John T

Ain't that the truth:) I always over advertised and the wood calls I could never keep up once we got a decent customer base. I think I get your business model though. My brother in-law has a somewhat similiar business model where he hasn't had to advertise in many years. What he does is office cleaning of all things and he can barely keep up with his customer base.

Beautiful work Shane. Hey I got your samples sitting in my shop. Were working on some condo complexes so we pretty much been doing all Powerwashing. We pull further away from wood but the work you do shows that wood restoration is indeed art.

Amber stain is beautiful.

Where doing for a second time this IPE deck next week that's on a canal. We actually got this customer thru Beth & TGS. This deck has never been stained and it goes grey every year. We just do it the old out dated way and clean it under pressure with a 40 degree tip. It has to be done at low tide because part of this decking has a boat slip to it and it goes under water. If there's a pre-existing stain on it your best bet maybe to walk away from that job. It takes one nosey neighbor to call on you and it may not be worth the headache. Good luck on your decision.

Hey Tony Great Job!! Looks fantastic. Man I used to salivate to powerwash decks like that with that grey weathered not sealed or anything in years look. Staining them was another story but when completed they looked great.

F9 appears to be everything the claims say it is. Probably the hottest cleaning chemical on the market right now. We used it a couple of times and it worked exactly as advertised. If you use F9 report back to us how it worked for you so other contractors who visit here get an excellent product to add to their cleaning arsenal:)

Yup those are some sweet pics aka "The Bleach Bandit" Here's a couple of my Opel GT that I have in my drawer. I can't find the close up shots of the front and back which were beautiful shots. Somewhere probably in my closet. These pics were taken back in 1980. I missed my german shepherd named Boozer in that pic.. As for the Opel if you look closely I had a Blaupunct(Probably spelling it worng) Cassette player in there which was Kick azz back then. I also had the CB player and under the hood I had a PA system so we could say Hello to the hot chicks in a mall parking lot and they wouldnt know where the sound system was coming from(What a Geek lol). You can see the two Weber Carbs under the hood. I use to race this car in the corvette club and in my class the car I had the most trouble against was the cooper mini's. They turned on a dime. In the end the only one I couldn't beat in my class was my own father(Figures). Sold that car when I joined the NAVY in 82. I miss that car and also the girls back then who use to tell me how they loved my Vette.... and I would tell them its an Opel and they would say..Ohhhhhh:) (Took pics of pics with my phone--terrible quality)

Hey Rick shows us yours and I'll show mine:) Let's see that lotus I saw in Shamong NJ.. Show the goods

There seems to be some misunderstanding of what BMP's are. So lets take a look at what maybe causing some of the misunderstandings here. First and foremost it must be understood that BMP's are not law. One doesn't get a summons for violating a BMP, they get a summons for violating the law. Anyone selling you on anything different there you should be immediately suspicious as to what their intent is to do so. So if you know anyone who was summons for violating for arguments sake the clean water act and they paid a fine then they were found guilty of violating some law even if it was on a plea bargain. Violations fall into the law category. Also a violation conviction generally means you were convicted of an "Infraction" and not a crime. Misdemeanors & Felony convictions are another story. BMP's stand for Best Management Practices. You can incorporate your own set of BMP's or as in the www.PWNA.org you can use there BMP's and restructure them if need be to work for your area. An Example of a simple BMP: A simple BMP let's say for my business could be like this- When Powerwashing the operator is advised to wear eye protection and work gloves. All I would be saying here is for my business this would be a BMP but it doesn't make it.. The law. So I hope this helps clear this up for some as to what a BMP really is.

They don't. But then why would they do it at all I guess would be your next question. Waste water control is a big issue for many commercial Powerwashers. So a national org. should IMHO step to the plate and try to be at the forefront in helping there members and this Industry in general to be able to work with the AHJ's etc that works in favor to the Powerwashers. What exactly that is has caused alot of debate which is always good if it can stay professional and eventually those debates tend to not work out to well in the long run. But the initial parts are always worth it because people tend to think together to work things out until it gets ugly. From what I have read there is only a small part of the BMP's that are causing the discourse. The majority of the BMP's the PWNA offers for example most people would be in agreement that are workable. Alot of it is common sense. For example, directing your wash water over to a landscape area instead of straight down a storm drain. Just basic commen sense. A national org should deal with issues instead of looking the other way and offer their members nothing. If the members didn't want that they have the ability to vote out the BOD's and the chairs of the committee's etc. But back to your first question Kris-- an org. doesnt have to do anything but I rather be a part of an org. that is proactive instead of one that has no direction known or doesn't want to do anything of actual value to it's members.

Yes. BMP's can follow the law such as no wash water discharge directly into a storm drain if that's what your local laws state but it's not vice- versa. Laws over rule BMP's. Another words you BMP's if different from what the law states they have no bearing in your defense.. Obviously you want BMP's that are inline what the law states when you get into those grounds within your BMP's but your basic BMP's such as when KPOW personal are Powerwashing, shorts is not an acceptable work attire. Etc etc etc State agency's can adopt BMP's where they expect contractors to follow them or even be more strict then what their BMP's are but if you aren't at least following what there BMP's are you most likely will find yourself violating some type of law in that area. BMP's are Guidelines.

You guys are making me think about the "Good old days" :). I almost bought an MG Midget around 79-80. I really wanted that car. I was into Jim Conner racing https://jimconnerracing.com/ so I bought a 72 Opel GT(poor mans Corvette) and my Dad and my Uncle along with myself spray painted it with 7 coats of paint to make it look like glass. Then I had the engine blue printed from Fontana racing where we had dual webber carbs added. This car was a rocket. It was also my everyday car until I left to serve the USN. I have the pics of this car in my night table. I'll try to remember to take pics of the pics. Those were good times. This thread brings back good memories:)

That seems a bit high amount of PSI to lose using only a 100' section even though it's 3/8". The golden rule of thumb should be somewhere around 1psi per linear ft of hose in the example your giving. To lose 500psi on just one 100' section of hose can make a world of difference in some cleaning applications such as Gum popping where you may easily have a few hundred feet of hose in use. You unloader maybe out of adjustment causing some of the water to go into bypass while cleaning causing less pressure at the end of your Powerwashing hose. To answer a question like this you need a Russ Johnson to give you a better idea on why your losing that much PSI in only a 100' of hose....

Cool.. Almost reminds me of the car Dustin Hoffman drove in the movie the Graduate. http://www.topsonline.com/blog/alfa-romeo/the-graduate-car-alfa-romeo-spyder/

Doug is right on.

Yup I buy in bulk to. A skid at a time of 5gal. Containers of Chlorine. You may be looking into this to much IMHO. The Chlorine I get is from a Pool Supply Co. that you need to have a Lic. For which I have. Ths Chlorine is about as high as they come which is rated @ 15%. which is almost 3x stronger then your household bleach. Get it like us then it can be used for many different applications.

Hmmmm... You have a better chance of merging the BDA with TGS and do there own show before these two orgs ever merge. No one can say that your not an optimist though Jake... A joint convention by them "wood" be cool but can't see that happening anytime soon either but then again I am a bit Jaded by all of that stuff now.. One thing is certain. TGS rocks for Wood Restoration post-- & Composites bite compared to wood:)

Chlorine is used for many different cleaning applications including most types of house washing. Here's a link to give you some more insight about chlorine http://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/emergency/chemical_terrorism/chlorine_tech.htm

If you know how to do it I would also have your company name and website plus phone # popping up in there at various intervals. The Video looks good.

And along comes Sikkens. I hate that stain because of the stripping problems. Sorry I used that in the past as well.

So far this year we stained with Flood natural(Hybrid-sucked and sprays like garbage), Superdeck natural(came out good and sprayed excellent-oil based) and AC Amber(came out excellent and sprayed like a charm). I wish AC was something I could pick up at my nearby paint store. We sprayed a house and we ran 2 gallons short. I had to get ACR products to send me some more so we had to shut this job down for 2 days until stain arrived. AC Stain is excellent and I'm leaning towards stock piling it but I sure wish like the old days, they didn't messed with the local products because of the VOC's and it was sure convenient to pick everything up locally.

Get yourself a battery checker. If you got a bad/dead cell the battery is shot. Besides connections, one of the first things I check is if the battery has a bad cell with the battery checker. Good thing to own and there cheap.

Anyone interested in Joining the TGS Moderating team in helping to keep this Bulletin board at the top of it's profession? Contact Beth/Rod thru a PM here to see if they need some slots filled. It's been a good experience and it's been rewarding being a part of this ever growing site. As for me except for a few months last year I've been part of the TGS moderating team from the beginning of this site. It's time for me to hang that up. 10 yrs has been a long time and I probably should have left a couple of years ago. It's time to bring in the new and out with the old for guys like me because Political correctness is not my style. The best advice I could give for future Mods here is if you want to Mod stay away from the Powerwashing orgs and the politics because it's to slippery of a slope to do both. I should know because I've been doing that for...to many years:) Lastly thanks Rod and especially you Beth for letting me join the TGS team from their inception.

They say "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas"... Yea right. Everyone talks about what they did in Vegas to someone somewhere. Speaking of Vegas here is what looks like a "Cop want a be" Lowballer setup. Why else trailer around a rig with a car like that which looks to be quite a few years old. They probably don't even have business insurance so they take this rig around town. These are the type of people that bring this Industry Down down down. You show up in your professional set-up and this is what you see down the road from you. No wonder why some people think any "Home Depot Joe" can powerwash. For me personally my local Powerwashers don't hurt my business. Some of us Network with each other when we can. What hurts my business is Low balling hacks with set-ups like this who probably charge 1-2 cents a square for commercial work. I could lose out on a potential job to a low balling hack like this but guess what??? When they show up with a rig set-up like this I'll eventually get the call to come back.

Yes. Basically try not to get roped into arguments like you saw a few of us have. 99% of the time TGS runs very smooth. It's that 1% of the time where these last word arguments (not so much debates) where it becomes a he said/she said stuff. I know your history with Chris & what happened...but... It's pointless to argue over it because even though some think your right, he will think he's right. That's how people think. They usually don't argue something because they know their wrong.. Fight for a good cause-- I always believe in that but don't fight the petty stuff(been there as well and it's worthless). So in essence give out good quality things people can use, even yourself and you'll have more people respecting what it is you do..