Palmetto Home and Deck

I just had a customer complain that too many contractors are working as a LLC (limited liability corporation). She said that LLC didn't protect her rights enough. That was the first time I ever had a complaint about me being a LLC. (makes me wonder if she is looking for something to go after) So I was wondering how many of you are working as a DBA (doing business as) LLC, or are fully Incorporated and the reasons for each.

I vote yes.... Right after Hurricane Hugo hit South Carolina, hundreds if not thousands of people saw it as an opportunity to flock to the stricken areas claiming they were contractors and could help rebuild their homes, paint, build decks, cut trees, and you name it, they said they could do it. The vast majority of these people had no experience what so ever, but were only after making a buck as people were in a hurry to try to get their lives back and often paid these people up front deposits only to never see the so called contractor again. The state could do little because these people were not on record anywhere as being a contractor. Many others got rim shod work done that was essentially a waste of time and money and had to be torn down and done over. Again the so called contractors were not on any record and could not be found. There were good contractors that come to help, however, at the time there was no way any home owner could tell the difference between the legitimate ones and the hacks except by trusting the word of the contractor. That is pretty much when SC to protect the residents, started requiring that contractors be licensed. They had to have two years experience in what ever field they claimed they provided and had to have at least five references. Now in SC any job such as painting, roofing, carpentry, floor covering, etc over $200.00 requires that the contractor have a valid contractor's or specialty contractor's license. There is an inconsistency in the law though. If a contractor is hired to paint $200 worth of trim on a house, he has to be licensed while anyone one can go out and buy a pressure washer and take on a $20,000 apartment cleaning job. I see damage caused by inexperienced and uncaring pressure washing contractors all the time. Many of them are no different than the vultures that descended on SC after Hugo. I think SC overlooked pressure washing as a business or an industry in itself and I for one would like for it to be added to the list that requires licensing to help protect the unsuspecting citizenry.

Olympus makes a great camera for this. It is the Stylus. Shock proof from a drop of 6' onto concrete, can stack 165 pounds on top of it, although I don't know why you would ever do that, and water proof to 35'. I have one and it takes great pictures.

Do you have a sign on your truck that says " Will Work for Food" ? :D

Last spring I was having trouble starting my lawn mower when my neighbor pulled up on his shiny new John Deere riding lawn mower and asked me how much I would charge him to clean his house. I took one look at my lawn mower, that I was about ready to run over with my truck, then took a look at his new John Deere and told him I would trade a house wash for some grass cutting. He said DEAL! I didn't have to cut my grass the rest of the year.

I want it....

Rick, Sounds like what you are talking about could work for you if you are pulling your pressure washer around with you even though it seems like it would add a lot of weight to move around with a full pail. Most of our rigs are mounted on trailers and have our hoses on hose reels. I have 200' of hose on my reel and another 100' in the trailer. The x-jet pulls easily through 50' of hose.

I don't know why, but a lot of people around here have gotten the idea that hydraulic fluid make a good deck sealer. A friend of mine works at an automotive parts store and claims he sells more hydraulic fluid to people that say they are going to seal their decks with it than to people that use it in hydraulic equipment. I saw a guy leaving Sam's Club one day with four 5 gallon pails of it and was sure he was not going to be putting it in a backhoe. I have seen it on a lot of boat docks around here too. When you are on the lake you can smell that stuff for two hundred yards away. Can you imagine having your deck right next to your house smelling like a mechanic's shop? The hydraulic fluid always leaches out of the wood when it rains or gets wet, it collects dirt like crazy, turns the wood black, the wood gets so hot in the sun you can't walk on it barefooted. Go figure. I guess in one way they are right. I don't think the wood will ever rot, but good lord what have they done to their wood?

Man, send that rain to the Upstate of South Carolina. We are still in our drought situation where water use restrictions are keeping us from washing in a lot of areas. The lake come up a bit this winter, but with the lake being low so at this time of year it doesn't look good for pressure washing this summer. The economy is hurting us here too. Clemson University has given all staff and faculty five days off without pay and a lot of administrative staff have lost their jobs all together. The public schools gave their teachers and staff seven days off without pay. My neighbor lost his job in November. He found a new job in December and worked two weeks before that company went out of business. As bad as it is here I am also feeling the affects of the economy from other parts of the country as well. Some people call this area the next Florida. With so many beautiful lakes and mountain views in the Upstate a lot of people are retiring here or building second homes in this area instead of going to Florida. I drove through sub-division the other day on Lake Keowee with many of these homes and I would guess 25% of them had for sale signs in front of them. I also saw a lot of homes under various stages of construction that had just been abandoned. With all of this I have really been hit hard too. I am struggling to stay afloat myself. I'm down to eating beans and rice three night a week. I take a sandwich for lunch now instead of eating out. When I go to work and for some reason I don't take my lunch the Dollar Menu at McDonalds has become my friend. This year I was going to get a new hot water skid, but I think I can make it another season or two with what I have. As bad as all of this sounds, I know there will a lot of work out there eventually for any contractor that can survive. I am going to get my website up like I want it this spring and I am already working on doing a lot more direct marketing. I have installed a larger water tank in my trailer so I can haul my own water into the water use restriction areas if I have to this season. Yes, we are in tough times right now and it is hard to find work. I may not be one of the survivors that gets through the situation our economy is in right now, but I will not go down without a fight.

I stained a deck a few weeks ago and the other day the homeowner called me to say he found some over spray on his windows. Well, if I did, it was "my bad" so I told him I would be there as soon as I could to take care of the problem. When I got there sure enough I found some over spray on his windows, but it did not look as bad as he described. This is a brand new house the owner bought about three months ago, but has not moved into yet. He told me there were a lot of problems in the house he was having the contractor repair before he moves in. A neighbor caught me in the yard and told me that for three months the contractor had been in and out with his work crews constantly and was wondering what was going on in the house. I didn't think much of it at the time, but when I was there cleaning the windows I went inside to look through the glass to see if I could see the stain better from the inside. The owner wasn't there when I went in, but when I did go in I could not believe what I saw. There were hundreds and hundreds of pieces of blue tape all over the walls and ceiling. I finally figured out that the owner was marking out what he thought were imperfections that he wanted fixed. I tried to find what he as marking and for the life of me I could not find anything out of the normal. I mean this was in every room, closet, behind doors, on top of doors, and ceiling. It would take someone days just to go around and pull the pieces of tape off the walls. When the owner got back he got down on the hardwood floor on his knees and elbows with a spray bottle and a rag and started going over the floor inch by inch looking for any kind of mark or blemish no matter how small. By the time I left he had covered about five sf of floor and had little pieces of tape all over the place. He told me it was probably going to take him a week to go over and mark the living and dining room. He told me the house was still was under the warranty period where the contractor was suppose to come in and fix anything he found wrong so he was going to make sure everything was right before he moved in. I have heard of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and have thought I have run into people with it before, but seeing this guy spending weeks and months in this new home looking for and marking out anything and everything he thinks is not just absolutely perfect like he was doing give me the chills. I'm sure he will be calling me back for something as soon as he gets through going over the hardwood floor.

Gosh, that reminded me of the time when I was still doing bridge construction. I was building a new bridge over Clemson Blvd. in Anderson, SC. I was operating a track hoe excavating out for one of the bridge foundations that was going in right beside the highway. I knew there was a 36" water line between where I was digging and the highway and the blueprints showed a 6" water line coming off of it behind me and safely out of the excavation site. I was noticing roots and some tree stumps in the dirt I was pulling out when I felt the bucket hit something solid. Thinking I had dug into a larger stump I rolled the bucket up using the back of the bucket as leverage when I felt the object give. In a nanosecond a geyser of water shot about twenty feet into the air and quickly flooded the hole I had excavated. The 6" water line had been mismarked and the plans. The water continued out into Clemson Blvd. and shut traffic down and neighboring business's parking lots were flooded. Channel Four News was located just down the street and a news crew just walked up and filmed the whole fiasco with live coverage. It was hard to believe that much water could come from just a 6" water line. I would hate to think about hitting a 66" one.

I checked all three although I like cocoa straight. I also like coffee with a little Kahlua or with Bailey's Irish Cream.:cheers:

I like to put on my hiking shoes, grab my camera and hike the beautiful trails we have in SC and NC in search of waterfalls.

Hey, does anyone know if there is medical forum out there. If so, Louis might be over there giving medical advice. Oh, wait a minute...that advice may not really be coming from him because he doesn't know anything about medicine and couldn't tell you if that thermometer goes in his mouth or his butt. It's actually what some ancient witch doctor told him and Louis just put it on a website and is trying to pass himself of as an MD. I'm sorry...that was mean, but I feel better now. It's been a rough day. I'm going to miss Louis when he is gone.:sinister:

I Want Your Opinion! Views: 388 Posted By louis georges Thanks, I couldn't agree more! Thanks, I couldn't agree more! I Want Your Opinion! Posted By louis georges Why can't I do both? Why can't I do both? I Want Your Opinion! Posted By louis georges Wow I didn't know it was that far off! My... Wow I didn't know it was that far off! My apologies... To be completely honest I didn't write that book. It's an old friend who is in his late 50's. He kept telling me about all the money he... I Want Your Opinion! Posted By louis georges I Want Your Opinion! I got in a debate with someone on a forum about how to do a good job pressure washing. You can see the thread here, it starts at post #32.... 9½ hours to do a house wash? Posted By louis georges You guys are right, its just a general rule to... You guys are right, its just a general rule to make it easy on yourself. If the chlorine is still good after 30 days good but if you're having a hard time then get fresh chlorine. My point is... Hardiplank Posted By louis georges That's what I do too. Test the distance of... That's what I do too. Test the distance of your nozzle on a small hidden corner of the house to be sure. 9½ hours to do a house wash? Posted By louis georges Instead of bleach I use chlorine, it's much... Instead of bleach I use chlorine, it's much stronger! Also never use chlorine that's over 30 days old because it lost all it's strength. Poll: What kind of residential pressure washing are you doing? Posted By louis georges I did all of the above. I did all of the above. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Something still seem fishy about this poster. Aside from this post, louis georges has been posting on here all month giving advice like he is an expert and telling us he has been washing for 15 years. He replies to post saying I do this or I use that (like "Instead of bleach I use chlorine, it's much stronger!"). I hate to think about the damage that may have been done to our industry and to people's personal property with the kind of miss information being given to an unsuspecting public under the pretence that it was coming from a pressure washing professional. Only after everyone here nailed him on the information he was giving, did he back step and say he really doesn't know a thing about pressure washing and came here to learn. Also, after his poll that proved him 100% wrong on almost every question does he claim to have taken his (or some body's) website down. What makes this so bad is anytime anyone comes here and says they are new to pressure washing and want to learn, almost every experienced person on TGS is willing to jump in and share their wealth of knowledge, experience and information with them. There is never any need to lie or pretend to be anything other than what you are on here. I'm with MudDuck in that I think something else is going on here that is not fully understood yet. If MudDuck and I are wrong then louis georges may need the kind of professional help that he won't find on a pressure washing site.

Oh no Matt! I just saw on youtube they passed an ordinance in the town and now they are going to have to tear it down.

:bday: Happy Birthday Ron :bday: I always enjoy your your post. I also like to see what time of day you post them. One question....do you ever sleep? lol I was great meeting you at the Myrtle Beach Round Table. Hope your birthday was a great one and that you have many more...

"you se the dog was under the deck and he needed to get it out so he could leave and the dog wouldn't budge. He yelled at the dog and reached under the deck and tried to grab it. CHOMP! the dog bit him and I had to turn away so he couldn't see me LMFAO . He ran inside and I called for the dog myself and it came to me. I patted it on the head" The dog bit his owner yet come to you and let you pet it... That's too good! I guess that goes to prove dogs really are a good judge of character.

Standard Specification 5.1 Unless otherwise clearly defined in the project documents, the criteria for acceptance of architectural paints on the interior surfaces of structures shall be that of a properly painted surface as defined by PDCA Standard P-1. “A “properly painted surface” is defined as uniform in appearance, color, texture, hiding and sheen. It is also free of foreign material, lumps, skins, runs, sags, holidays, misses, or insufficient coverage. It is also a surface free of drips, spatters, spills or overspray caused by the Painting and Decorating Contractor’s workforce. In order to determine whether a surface has been “properly painted” it shall be examined without magnification at a distance of thirty-nine (39) inches or one (1) meter, or more, under finished lighting conditions and from a normal viewing position.” Under this criteria, I would say the contractor in this case is in pretty good shape and has little to worry about because to be able to see any place the homeowner perceived to be a defect you would have to get within inches of the wall and be on a latter in many places. You led me to some good information which I intend to look further into. Thanks...

Jim, The contractor that built this house gives, on his own, a warranty for a certain period of time after closing for the owners to find what you and what any sane person would describe as a touch up just to sweeten the deal. The homeowner told me that one reason he bought this house over another one was because of this contractor's policies. Unfortunately, for the contractor, he probably never counted on running into a guy like this. This could serve as lesson for us here. I have read post where people wanted to give little extras for free thinking that would help them get the job. Too often when you try to do something for free it will come back and bite you in the end. I bet the contractor that built and sold this house will be going back and re writing his policy after this.

To be frank if water is your only lifeline in the drought stricken south you may be in trouble. There are still areas here and there in the Upstate of SC where we can still wash, but as the drought continues to worsen I can see a time soon when even those place impose mandatory bans on washing. Lake Hartwell where most of our water comes from has less than 300 days of attainable water left in it. The Corp. this week announced that they were finally going to decrease the amount of water they let out out of the lake. This should help, but with the hurricane season past we stand little chance of getting any significant rain fall to fill the lake back to a level where these bans will be lifted next year. I posted a slide show of Lake Hartwell this week. It got swept under the rug and was moved down to severe weather, but go down there and look at it. You can see why people are panicking about the prospect of running out of water in the Upstate. I completely agree that conserving water is necessary, but a lot of the restrictions that have been placed on the professional pressure washing industry is unfair. They shut us down while commercial car washes are still allowed to operate. You can water your lawn at night every other day, but most owners increased their run times so they are still using just as much water as ever. I talked to the city administrator in Clemson about them putting me out of business with their water ban and he basically told me that "It would suck to be me". Some reasons these restriction were placed on us here was lack of education or understanding about what we do. One, a lot of people don't see us a legitimate business and think we are just a bunch yahoos out trying to hustle up a buck or two. Another is they don't know anything about our work and about the efficiency of the professional pressure washer. I went to a City Council meeting in Clemson one night when I heard they were going to be rethinking the water restriction they had imposed earlier. I took some information I had been working on and presented it to the Mayor of Clemson. Briefly, the information detailed the average amount of water it would take me to clean a 1,500 sf house. The Mayor said he was astonished at my numbers. He thought it took thousands of gallons of water to clean a house. With that meeting we are now allowed to clean in some certain circumstances. We have to attain a special permit for each job, but that, I feel, is still a victory for our industry. Celeste with the PWNC in North and South Carolina and Carlos with the Umacc on a National level are both working on plans to help elevate the image of the professional pressure washing industry and to help in the education and understanding that we are not wasters of water and that our are services are important. Hopefully, with their pro active efforts both local and state governments will have a better understanding of our industry before they make decisions to try to save the world by unnessisarily shutting us down. This may not happen during this drought period. It may not happen next year so in the south it may be good to have a plan in case you are shut down. Fortunately, I can swing a hammer as good as I can pull a trigger. I have bumped up my deck restoration and have several refurbishing jobs going on. About a month ago I attended a clinic on the installation of DrySnap. It's an under deck drainage system that's fairly easy to install. Anyway, attending that clinic got me on Drysnap's website as a certified installer and already I have gotten a call from it. I am scheduled to start that job next week. Best advice I can give is stay proactive. Attend your city council meetings and present your case. Talk to Celeste and to Carlos. Pete at Sunbrite near you has been an excellent advocated for the pressure washing industry. Try to stay on top of things before they get worse. It's great you are still washing and I hope you continue to be able to do so, but be thinking about what you can do in case the day comes when you can't.

I would love to be a fly on the wall when the contractor comes in and sees hundreds of pieces of tape all over the house. I would bet this contractor is about ready to give this guy his money back and tell him to go buy a house from someone else. It actually rained me out on Monday after I talked to you so I went back on Tuesday with my extension poles and managed to get the upper windows clean. However, it was like the situation Beth said she had once where you could only see anything on the windows at a certain time of day with the sun just right and you were standing in the right place in the room anyway. So I'm sure he will find a little spot I missed and call me back. Here are two more pictures. I really wish I had a wide angle lens so you could see more than what the pictures are showing. He was just getting started on the floor when I sneaked a shot of it. For the life of me I could not see anything to complain about on the walls or the floor. The other picture is upstairs. Look at the molding and walls in the background. It was just unbelievable.

Oh God, I'm sitting here cracking up. I wish I had told him that just as I was leaving yesterday. He would have gone nuts (even more so) trying to find it.

I like that about you Beth. You can always find the bright side in just about anything.:sunshine:

Am I reading your n post wrong now? It looks to me just about everyone that has replied to your original post has said that they would not increase their prices due to ongoing water bans unless it cost them more because of having to haul water, etc. Unless you are just looking for responses from Cobb county GA. a lot of us have been or are the same situation facing water restrictions or out right water use bans ourselves. I'm sure in Cobb county they have probably banned homeowners from washing their own cars while they still allow commercial car washes to operate. Surely, this has increased supply and demand at the car washes, but how you feel if you drove by and they had a sign out front that said "Since You Can Not Wash Your Car At Home Due To The Local Water Ban, We Are Increasing Our Prices. I wouldn't stop there to get my car washed no matter how dirty it was. Likewise, if I knew someone was going to charge me more to clean my house simply because a local water ban told me I could not do it my self I would feel I was being taken advantage of and pass on them too. Cover your expenses...if you have to haul water, the cost of your supplies go up, or you have to upgrade your equipment to handle the increase of demand you have no choice to increase your prices, but to go up on prices because the the homeowner has been told they can not do something themselves, but you still can, I think is just wrong. In short, my answer is no. I would not increase prices due to the water bans which have been placed on us in the Upstate of South Carolina.