PressurePros

I don't give discounts to friends or family. My reasoning is this.. I do this for a living. I will come over and help a friend till his yard and pull tree stumps all day. That's a favor. Friends are friends and helping them out is fine but everyone knows, my rates for professional work are my rates that goes for anyone including family. James you learned a valuable lesson about doing test spots on strip jobs. I got bit in the behind a couple of times assuming something was going to be easy.

The best $50 you ever spent. Good job, John.

John, I canot lift your logo from the website. When you get the chance send it to me so i can include it on my contractor listing.

I'll second that.

As would be mine but its hard to argue with local availability, customer service and being able to perform tests with various products. See how you make out with the Prosoco stuff and you can always go from there.

Espec seems to be the king of downstreamers. Scott, in adition to the benefits Mike stated, you get a proper dilution of chemical by default. Less risk of damage to grass and windows. Most people use way too much 12% when they X-Jet

You'd probably get the best of all world's using both products. The Ready Seal will penetrate and condition and the Wood Tux will lock it in. Your maintenance would be done with Wood Tux. The only issue is Richard, I don't think WT is sold to homeowners.

Tom by this time next year you will be the one giving advice. Don't worry about that.

EFC will strip most failing sealers. There is a trade off to having to use more product but in an instance where you are worried about landscaping, EFC-38 is the better choice.

I use their composite sealer (as demanded by waranty work). Good Stuff. I didn't know they had wood sealers.

Is that Ed Burke's direct line?

That is old, very porous brick. That is not a housewash it is a restoration. I'd would start the bidding at $1000 for that front facade and go from there. You have some limestone to contend with as well. Mortar looks questionable and usually is on older houses. You can increase the value of that house by at least $20,000 with a good restoration. Prosoco, EacoChem or Diedrich are where you may want to start your search.

I agree that the values are off on the underside. It listed my aunt's neighborhood as a median of about $500k when her neighbors house acrossed the street just sold for $700k

That deck is incredible. Very nice job on the finish guys. Though you still didn't answer my question ;-) PM or call me when you get the chance. PS: Talked to Wesley today.

You could save yourself the aggravation of more testing and just neutralize the wood with a light acidic solution. It is going to further wash out some of the natural oils and sugars in the wood but your Ready Seal will fill in those gaps. It will prbably fade very quickly so re-coating in the near future is a good idea.

Wow, Celeste, great test bed. I look forward to those updates.

Jon, in regards to putting it onto hardwoods.. yes. After looking at it on all of my decks previously sealed with Wood Tux (not a ton but enough for accurate analysis) my opinion is that the product far surpasses ANYTHING out there. I'm not trying to sell it to anyone. I am not trying to blow Russell's horn but when you look at a deck that has southern exposure, is surrounded within 30 feet by a creek and a veritable forest of mold covered trees and you look at your deck that has also been through a northeast winter and it looks as pigmented and mold free as the week after you did it, you get convinced you are onto something. This was not a hardwood deck though. My logic is that sealers on ipe, mahogany et al get very little penetration on the best day with the best prep. Using a product like undiluted Wood Tux will get you about 2 mils of penetration. If that is the best one will achieve with a paraffinic oil or any deep penetrator, why not use a product that was designed to lock in at that depth? My issue with WT has been pigmentation and color blend. I have worked out some nice formulas on some hardwood samples so I am ready to rock and roll with it. On the upside of potential risk, you can see how long ATO lasts on a sun exposed deck. My guess is that RS would last even less. The customer is aware of the maintenance issue with ipe.

Everybody has different skill levels. While replacing screens is not rocket science, by the time he goes to Lowes to buy the tools and the screening, removes all the screens, spends an hour on one making sure he does it right, pulling it apart because its too loose, having homeowner watching over him with a skeptical eye he could be out doing another housewash earning $300-$400. Not to mention that when the next storm comes an edge will come loose and he will get another callback. I agree with Kory, split the cost and have someone do it.

I'm surprised Rick is letting you go with ATO. Your product choice must be limited. For what it's worth, your moisture content will not be low enough by tommorow to use the ATO. You may end up with extractive bleeding and your finish is going to turn black. I'd either get a moisture meter or wait more like three days.

Did you mistakenly post the "after cleaning" pic? Wow. Thumbs down on the ATO. That big ipe deck you referred to me, Celeste is getting Wood Tux. I am meeting with the builder and homeowner on Friday to finalize.

I don't want to hijack the thread..in short an X-Jet operates with pressure. There is this little "beam" of water that is in the middle of the frothy spray that can sign aluuminum or vinyl sising and stretch or distort screens. We downstream our chems for housewashes. We also remove the screens when a customer opts for our platinum level housewash.

I expect an org to: • Increase customer awareness in key markets via advertising. The PWNA seems to be working on this by having their C.A.A. campaigns so that's a good thing. Much more can be done. • Provide avenues of cheaper insurance, accounting and legal assistance. • Use group strength to campaign for better standards. This doesn't mean to just offer courses and hope everyone signs up. I am talking about vollying for changes in legislation and keping me informed of changes that can affect the way I make profit. • Offer group buying power as a way for me to recoup membership fees. Tell me that all ABCA members get a 20% discount on cleaning products and that will get my attention. • Offer a unified group atmosphere as opposed to an ego filled clique that encourages new members not chastises or belittles those that choose not to buy in blindly (not pointing any fingers just something I would seek in an org) • Have an organized governing group that is uniform in both their agenda and execution. I would like to see both short and long term business plans not just a "wing it as you go" method. • Solicitation of major commercial work that is exclusive to members. Again the PWNA has touched on this so kudos to them for that. I think an org can help a business tremendously when executed right. My former employer/partners were always PWNA members so I joined as well. I got a sticker and used their logo for what that was worth before I was forced into looking closely at the organization and found it lacking in so many areas. I still have faith that they can pull themselves up and make it a respectable part of this business. When they do that, I would be happy to join again. This ain't gonna sit well with some people and well, I could care less about that, but I still get the newsletters and emails and its always the same faces. I think this is what turns many people off. The PWNA in my experience needs to stop acting like an entity and start acting like a neutral voice of its membership. I respect and and admire the people that have put their time into the PWNA. It's time to sink or swim. Sh*t or get off the pot. Jason you need to start your own org down there or maybe a chapter of an existing one. For the time being, bro, if you listen to one piece of advice..stop worrying about what all of these teachers and schools are offering. You have enough knowlege at this point to get out there and start making some money. When you get EnviroClean runing successfully you can then move forward to changing the standards on the island and in the Caribean as a whole. Getting some local greasy spoon to recognize the new standard happens account by account..one by one. Time to put the food on the table. Now I am going to call and harass you further.

That's a tough one. I agree, the screens had to pretty degraded but then again sodium hypochlorite is an oxidizer and will react with metal. The sodium metasilicate might have added to the problem. Thanks for sharing this because I am now going to make it a point to take pictures of any problem screens. An X-Jet will cause problems with screens too..another reason I don't really like using mine anymore. What is the homeonwer looking for in terms of restitution? Do you have before pics of the house? I take pictures of every job now just in case they decide not to pay me. They would also come in handy in this type of circumstance. PS: remove them and bring them to a hardware store. We were doing a screened in porch last month and my guy started the gun and the pressure spike went right through. It cost me $25 to replace the screen but this was a 3'x6' screen. Call around to your local hardware stores, they work with contractors and will get you in and out faster and give you a reduced rate.

WaTCh oUT FOr thOSe EliTE CenSOrS thAt ROAm thE inTerNeT

How much did you have to dilute to get that tone? How long do you expect it to last? You have more guts than I do. WT rocks.