PressurePros

He will not have enough time in to collect unemployment from you. He would need to work at least a full quarter.

Understand Dan that I only had one experience with Wood Rich but here are my impressions. It has less pigmentation than Wood Tux so it spreads better. When I driped a few drops onto a dry piece of cedar it beagn to spread and penetrate almost instantly. I never had any problems with lap marks with regular Wood Tux not did I have any with the new Wood Rich. For lack of a better term I would cal it more "oily". Wood Rich more resembles other tinted sealers you may be used to using. It does not sure as quickly so you can apply it heavier and allow it to soak in. Wood Tux really needs to eb brushed oput right away for maximum penetration. Wood Rich is more user friendly and allows you to play with it a bit more. Wood Rich, in my opinion, is much easier to control. By that I mean a little over application can be easily brushed out as opposed to possibly leaving a sheen. I don't like rolling any type of sealer. I suppose if you back pad it after you roll it you might be okay but otherwise the technique leves bubbles and tends to deposit to much product on the surface. I rolled a few decks in the past and just didn't like the results. Our technique is to do four boards their entire length, then back brush/pad them before moving on. On larger jobs I like to kep the floor near the rails covered to catch drips just in case we cannot get to a floor until the next day. Final note: My experience with Wood Tux has been to allow a couple hours of dry time (go eat lunch after you clean/balance). Sealing wood that is saturated with water is a pain. Water rises to the surface and bubbles and its very hard to tel if you have enough product down.

Dan, Warm Honey Gold is the stock color. Sikkens SRD is another product I used to love but has changed. Dan, I am not trying to convince you to go with one product over another . I am just giving you my experience so at least you have something to base a decision upon. Wood Tux has the incredible advantage of flexibility on moisture content. Like anything there are trade offs. With sealers there seems to be a tradeoff of fragility versus beauty. The prettier something looks when first applied the less durability it has (and vice versa) I prefer to use a product like Wood Rich which may not last as long as Wood Tux but looks nicer upon application.

On your "Our Past Work" page you have an ipe deck. I think Celeste's point was that you have some impressive photos for being in the woodworking business for a short time. http://forums.thegrimescene.com/showthread.php?t=5391

Mike I don't think I did. customerservice@restore-a-deck.com

Both machines go into a climate controlled warehouse. All remaining PW'ing gear is offloaded into my shed. Bucket truck gets rented out daily. Box truck filled with interior painting essentials. Owner takes vacations, analyzes numbers, formulates budget and reads The Grime Scene.

There is absolutley no science to the tinting. I don't even bother measuring anymore. I pour a little black into a cap. Stir. I pour the red directly in.. stir. I guess its like when a chef can judge a cup just by pouring directly from a bottle. You do it enough times it just becomes second nature. When I first started doing it I used pipettes and took careful notes. Your question about the retail products would have validity if they were indeed quality products. Most Penofin I see turns black after six months. Aussie oil fades and has nasty color shift after same time. The problem is, Dan.. Tightening VOC restrictions have forced these manufacturers to cut down on mineral spirits. Mineral spirits are cheap (and effective) They have to replace that lost volume and they have to use more expensive oils etc. Well a large company has strict margins to work on so they cut down on using effective fungicides and chemicals that prevent color shift. Just about every commercially available sealer here in PA is a shadow of its former self. The new formulations flash dry and do not hold up at all. You might have different laws governing formulas in your state but I can't imagine the big companies are going to continue producing differing versions for each state. I can understand your issue with not wanting to have a pail of sealer laying around this time of year. If you are planning on getting into wood restoration seriously next year it wouldn't be a bad idea to order some differing products now so when next year rolls around you will have decided which you like best, have samples painted out onto boards for customers to look at and you will hit the ground running.

Dan the stock color of Wood Tux is pigmented with yellow. On pressure treated lumber its a golden color if you dilute it with spirits. On cedar its orange. I almost alway add some black and red to it as my customer are very adamant about not having their decks look yello or orange. One of the things that makes Wood Tux such a good product is that it has twice the amount of pigmentation. The downfall of course of that pigmentation is that if you apply it to dry wood it can be a bit overwhelming. In Russell's new Wood Rich formulation he addressed the problems inerent to Wood Tux (what I perceived as problems) I tried some last week and like it much better. It penetrates much better and dos not begin to cure as quickly. Gve me a call if you hav more specific questions about my experiences with Tux. My minimum deck job is $500 so the only way I would do this one is with other work. Dan, what about the front deck/porch?

Larry, if your close ratio is 90% your prices are too low. 60% is considered an outstanding close ratio. If you go over that you are working harder not smarter (more jobs, same money)

..On web designers. Not wanting to spend $3000 on a nice web design I have gone through three companies that just weren't getting what I wanted. I decided to read up, get some software and do my own. Here is the first page. I realize there are some obvious errors (competitive spelled wrong for instance) I would love to hear some feedback back on your first impression. If something doesn't hit you right or if upon looking at this first page you would click and look elsewhere you would be doing me a service to let me know that. Thanks in advance. http://trialsites.ihoststudio.com/trialsite99397/website/

I have to run and do a few estimates but I will have another link by this afternoon.

I don't know if you have a job minimum but this would fall under mine. If there is 115 s/f there of total wood that might be pushing it. I can't see you getting more than $200-$250. Thats definite Wood Tux/Wood Rich territory so you can finish the whole thing from start to finish in a couple hours.

Its a very good idea to prewet any masony surface before you apply acid.

I have a server and the URL it is just easiest to preview the site using the automatic upload feature of the program to a temp server. I don't want the site public until I am done with it. Now I have to locate the darn thing on my hard drive

hahaha, it was tempoarary hosting link. I'll put it up again tommorow morning. I would appreciate you taking a peek at it.

6% sodium hypochlorite and my housewash mix. House was washed with about 300 psi uniformly from top to bottom (120 degree water) That was 8 years of growth near a lake and around here we get higher carbon buildup as well.

Jim don't be offended. We have different agendas. After ten years I don't plan on a) being in the field doing deck work b) still being a one man show. Self proclaimed as a guru or not, facts are facts.

Grills are never put together right by homeowner's. They must get halfway through and say "This looks good, hand me that propane tank and get the burgers, hon" Every one I have ever laid hands on fels like a good wind will decimate it.

Maybe our not seeing eye to eye is the way of measurement? In my original post I have 'floor' in parentheses. If I had a 1000 sq ft deck with spindles and rails and some steps, that would be about 2000 sq/ft give or take. So that $4000 is actually $2 per square feet and that includes a sodium percarbonate based cleaner, followed by a pH balancing acidic cleaner, followed by dry time, sanding where neccessary and hand applying high quality oil finish. My ipe finishes last at least twice as long as anything else out there so the value is an outstanding one. Trust me, Jim, you are missing the boat. High end jobs dictate high end dollars.

Larry its like anything else, you adapt to techniques that speed things up. I have pretty much switched over to using these small HVLP's exclusively. At first they were for doing lattice or other detail work while I was using the pump/hose/wand. I found with using certain products like Wood Tux clean up of lines was a major time killer (You use water borner products right?) I'd have to send so much spirits through the lines then there is the factor of disposal of all that wasted mineral spirits.. Two guys on a deck using the smaller HVLP goes as follows. 4 cups are filled and laid on a tarp. One guy sprays the other back brushes. Exchanges are quick (30 seconds?) When the "sprayer" gets on his last cup, the helper refills the others and then goes back to brushing. It flows very smoothly and quickly. With an HVLP no sealer goes through the line and overspray is very minimum. Cleanup is filling the cup up with half spirits, shaking it up and spraying into can for 30 seconds. Wipe down nozle and cups. Total time maybe 3 minutes. Hose gets stored in bottom of unit, sprayer gets tucked into the unit and take up maybe 1.5 square feet of shelf space. The downside of course is the floor. For that, there is no comparison to using a higher flow pump. It still goes pretty quick though.

Scrape, apply deck cleaner of choice (I use HD-80 to soften edges of flaking areas) neutralize if neccessary, prime with oil/alkyd based primer, one to two topcoats solid latex sprayed with fine coat HVLP (no brushing neccessary).

Depending on the size of the deck I have one guy brushing for every guy spraying. As soon as one section of rail system is sprayed the next guy comes behind and backbrushes. I think it also depends upon the product you are using. One advantage of a product like Ready Seal is that you probably don't have to backbrush. Back brushing allows the product to penetrate more quickly and evenly so you can see any problem spots and address them right away.

I'm not trying to be a smartass, but now its 4 dollars. James you can follow me around, Id love to have you come down and share your experience. Perhaps you could see why getting $4 not only happens, why it is neccessary. Trust me, I don't make $400 an hour on anything. Those rates are reserved for my attorney.

Absurd compared to what you are used to getting but perfectly in scale for the price of the decking and the amount of labor that goes into applying a finish that will last longer than six months. The economy of scale comes into play. If someone pays $35 per s/f to have a deck constructed and we have to take double the labor time to hand apply a product the number is right on the money. I haven't had one complaint yet. Try to keep an open mind, james. Would you be opposed to getting that rate for decks because you find it absurd? What I find a little off kilter is someone basing their pricing on what they would be willing to pay versus what is considered a FMV.

My first impression? That ****** are running the show. But they don't have to answer to me and I don't want to slander anyone. I have seen Mathew's pic (or read him mentioned) in a bunch of WaterWorks publication. if he is saying this stuff, something is foul in Denmark. Logo rental? For what? I'll have Keith design a wicked looking logo, come up with an org name (The Pressure Washing Followers of United Common Kinship for instance) and you guys can send me $20 for a lifetime membership. I guarantee it will look good on your business cards.