Littlefield

Also, from experience, make sure to work your way up from a percarbonate cleaner to the stripper on the tough areas. After you apply brightener, the tannins that the stripper pulls out more than the percarbonate should even right out. Did anyone plan on doing any buffing or sanding on this job? Even with the best of methods, IE low pressure wand, careful chem usage, you still get some furring some of the time, and you don't want to be doing that for free. Keep in mind you will probably be doing some of the work off ladders, so decrease your production rates or increase your sqft rate for the high areas. Rule of thumb 20% more above 8ft, 30% more above 15 ft, etc, etc. Reiterate Jon's comments on porch ceilings being tough, they are big time wasters and I have a separate line in my spreadsheet just for this. Try doing them last in the day, as you will get wet, and don't want to be soaking all day.... By the way...$1,982.25 Figuring 25% of the 3600sqft off of a ladder, buffing 25% if it furs up, prepping 10 windows. It would take 2 of my old employees 2 days or about 30 hours, but I'll get it done in a day and a half.

Tronman, Oil based polyurethane is common. Minwax makes both an oil and a waterbased for floors. Waterbased takes more coats, but is more fun to use. Be SURE to read the can for the proper product, as different poly's are formulated for different applications. Other choices if its really not sealed yet, Tung oil with some stain mixed in or high end water based epoxies that actually strengthen the surface of the wood....

Busy, busy..:)

Jon, I know you're looking for a rotary, but Porter Cable makes a good orbital that does 6000rpms. Has pretty good power. Maybe look at a 4 inch angle grinder, they're actually pretty light, very powerful though at 10000 plus rpms. You're right about the little air powered sanders, I've done the footwork on them, used one hooked up to a 185 CFM compressor, the innards have a check to not allow you to abuse them, shucks. Even with that much air flow, not enough power, as soon as you lean on it a little, it would stop moving and let the air bypass. Keep in mind I was using 60 grit on cedar to sand smooth cob blasted wood.

Had a bad experience with Woodguard and Oxalic acid. After applying and pressure rinsing off a new log home at around 1500psi, I coated the home with Woodguard. After 2 months, it looked covered with mold. Round and round we went, with the final result looking like a chemical reaction with a residue from the acid. Folks, I know how to rinse, and I was on this job personally. This is not an isolated spot on the place, but all over. The chemist recommended in the future to buffer/neutralize the acid with sodium bicarbonate. Check out www.primeshop.com and look through the prep sections for more on this.... I hesitated to post this, 'cause its egg on my face, but the way the owner is approaching it right now is that its an industry accepted chemical, and they need to inform applicators of the dangers of this reaction. I hope this helps someone, and remember, its worth a call to the tech support numbers to see if they know about this before you proceed with cleaning.

Got an update today, and I think I'm going to try to get some independant verification before moving this into my warranty folder. Woodguard hired a guy to come look at it, after finding out that I used oxalic and he's the one on the chemical reaction kick. He's not claiming its mold, rather that its not mold or mildew. He says the acid is reacting with the stain, and turning something black. I don't know if its the acid residue he's claiming is on the surface, the stain, or the wood. Bleach doesn't touch it, acid will clean it up in 5 minutes or so. It keeps coming back on the surface of the stain, or I'm assuming thats where it is, since it can be cleaned off without stripping. Chemist recommended neutralizing the acid with sodium hydroxide, which I thought was ironic....

Just wanted to let everyone know why I've been incognito for the last few months. I figured that I'd put it in the wood care forum, since thats like home for me here on TGS. Right at the end of June, my parents-in-law were in a serious car accident in Shreveport, LA. My wife and I just got back a couple weeks ago from several weeks at the hospital, with both of them in ICU, and then several weeks reorganizing their house to be wheelchair accessible, and then taking care of them to a point where some local friends and family can pick up the slack. Whew!! As I come back, I find things have pretty much fallen apart while I've been gone, business wise, even though I had someone managing f(I thought) for me while I was gone. Suffice to say that of the 7 I had going when I left, 1 remains, and he's down to part-time status.... However, I've had good comments from current and past customers that they see ME back in my truck driving around town. The "red paint truck" rides again!! So, I'm sorry if any of you have tried to reach me in the past three months, but I'm back! Fire away, and I'll help when I can.

Thanks all for the support, I'm on the upswing again, looking forward to a great fall season!

Sell every deck in the condo, get the pool covered, and have a field day...

Carlos, interesting question. As far as a third pary doing QA, who would pay for it? If you do, I think the customer would have a hard time thinking they are impartial... Maybe you're talking about quality checks on the work itself AND the total customer experience. To me, that is part of the account manager, or business owner, etc. I would definately have a specific program in place in which perhaps you call a week after the check is cashed, ask if everything is still great. Most guys won't call after the check, because they have the money, and don't want a trip out, but that really locks in a customer. "He called back a week later just to check on me..." By the way, www.thepainterschatroom.com has a program where they will use the customers email address, and conduct a third party survey. They say people are more likely to complain to a third party, because of social stresses if you know the person. Make sense? They then forward the survey to you for evaluation....

Russell has told me during a wood chat that 2/3 of a cup comes very nearly to 8 oz of weight. The thing with hd 80 is that if you go too strong, it doesn't work as well. Hope this helps, didn't they mention something about a booster for hd 80 coming soon??

Paul, I particularly like your idea below of pricing by the constant. I've been battling with how I will do this as I've recently gotten a lot faster in several areas with addition of specialized equipment. Now I'm facing redoing my estimating spreadsheets to take into account the extra equipment and speed of performance... Good thoughts...

Wow, ryan, some stiff indifference here. I think some are worried about being brought up on charges for conspiracy to price fix, not understanding what you are doing. Sounds like a good idea. Maybe one way around this would be to base everything on production rates, and percentage of difficulty adjustments. Even travel can be converted to an average percentage of jobs, etc. thsi way no one really know exactly what someone else charges. The fear there is kind of absurd anyway, people aren't buying from me on price, so what do I care if they use my price to try and win?? The only thing I would be afraid of, is that I will find I'm not the highest, but rather considerably below everyone else. How embarrassing. I'm sure I actually am lower per sqft, so I run that risk right now. A few observations Pressure washing decks, good condition 500 sqft/hr ditto, average condition 300 sqft/hr ditto strip semi stain 100 sqft/hr Keep in mind, I am also stripping the house they are attached to for this price, and it is wood too. I use a 35% SUBD average figure, for setup and breakdown. this is an adjustable modifier on my spreadsheet, to account for difficulty of customer, access to work area, and travel. Pressure washing houses, wood sided or log cabin, Good condition 500 sqft/hr Average 300 sqft/hr Strip failing stain 200sqft/hr strip difficult stain 100 sqft/hr cob blasting Divide the production rate for the above in half if working above 8 ft. How am I doing so far???

Don't think Hd-80 would have helped there, Brian. Further on the paint stripping. Man, you go for the hardest thing first, huh. :) there's a lot more to painting than people think, especially when it comes to surface prep. Take some advice from someone who learned things the hard way, learn before you bid. Bidding and planning on learning there, is in my opinion, a fools way in. For technical painting advice, I've found www.thepainterschatroom.com to be helpful. By the way, I would plan on using a poultice stripping system if I faced a job like this, but I haven't yet, which would have me calling up Ken at AFP, for advice....Sorry Ken. :)

Lastly, Jeff, the sodium hydroxide in the HD-80 can dissolve the tarpaper under the cedar shakes. The other chems are allright.

My fuel is at 1.63 for 87 octane, and rising. Scary at the pump when I'm filling up my van at 32 gallons or so a pop, but not really affecting the bottom line much yet. I'm raising prices faster than the gas station, trying to get "there" first...

Greg, I haved a background in high rise as well, and I second what Frenchy said. You've got to learn this hands on, not from a book, or bulletin board. I've seen many rock climbing gurus freeze up on the sheer face of a 30 story building, and have to talk them down the side as I clean their windows for them. Again, no pointers except work for a few months with a reputable company, and then get back with us....

Bid $20,613 for clean and seal. Extra prep and protection of adjacent surfaces not included in this price. Some pics would be nice...;) labor and materials breakdown? labor 6758 materials 3548 other funds breakdown for company profit, owners pay, sales commision, advertising, overhead.

Mark, first off, nice website. I used to work in Metarie, lived out in LaPlace. I did high rise in NO for 2 years, working for Cliffhanger, Ramelli, and Acme. Second, a couple questions. When you say you charge by the unit, are you telling the customer what you charge per unit per hour, or is this just how you figure your bids? I charge by the man-hour, not the unit, and I give fixed bid prices on all jobs. I find that the smallest crews seem to work better, so I use two man teams as much as possible. Why don't you figure up a crew/hr amount, with one experienced person and one helper? Then plan on having teams perform all work as much as possible. If I send a helper, I want to see an increase in time of at least 70%, otherwise, I send men solo. I've been killed in the past having large numbers of people on the job and not seeing the production increase I expected. Minimum charges range all over the place. I would figure half day minimums for one man. If the job is bigger, you can then add a man to bring the job in quicker. I would think the trip charge would be under minimums, unless you are charging for touchups, etc. For figureing the insurance costs, average your last years gross income, and divide the last years insurance cost into it. this will give you a percentage amount to plan for insurance cost. Hope this helps.

Hebrews 11:1 states "Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld." Bearing that in mind, we should be able to contrast the realities of creation vs. evolution, and get some sort of factual basis for our faith. Perhaps the easiest place to start with the evoutionary theory comes with the beginning of the universe. Many people do not realize how insignificant our solar system is in the universe. The Milky Way galaxy contains over 100 billion stars, and is only one of over 50 billion galaxies in the known universe. The principle element of the universe is hydrogen. Commenting on this fact as it pertains to creation, Sir Fred Hoyle explained in "The Nature of the Universe", "To avoid the issue of creation it would be necessary for all the material of the Universe to be infinately old, and this it cannot be... Hydrogen is being steadily converted into helium and other elements...How comes it then that the Universe consists almost entirely of hydrogen? If matter were infinitely old this would be quite impossible. So we see that the Universe being what it is, the creation issue simply cannot be dodged." The fact, then, that the most of the universe is comprised of hydrogen, demands a beginning point. Using the scientists principle of cause and effect, what could have "caused" a beginning, when there was in fact no matter present at one time? Only a Source of great energy, as Einstein helped us to realize, as his theorizing proved that since matter could be converted to energy, energy could also be converted to matter, given enough of it. Isaiah 40:26 "Raise you eyes high up and see. Who has created these things? It is the One who is bringing forth the army of them even by number, all of whom He calls even by name. Due to the abundance of dynamic energy, He also being vigorous in power, not one of them is missing." By the way, it is interesting to note the many comments about the bible being perverted by human translation, interpretation and the like. Having done some serious research into this matter I would like to offer that there is abundant factual data the text of the Bible now remains virtually unchanged from the original writings, you just have to be willing to look, and accept that you won't be able to pick and choose what you want, based on the idea that the Book is somehow "flawed".

Alan, thanks for the enlightenment. I see I was wrong again. :) I thought I had the flow/pressure thing figured out, but was not taking into account unloader type. Also, with wood restoration, all my efforts have been toward increasing flow and reducing pressure, I didn't realize I could reduce flow by dropping the orifice size. Obvious now that you point it out...

You're right, Mike. Don't know what I was thinking. Trying to think with the flu is probably a bad idea. Still, looking at the thread above, what exactly is the reason someone would buy a 8gpm machine, and then reduce flow and pressure???

Atlantic, Just a thought, could you put a reduced tip on a dual lance to drop the water flow, and bypass the extra pressure at the gun? Although I must admit I'm confused, why buy an 8gpm unit, and then reduce flow?

Hey Ben, Noticed a couple questions that lead me to believe you may not understand exactly how exterior staining works. Its weird, but I don't know of any deck stains that use a stain coat and then a sealer. Usually you're looking at a product that is doing both at the same time. Hope this helps. By the way, what are you staining? By the way, I pay between $20-$40 gal, depending on what I'm using.

Jim, :p