Littlefield

Earl, As you already know, you may have went way low on this one. Oh well, you know you are learning a lot the first few anyway. I just wanted to commend you on your good attitude of accepting constructive criticism of your bidding. So many people get bent out of shape when others are trying to help them. By the way, heres my short diatribe on pricing. The "going" rate, is set by people going out of business. The market can always bear more than you are brave enough to charge. Don't get too tied up on thinking price is what will get you in. I routinely outsell my competition at twice to three times what they charge, and occasionally am outsold at 30 to 50% above my price. (Hate when that happens, ;) In short, its hard to run a service business if you don't double your labor and materials on each bid. I know that sounds crazy when you'll read books or estimating manuals that talk about a 10% profit, but its true. If you double your L&M, you may make 10% company profit..... So the big thing you need to know, is not going rates, price /SQFT etc.. but production rates. IE how many SQFT can you PW of this or that in an hour.... Then figure materials, and double. By the way, in labor, don't forget to charge for insurance, workers comp, SS, FICA, FUTA, Medicare, employers match on employees, etc. Hope this helps,

To answer one or two of your questions, its always better to run more high-pressure hose, than extend your supply line. You'll lose about a 100psi for every 100 feet of high pressure hose you run. For practicality, when I started, I didn't have a tank, and I ran 500' to 600' of supply hose after passing water through a filtration system, and that pump lasted two years after I stoped doing that to it. I did that for about 6 months, 10 hrs a day.... This was on car lots in LA, flat surface, blazing hot. If you draw from the lake, make sure to filter the water, even if it looks clean, theres a lot of junk floating in lakes.....

On the ReadySeal site, it says not to rinse the brightener. I've also heard that somewhere else, but can't remember where. However, I've always rinsed and rinsed well, lest some of the oxalic crystals surface under the stain after I've left, etc. So, rinse or not?? Sure would save time if I don't have to.

Screened in porches, to be exact. How do you handle protecting them if they are aluminum, or have you not had a problem with them corroding from the oxalic acid??

Beth, let me know when you are shipping, I'll buy a bucket to try. I'm assuming Wood Tux is "for the best dressed wood in town." ?? A lot of my customers would love a slight sheen on nicely buffed logs, can't give it to them with Wolmans, etc.

;)

Ron, Great reference site. interesting also about buffering and neutralizing. Just wondering though.... They make a blanket statement that I think might affect this subject. "All sealants are made to go on clean, new wood." Hence, suggesting that the sealant must be applied to a surface that has the exact ph of bare wood. However, as some products, such as ReadySeal, are obviously designed to be applied primarily by contractors to restored wood, it seems that they may be formulated to be applied to a slightly acidic surface, similar to what is obtained by neutralizing a base with an acid. As a matter of fact, I've heard that exactly somewhere, just can't remember where. The part that I was really wondering about is that, although I can understand not neutralizing an acid if the above is true, not even rinsing is much different. I guess I will get some litmus paper and test on wood what it actually comes to with rinsing, and without.

Thanks, thats what I was thinking, keep water flowing all the time. I'll let you know if I come up with any other solutions...

I'm getting ready to set up a trailer, and I was wondring the same thing. I was actually planning trying to use 1" piping, but would rather not if its no help. Did you do your test on flow from a tank, or under pressure from behind, ergo a supply line from a house, etc??

I use an airless as well. My fave pump is my Titan 440 lowboy. It just runs perfectly all the time, what more can I say? It even lets me know a week ahead of time when the seals needs replacing. For houses, I have a 5-8ft extension that holds the gun on the end, and pulls the trigger at the gun, to eliminate spitting from the tip. After a good spray, I have a Besst (no typo) 6"stain brush mounted with a brush holder on a pole, either a 8' or 16', that I backbrush the stain with. Im looking forward to trying Readyseal this spring, and seeing if the no backbrushing claim really works. I hope so....

Ron, good comments, but I'm designing this for something very specific. I have a covered trailer I haul all that other stuff in. I do my work in two stages, stripping/cleaning, and sealing. One trailer for each. Believe it or not, I have yet to do a deck, without the whole house. Just the way it is here in the hills, all my work is cabins. Good luck using scaffold on a 45% or steeper slope. That is what is on two or possibly three sides of every cabin I do. The one side that is on flat ground, usually the driveway coming in from above, is usually the smallest side. Hauling or wheeling anything around these houses is impossible, or impractical. I can get the trailer within 15' of the house in almost all cases, so I want everything mounted on it. Rod, thanks for the good suggestions. The electric starters sound great, used to have them on a Water Shotgun model in the past. Shurflo I'm looking at will probably be D/C. I'll set it up to charge from the truck, unless anybody has a warning about that. Didn't even think about disconnecting the injectors, thats how I'm applying chemicals now, but when I get the Shurflo's, that will be a thing of the past. I'm going to put a heavy gauge mesh filter, per your suggestion, as well as a removable whole house filter in the line in front of the pumps, to catch the fine stuff.

Chuck, where exactly on the pump would I attach the air hose adaptor?