Rfitz

Also, with this product, there is no tint, it is clear, so basically, it would need to be re washed every s 6 months to one year, due to UV damage from the sun, all I know is hear they keep changing their name...? Companies typically that do this are usually being chased by lots of unsatisfied customers...????? And so far the company says it has no plans in the future to offer color / tinting whatsoever, basically what I found out is the product cant be tinted, in any way shape or form, and for that kind of annual maintenenace would you be willing to spend $4 to $6 a sq ft for the initila treatment that needs that kind of constant washing...?? I wouldnt....

Pergolas, I did for my brother in CA, Wood Tux Western Red Cedar Very Nice

Im sorry if I SOUND BRASH OR HARSH, BUT 20 DECKS A SEAson and I would be out of biz. if you arent doing 50 -100 a month your sales or marketing or market place sucks/.... Im am getting into the consultation biz this year, but my price for 5 X 10 times your biz is well worth it...? I charge starting at $ 150 an hour and go up from there .. LETS GET YOU IN THE RIGHT DIRECTIOIN...???

If you are the owner of your biz, the only tim e you should ever touch a wand, or stain brush is to train only, you should nrvrt be doing this work, unless you think you are only worth $10 !2 bucks an hour, I personnnally make over $150 an hour selling and marketing if you arent doing this you are screwed... but if thats your cup of tea go for it....

Im not condemning spraying, I personally just dont do it, on most jobs, fences I have too, but everything else we brush and roll, and keep in mind there is a premium for such a service, of course you can spray a heck of alot faster than brushing and rolling, but trust me we charge accordingly.. Also, keep in mind we have alot of tools in our arsenal for brushing and rolling, for instance a normal worker could and should be able to get approx. 100 spindles done in under 1 hour, brushing and rolling, right now I have 2 workers full time that are averaging 500 sq ft an hour brushing and rolling, that is alot of decks in a 10 hour day...... this time of year they usually work 50-60 hours a week and but we arent that busy just yet, in another 2-3 weeks they will be closer to 65-75 hours a week, weather permitting of course, and then I will hire 2-3 more part time college kids 50-70 hrs a week for the summer Hope this helps....

Subject: Irish Luck - Remember to send it back!, His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death. The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman;s sparse surroundings An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. ;I want to repay you,; said the nobleman. ;You saved my son;s life.; ;No, I can;t accept payment for what I did,; the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer;s own son came to the door of the family hovel. ;Is that your son?; the nobleman asked. ;Yes,; the farmer replied proudly. ;I;ll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he;ll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.; And that he did. Farmer Fleming;s son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary;s Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin. Years afterward, the same nobleman;s son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia. What saved his life this time? Penicillin. The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son;s name? Sir Winston Churchill. Someone once said: What goes around comes around. Work like you don;t need the money. Love like you;ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody;s watching. Sing like nobody;s listening. Live like it;s Heaven on Earth. It;s National Friendship Week. Send this to everyone you consider A FRIEND. Pass this on, and brighten someone;s day. AN IRISH FRIENDSHIP WISH: You had better send this back!! Good Luck! I hope it works... May there always be work for your hands to do; May your purse always hold a coin or two; May the sun always shine on your windowpane; May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain; May the hand of a friend always be near you; May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you. OK, this is what you have to do... Send this to all of your friends. But - you HAVE to send this within 1 hour from when you open it! Now.....Make A wish!! I hope you made your wish! Now then, if you send to: 1 person --- your wish will be granted in 1 year 3 people --- 6 months 5 people --- 3 months 6 people --- 1 month 7 people --- 2 weeks 8 people --- 1 week 9 people --- 5 days 10 people --- 3 days 12 people --- 2 days 15 people --- 1 day 20 people --- 3 hours If you delete this after you read it, you will have 1 year of bad luck! But, if you send it to 2 of your friends, you will automatically have 3 years good luck!!! I hope this helps all

Hi Shane, I know it is tedius work, especially all the 2x2's but in the end it is all worth it, , and that is why I have so many repeat biz is because I would do the same work at my own house as I would at a customers, I even have potential clients tell me if you spray, we wont even consider hiring you..? \ I have to believe they havd had a bad experience in the past from companies spraying stain, for instance the company my brother hired before me sp;rayed 30 gallons of stain on 2 pergolas, by brushing and rolling we barely used 5 gallons of stain, but that in itself has alot to do with Wood Tux, like I said earlier, it goes a long long way, it is what I call a full body beer:) or stain whichever you prefer.,. Take Care...

As always, unless it is a fence we brush and rolled both, they are monsters made from redwood, but they really make the back of the house as he has 1 on each side of his pool, since then I have used wood tux on 5 decks and I have to say I really like this product, if you havent tried it yet, you should it goes a long long way.... coverage that is..... and best of all Since Russell is local I can get it pretty quick, as his warehouse is only 15 -20 minutes from my house...

Sorry Folks but since the actual size of the files you can post on this forum are so small, you will have to check out the wood tux trial pergola pics on my web site as soon as they are up, should be within a week or 2 Sorry about the inconvienience, but I will assure you, I think you will be very impressed.. You may want to give this product a fair shot

TO Answere the original question does it work.? No doubt I get on average 10-15 times in revenue than it cost me and I pay $1,000 a month, and it gets better every year, but the old saying goes it takes money to make money, and I have one of the biggest ads, that means a bunch, direct mail works too , but you better have a big bank roll because you have to send it every month at least 10,000 people are you are just wasting money, my yellow page ad's has been phenominal to say the least... but it goes way beyond the ad, it is your presentation, uniforms, expensive looking trucks we gaurantee 24-48 hour bid from time of call, alot of follow up plus a great reputation for doing high end quality work, I dont get into price wars with my competetion, because it is like comparing apples to oranges, my price is my price and they can take it or leave it, look act and sound professional and you will get top dollar for your services... Hope this helps

I use both Wood defender and Ready seal, and both look good at first, but most wood we do need re-aplication in 1-3 years, wood defender lightens the most where as Ready seal keeps it orig. color for 1-2 years, I wish I could find a product that would last at least 3 years before maint is needed, I always have to apply 2 coats on horiz surfaces, even with Wood Tux, If I knew wood tux would look just as good in 3 years on horizontal surfaces as the day I appled it I would switch stains in a heart beat, Does Wood Tux Wet offer a 3 year warranty on horiz surfaces, before a maint wash and recoat is needed..??? every 3 years or more, and thats using 2 coats on Horiz surfaces..? if so sign me up... I use thousands of gallons a year of the other 2 I mentioned... WD and RS..???

Just for an example on how Property managers are so out of touch with reality, About 2 months ago, I qouted a 76000 sq ft fence job for a condo complex here locally, my quote was just under $34,000 that is for pressure washing and sealing both sides, which I thought was a steal for them, since they only have 2 maintenance men that told me please bid this job, we dont want to do it and dont think we could with all of other work here we have to get done, anyway the PM company got back with me and siad the price was to high and they will have it done by their maint. men, so my reply was after all material cost and labor they will pay more by doing it in house, than subbing out to a company that specializes in this and does it on a daily basis, I had a company tell me this last year, and after they saw what their in house guys got done in 6 months, they have hired us now to take over, it was basiclally going to cost double our original bid if they continued doing it in house, but like most PM companies, they really dont realize the cost involved in doing projects this big, material, labor, etc.. But all I can do is try and educate them and move on,

Beth, the landscape is a difficult one, this how it is set up, each building is approx. 150 ft long, each unit has a small back yard each back yard is seperated by fence dividers, the privacy fences are all 6 ft high, we did a job like this last year, and needless to say the tennants didnt move anything away from their fences, so we now have additional cost in moving items away from the fences in the back yards, which on the last job took about 10-15 minutes per back yard, I left them a message yesterday stating that by having a company like mine do the job we would save them approx. 30% to 50% on this job because of the hourly maint men mentality, they have no reason at all to get the job done right or fast, I just hope they understand my logic, if not it will be a expensive and frustraing learning experience for them, I will contact them again this week with a spreadsheet stating the facts and figures of why they would save alot of money by subbing this work out, I have a feeling that if they dont listen, they will contact us after they attemp this job after a month or so, and realize they were incorrect about their decision.. that is all I can do, and let them live and learn...

We only use the grey non marking hose R2 4500 psi 100 ft lengths no longer, if one blows we carry alot of back ups, although we use our PW a ton of hours never had the grey hose bust or leak, and thats with big dump trucks driving over them etc.. almost 3 years now never had a to replace any of my 6 hoses although we do replace the brass couplers often they rust bad and get really hard to snap on and off, I would love to have the auto wind up but seems way to costly.. anyone find reasonable prices on those..?

We usually use all three at each job, because we always upsell a housewash with a deck job or a driveway, pool deck etc.. so while 1 guy is washing the house the other 2 are washing the deck, or 1 guy washing the house, 1 guy washing the deck, and maybe the 3rd guy doing gutters, driveway etc.. this is why it is not uncommon to bill $1500 to $3000 per day, especially on large decks, apartment complex's, villas, condo's etc.. and somedays we could really use a 4 th machine, I am looking into it next year..., or if I leave 2 guys and 2 machines at a deck job I can take the van with the 6 GPM and go do a few housewash's bids, etc...

We hardly ever X jet always down stream, it is so much faster with 2 guys, 1 guy is soaping then the other guy follows behind rinsing, usually 2 sides at a time

I have both , or really all 3,- 8 GPM, 6 GPM, and 5 GPM, as far as decks fences houses, an 8 GPM is 50% faster than a 5 GPM, my advice go with a 8 GPM and watch how fast you get through jobs... Especially wood, I use alot less pressure, and clean 50% faster than my competetion, we use on 1 truck a 5 GPM to throw soap, and a 8 GPM to rinse, average time on a 2500-3000 sq ft house under 45 minutes

I carry a 360 gallon tank for a 8 GPM and a 5.6 GPM, in my box truck, If we know we will be using both all day I never leave the office without 250 gallons in the tank, and fill the rest at the job site while setting up, most homes push out about 5 GPM so yo need tostay way ahead to keep up just do the math, Im pulling 13.6 a minute and the house is only giving me 5 GPM, sometimes we have to tap on to another house , but not too often and hope they are not home... :)

The bottom line is WE ALL HAVE TO RAISE OUR PRICES DRASTICALLY.. I know that sounds weird but it's true, if we want to raise credibility to our industry, and stick together.My prices will jump 20% across the board in 07 this is as a skilled craft no different than Plumbers, Electricians, etc.. and we should be compensated so.. We have tons of overhead, headaches, etc.. This is one of the reason s I hear from so many customers that the guy that washed their deck, house, whatever 2-4 years ago is no longer in BIZ, then I tell them, you know why..? he made no money on his jobs, and decided to get out , I cant tell you how many customers tell me that every year, it is in the hundreds, so word to the wise, if your not billing minimum $150 an hour or close to it, you would be better off getting a job at Walmart, or Macdonalds, So lets stick together, and earn what we deserve....

Don, Unless that was a cedar home, or at least 5000-7000 sq ft, or over 2 hours away, I would never charge that much for a basic house wash, somewhere the communication was crossed, here are my approx house wahing examples within a 30 minute radius of my office.. 2500 sq ft house with 2 car garage $250-$300 3500 sq ft home 3 car garage $350 $400 etc etc etc.. in my box truck I have 1-5 GPM we apply soap with and 1-8 GPM machine we rinse with and can do most houses in under 1 hour 2 guys (me and a helper) the bigger the house the bigger the discount, same goes for decks, Apartments, condo's etc.. For example last year we did a 94 unit apartment complex in 2 days, 3 guys 3 machines, I also have a full size van with a 6 GPM machine, each unit also had a deck to clean as well, I think that person who told you my price was misunderstood, I think my prices are competitve in my area, unless he was over 2 hours away, or something else he wanted done, not sure..? Also, ther may have been a bid in there to hand scrub gutters, I typically charge $1 a linear ft, because the chemical to remove the black streaks is very expensive, and it takes almost longer to do those as it does to wash a house, especially if they are 30-40 feet in the air, and also my typical charge to wash only and stain decks is approx $1.25 a sq ft, if stripping and sanding is required I charge $2.00 a sq ft, but keep in mind we brush and roll all decks, we never spray, customers here do not accept that method.. and we do 2 coats on all horizontal surfaces, I havent seen a product yet that covers well with only 1 coat, even with wood tux it took 2 coats.. 2 coats makes a huge difference in the appearance

When I started this topic, the reason I charge that much includes, the phone call for the bid, going to quote the job, selling the customer, fuel to bid the job, and time, advertising materials, Insurance, wear and tear on equip. and vehicles, going back to do the job, usually you and another guys labor, washing materials, etc.. etc.. etc.. so actually that $150 an hour is almost cut in half after the job is all said and done, so even at $150 an hour I consider my prices are very reasonable, I cant work for free as should no one, especially with the level of quality I offer my customers as opposed to my competetion, most if not all my competetion wash and stain wood the same day, hardly no companies here make 2 trips, and most bid jobs over the phone without ever seeing the job, no wonder 90% of people in this biz fail...???

Im just curious, how many folks out there get seasonal, part time, full time jobs in the winter, / slow time 3-4 months in winter, Even a job only paying $400-$500 a week can help pay your year round expenses, something is better than nothing..? Even if it is only 10% of what we make in the season, it stops having to drain what you saved all year,

Jeff, When I refer to cutting prices in half, I mean half of what I normally charge residential cust. Only because there is usually 10 times the sq ft to clean than just 1 residential job. Just as an example, if you are over .45 a sq ft for washing sealing, staining wood for commercial work you probably are the high bidder, Im not sure where you are, but at .45 a sq ft for wood restoration you arent making much profit, and they are seldom ever going to pay that high, that is what I refer to as cutting prices in half, by the way what is your normal bid per sq ft for commercial wood restoration..? on say 10,00 sq ft of fence, I know here we cant really bid that high they just wont even consider it ..

That is why I do and dont like working for PM companies, 1st you have to cut your rates by 50% to even come close to getting the job, and even then you only stand about a 10% chance of getting the job, and most take hours and hours to bid, then they want you to wait 90-120 days for payment, that is why no matter who the customer is I require 50% down and the rest due the day job is completed, with commercial I allow 30 days, because of all the red tape, but at least I get half down, that at least covers all my expenses upfront but like I said after recieving bids from several PW companies, they usually have their maint. men at $10 hour do the work, with a $300 PW from Home Depot, I even offer 35-50% discounts on PW these complex's in the winter, for winter rates, and they still dont bite, if they bite at all it is usually at the peak busy time of the year, most homeowners and business's do not realize the tremendous savings I offer them in the winter, even at 50 degrees most folks only think this biz can be done in the summer,, not understanding the fact we have hot water and can wash almost the entire year, oh well Pay me now or pay me later, the later will just be alot more cash out of their pocket

Unfortunately, we are always on the border line, usually too warm for snow, but just cold enough for sleet and freezing rain, and this last storm crippled us over 500,000 without power, at first, then after 24-48 hrs or so half that much, and still almost a week later still 75-100,000 without power, thankfully we got ours back within about 24 hours, but alot and I mean alot of damage especially to trees etc.. that heavy ice just snaps trees like they are made of glass, it was really pretty with the ice covered trees, but very devastating, usuallualy we are above 40 during the winter months during the day, and at or just below freeezing at nite, they say it was the worst ice storm here in over 25 years, and I hope it is another 25 years before we get another like it, But Thanks for asking