Cappspressurewashing

I have used bleach on many many of our deck jobs with no spotting ever. We just did a huge Ipe job surrounded by redwood trees that had a bad year of dropping the red colored stuff. It was so thick that I was not sure about bleach working but it did the job after a few coats. I don't think you want to do just one area with the bleach but if you do the whole thing it looks great. I went to the Ipe job a few days earlier to test the bleach on a few boards and it removed the redwood stain without changing the color of the wood. Just mix 1/1 with water and pump spray it on. No brushing, let the bleach do the work.

Use liquid bleach mixed 1/1 with water in a pump sprayer. Spray and watch it fade before your eyes. Rinse and put a fan to help dry and then maybe cover it so it doesn't happen again before you stain. No need to sand.

Exactly what we use. What is the "defelting" pad? I know it is self explanatory but how well does it work and are there different grits? Thanks, Chris

Sorry. Still figuring out how this site works.

All of the single action high speed grinders are going to do the same thing. We have a Hitachi, Milwaukee, and 3 Makitas. All are between 6000 and 6500 rpm and are 15 amp. We run 50 grit 9 inch disks on a regular after market backing pad. The good thing about using 9 inch disks is that the contact patch is about the width of a deck board. Make long smooth passes in one direction until you get the hang of it. Once you get the hang of it you can cut in both directions but every once in a while the disk edge will catch and %$#^&. The Hitachi has a funny guard on the trigger that is sort of a hassle but it's overall height is a little lower so it gets under stuff a hair further. The Milwaukee has taken a back seat to the Makitas mainly because of the power. The Makita seems to be the most powerful of the bunch even though the stats are all pretty much the same. The dust gets a little crazy. I have found that having someone follow me with the vacuum hose right in front of the disk ( or where the dust is shooting out from) really helps in the cleanup. You will want to buzz the deck with an orbital with 80 on it. The Rigid 6 inch I feel is the most powerful. These are mean little machines and you will never want to see another belt sander.

Just some pics of our recent deck and teak jobs.

We had a great last couple months and then all of a sudden things have slowed a bit. Calls, bookings, everything. I have about half a dozen decent estimates out there so we'll see. I did an estimate on the far side of Fremont a week or so ago. Did you get that one? It was kind of a nightmare job in my opinion. They had a Coi pond and an arbor that they wanted stained as well as the deck.

Cabot, CWF, Wolmans. It depends on what the customer is looking for. I hope business is good out in Pleasanton.

Yes it is a spray booth with a rotisserie thing inside so we can stand in one spot rather than walking around each piece. We have a very efficient process and the customers love having it all done in one day.

Here are a few of our jobs. We can clean, dry, sand, and oil 50 pieces in one day with a crew of 4.

Teak is one of the main things we do. What ever you do, don't sell yourself short. By the time you clean, dry, sand, and oil, you will have earned your money or be mad that you didn't charge more.

Have any of you used the wood cleaner "Newagain"? Wondering what you think about it. Also "Renew" roof and deck cleaner. Thanks, Chris

When you are going to re-oil an Ipe deck do you strip the old oil off first or just oil on top of failing oil? I am confused by some of the threads about this. We always strip every deck prior to applying an oil. Is this overkill? Again, thanks for having such an informative site. It's nice to read about the challenges that some of you have faced and it's nice to see I am not alone.

So here is my worst customer. January 08 I get a call to do an estimate for cleaning and staining an arbor. I cleaned the arbor and then 2 weeks later she called for us to stain it. My helper and I were there for a total of 3 days and she constantly came out while we were working and asked the same questions over and over. Sometimes coming out 2 or 3 times an hour to small talk and ask her questions. She told us several times that she loved the color and was very happy with the progress. At the end of the 3rd day we put her patio furniture back under her supervision and I got the check along with a handful of compliments about our work. About a half hour after we left she called to ask if we would come back and help her move a table on the patio and I said no problem. We go back and we move the table literally an inch which she could have done. I then go to the bank and make my deposits and go home. When I check my email I have messages from a few different business review sites telling me that someone had posted a review of my business. This creature had posted on a dozen review sites about how poor of a job we had done and that I was a possible convict, child molester, and all around creep. She wrote to the BBB, yahoo, msn, yellowpages.com, a bunch of small community sites and mothers groups, etc. All with the same copy. She actually wrote to the BBB that her goal was not to resolve a dispute but rather to “shut me down”. Then she put a stop payment on the check and threatened to sue me for damage to her property. She claimed that her pots were damaged by drops of stain which was untrue. She was claiming $24,000 in damage to her pots alone and said the rest of the damage was over $200,000. Her entire patio was covered the entire time we were working and there was not 1 single drop on any of her pots as this was the last thing I personally checked before we left the job. After she posted her tirade about me I was devastated to find out that when you did a search for my business, all of her reviews came up first in the results. About 4 pages worth, all in front of even my own website. It consumed me and it took a few months to get most of it off of the internet. I spent almost every night for a month writing to these sites explaining the circumstances. I decided to take her to small claims court. I filled out the paperwork and went to the courthouse and as I was walking into the building I ran into a very wealthy customer of mine. I explained what I was doing there and he explained how this could turn into a really long ugly process and to think about it. The woman I was dealing with was a housewife and is married to a very wealthy movie producer. Hence, lots of time and money. Neither of which I had. I ended up just forgetting about it and never collected or pursued anything against her. Now the good stuff. Before this incident I had never really considered the internet as a powerful tool for my company. Then when she posted her stuff it really scared me into protecting myself against people like her. What she inadvertently did was double my business and gave me the tools I needed to use the internet as my most powerful marketing tool. Just to give everybody an idea of how I run my business. Not only do I do what I feel is very high quality work, I hand write thank you letters to every customer, I hand write over 500 Christmas cards every year, I donate services to many elderly or handicapped customers every year, I hand deliver Marie Calender pies to a couple dozen elderly or widowed customers every year as a surprise. Life is good and business is better than ever. Chris

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I know this has probably been asked before but I cannot find anything that answers my questions in the archives. I am wondering how Cabot Australian Timber Oil (natural) looks and holds up against some other oils/stains that you guys have used. I like the initial look that ATO has but I am wondering if there are products that look as good and last longer. I am in the San Francisco Bay Area and really only get about a year or so out of ATO. As a side note: I just found this forum and can't stop reading it. It's great. My company is Capp's Pressure Washing and I have been in business for 6 years or so. Residential Pressure Washing / Deck Restoration. Thanks, Chris Capp

I'm not sure what a signature is? Can you please explain it. I notice that some forum members have their contact info under the avatar. How can I do this? Thanks, Chris