seymore

Ahhhh i seeee now

Having before and after pics of your work is just a way to show the customer how good you are.It's just another tool to get you more buisiness. It's taken me a lot of time to get all my before and after pics and they are still growing. You can print them out or you can create a cd rom of pics and give them to your customers if they have a pc.

I think you were right on with your bid of a job that size so don't sweat it.You are right you can't work for nothing and you don't want to give away your hard work and knowlendge that you have learned about deck restoration. Building a portfolio for your buisness is a great idea and it will even sell your jobs for you.Cause pictures are a worth a thousand words.

I very seldom get lowballed but on occassion I do.Mostly because my buisness comes from referalls"the best kind" so i don't have to do much selling to do.I just try to be fair on my price for the job i'm bidding.The harder the job sometimes calls for a higher price it just varies.The quality of work always stays the same,If it's 100 sqft or 6000 sqft. When i do have to sell my services to a customer and my selling points are have been in the biz for 12 yrs is right at the top.I only stain decks,cedar houses and fences.I will sometimes clean n seal flagstone pavestone and that's about it. Customers like the fact I "specialize" in staining exterior wood. If i had to bid for example P/washing a driveway...there are so many P/washing "companies" out there "IE Joe with a P/washer in the back of his truck." That it's not worth it for me $$ wise to break even on P/washing a driveway.Now if i can sell a driveway cleaning while i stain a customers deck or fence that's even better. See what i find here in Houston that there is not a lot of companies that "ONLY" clean and seal decks fences etc.. SO many fly by night guys out there that if you come up against their bid and you lose the job to them so be it.You go on to the next job and wait for that customer to call you back after they have ruined their deck. So you have to charge more to strip whatever mess they made. "seen it many times"

:cool: I'll keep that in mind thanks..

For these lil buggers i took a bucket of hot soapy water and poured it in the deck cracks.That took care of them except for a few stragglers.

See him... him and his friends were tryin to get me hiding under the deck today when i started P/washing.Sorry i don't have an after he was flatened by 3200 PSI :bullistic

Well that has a lot to do with age of the wood,using less pressure will lesson the furring but not completely If you are using a chem to strip away the previous stain the chem can be eating away a layer of wood that will make it fur when it comes off. The strength of the chem has a lot also to do with making it fur. Redwood is very tricky not to make it fur if it can be helped at all.Sometimes the homeowner just has to understand by the process of cleaning the furring may happen.To me it will lay down once you stain it and my not be as noticeable.

Steve If the siding is pretty old they may be noway to stop the furring redwood is just so soft. P/washing when you clean it may take some of the dead wood off and it may not furr after that. Good luck

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Good one jon

Nick Are you turning the pressure down to get very little overspray? The tips are the key the smaller the tip the more expensive they are by the way up to $10 a tip I know the pressure switchs are set from the factory"what PSI i'm not sure" and usually i break them in for a little while.Over time and feel of the preassure i adjust accordingly. 1- 2 full turns clockwise at a time is usually enough.I usually need more pressure when i'm doing fences.

A close up of the trigger and tip i use on my 4 ft wand that i love to spray fences with. Do airless sprayers only have that little trigger or do they have an extension cause i've never used one b4?

Nick I have to disagree with you about the shur flo pumps for spraying sealant.I've been in spraying with shur flo's for over 7yrs and I've sprayed 300Lft of 7'high fence in under 2 hrs 2 coats.I use an oil base stain that has lots of solids in it and have NO problems spraying the stain .It's filtered from the pick up tube and on the tip. On the top of the pump there is a preasure switch you adjust pressure with an allen wrench. So i use shurflo's for chems and all my staining cause i use only 1 type of stain a semi no solids stains where a ariless may be needed. This is my set up works like a charm I've also sprayed a 6000 sqft deck in under 8 hrs one pump. Also Nick you need a diff tip my smallest i use is a 500033 i think from spraying system Inc.I can spray and barely get any over spray takes forever but great for spindles on railings.:cool:

We got hit last year with a hurricane and it's no fun.Houston is not on the coast but we get tons of rain adn tornados. My house was flooded a few yrs back when only a Tropical storm Allison hit and camped out over us for 3 days.We got 33 inches of rain in those days I've never seen that much rain ever!

That's too funny:rotfl: That was made with Macromedia flash

Hang in there Mathew!

My thoughts exactly was just seeing the video from today they were getting pounded. Hope everybody is safe!

Thank Alan The whole inside of the house is stained like that and it was slippery like glass to me.The homeowner said without shoes it's not as slippery tho.

I was told by the homeowner it is stain, it actually took them 3 times to get the color they wanted.Gonna try to get the product they used and some specs tomorrow after i stain their deck and walkway.

Jon That cabots semi look pretty solid looking does it still look like that or did it lighten up?

Yes longer dwell time and keeping it wet will work better in most cases.Depending on what stain is on it you just have to take it off in layers sometimes. I only use 100 % hydrox/soap and Oxalic,bleach for the mildew. I also mostly work on PT decking and I hardly ever get furring only on occasion. I also never change the preasure on my machine just never staying one place to long and not to low to the wood.

Here is a spot on some flagstone i was trying to see if i could remove.Used some rust remover a few times and few more times.I let dwell for 5-10 min scrubbing.. scrubbing... then a little more scrubbing. These stains came from some potted plants on the second story.Could they have added some "Iron food" to plant soil to cause this? I'm kinda happy with how it was turning out. It was a test area so see what it would take to lift the stain.

Anyone interested in a window washing job in Bentwater Sub. in Conroe? They are in the Estate section it's "monster house" call me asap

Ohh the star these texans here like to show how patriotic they are:cool: I'm sorry Ryan i should have said the homeowner had it done by another contractor.We only stained the cedar house but i'd like to find out how the concrete was done.

:bday: Jon and many more:hat: