The more i read, the more I become thoroughly confused. 1. the relation between two similar magnitudes with respect to the number of times the first contains the second: the ratio of 5 to 2, written 5:2 or 5/2. 2. proportional relation; rate: the ratio between acceptances and rejections. #1 is Me/Philip DooLittle, #2 is Dan/John

Dan, I totally know/knew where you are coming from. Its very confusing but I believe when talking about a downstream ratio we are talking about the amount of chemical to the amount of water being displaced. Its definitely not clear cut. Good "debate" on PT State. I have to bow out. Since Philip is on my side of train of thought, I'll let you guys battle it out.

Dan, I know you majored in math but all I can tell you is that you are still incorrect. As a final dilution, a ratio is a percentage. 1:4 = 1/4th 1/4th = 25% You can contest it a hundred ways from Sunday but 1/4th will never equal 20%. You do not add both sides of a proportion formula, you divide them.