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Littlefield

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Posts posted by Littlefield

  4. Posted · Report reply

    The hardest thing is going to be that first day when you don't have to wake up at 1:45.

    Try and get planned out your exact daily routine so you don't get sucked into the black hole of web surfing for better ideas, or putting out some flyers and going home to look at the phone.

    Make a list of every painter, homebuilder, realtor you want to contact.

    Have your marketing material designed and ready to go.

    Get in the phone book.

    Get your truck lettered.

    Talk to Ken Fenner about your marketing budget month by month for the first three months at least.

    Let people know you're booked out a couple weeks when the phone starts ringing, and bid them on the weekend.

    A lot you may already have done, just use as a check list.

  7. Posted · Report reply

    Also, Matt, pick up a variable pressure wand for those times you want to adjust the pressure of the water hitting the deck, and not the speed of the water... ;)

    Just teasing, Jim.

    By the way, these work so great, I had a couple of my guys strip three coats of 6 month old Sikkens Cetol system, (wrong color) from a railing on Friday, and the furring after a couple hours dwell time was finer'n frogs hair. Just enough to let me know where I'm at when buffing. What we did was adjust up the pressure slowly until the stain juuust started to slide off, then tweak it up an 1/8 a turn more and go to it.

    Here's a shot of the Sikkens givin' up the ghost at about 200 psi....

    post-50-137772153868_thumb.jpg

    post-50-137772153871_thumb.jpg

  11. Posted · Report reply

    Jeff, 12.8 % here in GA for residential painting. You're right in the ball park. My friend in Dallas pays 40% for WC on his window cleaning business, hi rise.

    I'm also surprised you were ever at 5%, seems way low. Just think, a 10% raise in your labor cost, which should only start at 30% or so, is just a 3 % raise in your gross price to cover it. Most just raise rates the 12% to cover the hassle, and push it more in their marketing....

    Just don't forget to pay in regularly...

  14. Posted · Report reply

    Good idea on the clause for it not growing.

    Also, I would try this first thing in the morning when the temps aren't too high. Even with wetting, you can burn, or steam things very quickly under plastic.

    I have a customer that wants his painted deck washed. The deck has been about 80% painted and he wants it washed so he can finish painting it. I know it is a sin to paint a deck, but that's what he's done.

    In any case he has new grass coming up around the deck and into the yard. To get the mildew off from the deck I need to use a good bleach solution, but the customer is concerned about killing all of the new grass that he has planted.

    If I pre-wet the area, cover with plastic, and KEEP the area wet, can I avoid killing the new grass? Is there something else that I should do? I am assuming that the new grass will be quite vulnerable to bleach.

    Thoughts?

    Matt

  15. Posted · Report reply

    Mike, weird, but the fuzz always ends up looking white with those really penetrating stains. The film forming, or surface drying, (yes, they're different) seem to make the fuzz appear darker, not lighter. Depends on what looks better.

    I get my brushes locally, can you believe I just bought a dozen for one house?!

    Hi bill,

    Thanks for the explanation. I would've though the fuzz would retain the color. Where do you buy the Osbourne brush?

    Thanks,

    Mike

  23. Posted · Report reply

    www.best-used-tractors.com/mini_truck.html

    Jeff, I thoght of you today when I saw some of these cool little trucks for sale here locally. They have great little flat beds mounted on them, and you can put wide flat golf course tires on them and mount a pW and tank on them. If you have a flatbed trailer, you could haul one from course to course, unload, and drive to each bride/building, etc. I'm just dying to get onte here and figure out a way to use it in my business. Unfortunately, I drive on road everywhere, and we have NO subdivisions where I would need to drive off road or anything... Oh well.

  24. Posted · Report reply

    Mike, the pipettes are 3 ml. Go one ml at a time into a five from what Russell told me, and you'll see the difference. As far as making up exact recipes, thats fine, but surely you know to prep the homeowner that the wood will be different everywhere, etc. Really, if you offer more than 1 or 2 choices, you're going to be getting into a lot of time waswting as uncertain customers waffle back and forth over tiny shade variations, only to find it doesn't matter when the job is all done. I would go with just the Warm Honey Gold, (base color) The western red cedar,(red tint) and the other with black tint, call it what you want...;)

  25. Posted · Report reply

    Freehang PWing, always fun. You know, if you're far enough down the building, a water hose can push you off??? I would have two or three guys holding my ropes in to the building to be able to PW. Didn't do this often at all, just "emergency" jobs, usually a big wig coming in and theres a really dirty sign or something really obvious.

    All my work was in ATL, or NO, La.

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