GymRat
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Posts posted by GymRat
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Merry Christmas and God Bless!
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Hey guys,Maybe it is due to demographics and yours doesn't have this problem, but I don't find this statement true in relation to our experiences having to contend with much of the problems of trying to hire and retain employee's. This is not in any way relevant to what is going on overseas where they are using slave labor, this is blue collar work in a trade field.
In our area, there is a severe shortage of 'American Citizens' willing to work in this field. The lot of them want the management positions in which they are not even qualified for from the git go and don't want the positions requiring them to do the actual work. I need the indians as we already have the chiefs. We are left to hiring legal immigrants with INS cards and all proper ID. They are willing to work and have a better work ethic for the most part. We require they have english speaking skills due to the nature of our clientele.
I have tried hiring college guys and they work ok for a couple of months and once august rolls around for back to school time they become worthless. I have run ads in the regular papers with minimal responses and very few of them actually show up for the interviews. I run an ad in our local hispanic paper and get flooded with calls.
My apologies for being the controversial poster but it is real...for us it is not a crock.
Rod!~
Same here Rod, I even have a few nephews that have nothing more than a high school education, and think they should be making the big bucks in management position. I have offered them opportunities to make some very good money, but they never have time to help, which I beleive they don't want anybody seeing them do any type of manual labor. I put some of the blame on us as parents alway wanting better for our children, but maybe not teaching them great work ethics to obtain their goal (spoiling the heck out of them).
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I have always had great service out of all my echo small equipment.
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It is definatly leaking. When I cranked her up it was shooting a nice stream of water out of that crack. I immediatly shut it down.My mechanic said he has a used head that they are going to put on today. They are also going to install a blow back? valve so I can put air to it and blow the water out of the lines and the pump to keep this from happening again.
I have had problems with pump seals drying out and leaking when I blew all the water out of the pump and left it dry for extended periods of time. I now always winterize my machines by running RV antifreeze through them with no problems so far.
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The wife and I always come up with home improvement projects, and maybe an extra day a week at the gym.
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I don't rinse windows right away as the area under them can get diluted and weaken the chem too much IMHO. There is always a "hot" side of a house and I just work that one a little more carefully. I just stand there and make sure it all stays wet with chem for what I think is enough time, just keep misting it. Then a big rinse.I agree with Keith, I may pre-wet windows, or I beleive the best way to cool them is to just soap them down a little longer. I then Brush the gutters and then do a quick rinse on the windows as I rinse the gutters. Then I rinse shrubs, do a full rinse on the house paying a lot of attention to the windows, and then rinse shrubs and flowers again before going to next section.
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Used the hvlp sprayer today and it made quick work of spraying clear lacquer on 10 doors. It was easy to adjust the spray, and layed down a great finish, spraying the lacquer straight from the can. Thanks again Ken for for the heads up on this sprayer.
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No way, both of my children have graduated college and have started their own careers. My son is a mechanical engineer, and my daughter is in her first year as a school teacher. Both have helped me on jobs and pretty much understand it is a blue collar business and not for them. We have taught them the value of hard work, and hope that takes them far in their careers.
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John, make sure you play with it and do some samples. Set the spray pattern wide by twisting the nozzle and adjust your trigger until you get the desired flow. Any questions, give me a call.Put water in it last night and adjusted the spray pattern and flow for practice, I know the viscosity on each material will be different, and I will have fun tuning it in. Thanks again Ken.
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Thanks for all the help Ken, I received the sprayer yesterday, and it looks great. Can't wait to crank it up and spray lacquer on these doors, problem is the weather is a little cold outside to spray right now, might have to crank up the heat in the garage and have at it.
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Hey John, I am just starting to DS with CC, how much wax, rinse aid, and foamer are ya using in that mix if any?? THanks in advnaceI don't really measure, but I would say approximately 1/4 cup of foamer and approximately 1/4 cup of rinse aid and I normally don't add wax to my mix.
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I'm power engineer for honeywell international, which entails being the trainer in utilities group on equipment such as steam generators, refrigeration generators, air compressors etc. During my 28yrs with honeywell I have always been a member of the emergency response team, where I'm a qualified firefighter and EMT.
Started part time pressure washing business 2 years ago, and have enjoyed learning new techniques from this board.
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Agood business plan or lack of there of, is often botched in the world wind of everyday life emergencies. Is that why it seems to me a cash advance business popping up on every corner? Is it poor planning or lack of planning, or is it the new American way, to max out your funds, and the first rut roh that comes along you go into the panic mode, and have to start the quick spiral down hill of maxing out credit cards, and hitting the cash advance store weekly?
Thats the beauty of this business, there is plenty of money out here to be made, and with a little planning, or even a little luck, your business can prosper.
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I agree with Scott, everbodys situation is different. I would rather pay cash, and not try to play the lease game and worry about work becoming slow and my business is not making enough revenue to pay all the bills. My opinion is the overhead is low enough in the pressure washing business that your profits should be able to support your business and buy the essentials without going in debt.
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Ken I just ordered one of the units off of the web site, but it acted a little goofy when I entered my card no. at checkout. I believe the reason it didn't match the card address with mine because the card I put it on is a mastercard swiftGift card and it doesn't carry the card holders address, it carries the givers address which is honeywell where I'm employed.
To late, but to make a long story short, I just want to verify my order went through, and I will be doing honeydoos finishing my doors befor Christmas.
Thanks Ken!
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Thinks for all the advise. I noticed the cheap Wagner control spray unit has the turbine built into the gun, which means you are not restricted by the 15' air hose. I figure the gun has to be heavier, but would this elcheapo unit do everything I need, or should I steer clear of this unit?
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I have a lot of doors in my house I would like to spray with lacquer and was thinking it would be the perfect time to purchace a HVLP sprayer. Was wondering what I should buy to make the job easier. I have a air compressor with and el cheapo spray gun I have sprayed lacquer with before, but I remember it was hard to control the pressure without having to much pressure which causes a fog and overspray. I've heard HVLP is the way to go, and was wondering what would work for me.
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I agree that this product may just cause me to make less per hour than my goals. I don't like to have to pull ladders off my rig, and would hate to have to climb ladders just to make a shutter bling bling. I may try to upsell it on a one story house with easy accessible shutters, and anything else, I would have to price so high, that would hopefully keep me grounded.
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I'm not going to get into the ratios, because unless you test your draw rate, its only a guestimate. I would reccomend if you are downstreaming from a 5gallon bucket, Mix 4 gallons 12% sodium hypochorite, and one gallon of your normal house wash(citracleen etc.). This 5 gallons of house wash will be enough for most 2 story houses.
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Approximately $1.50 per gallon or $82.00 with tax for 55 gallon drum here.
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You got to love power-- grunt grunt. I would turn the breather top back over for safety and reliability reasons. Remember that the breather is also a flame arrestor, if that monster were to backfire, with the top upside down fire could spread and burn up your new ride.
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I used nothing but echo blowers and weed trimmers when I had a lawn business and never had any problems with them.
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With my high profile speakers on my desktop, I can hear the water running in the picture, I can't hear it on my laptop.
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Maybe we could start a new forum titled ultimate fighting and we could all pick sides and have one heck of a rumble!!!!
The bottom line is I hope we are all on the same team and we keep moving forward to make our industry more respectful. Can I have a Amen?
Hose In Chemical Bottle
in Tools, Equipment & Basic Maintenance
Posted · Report reply
The filter should keep it on the bottom, but if it doesn't, there is a ceramic weight you can buy or just use a stainless nut and run your hose through the center of it and put the filter on the end to keep it from falling off.