jnoden

Does anyone have any knowledge on the longevity of this stuff? I have a customer who said that her friend has had it on their deck for a few years with no issues. It is apparently some kind of elastic technology. I informed her that solid stains and paints are generally not a good idea to put on horizontal surfaces due to maintenance issues. I have seen that rustoleum restore junk peel after a couple months and that is a nightmare to maintain I am sure. I just want to verify before I tell her. She has an acrylic on the floor and I would like to strip it off and put a penetrating stain on it from Armstrong Clark.

I have been trying to research this product a little and can not find out much about it any where. I know many people use a home brew but does anyone use Limonene? Envirospec states that it is hands down their best house wash chemical and it is enviro safe, smells good and rinses well. Some people have said that there has been problems with windows streaking occassionaly but Im wondering if this is the biggest problem because I can probably get around that some how.

I dont really have any information other than we received an email asking if we know anyone that would be willing to clean and seal/stain a long cabin in Beech Creek PA. Please email me at jim@decks-etc.net if you do this kind of work in that area.

I used this board for 1.5 yrs every day before I got started and I still ran in to a lot of issues over 10 yrs ago when I started the biz. You can have all the knowledge about exterior wood restoration but honestly it takes years to get things right. Especially if you decide to hire employees. They need to be trained well with clear procedures in place. I have pages and pages that explains step by step how to wash a deck. how to strip a deck, how to stain a deck etc etc. They still go through a learning curve and you need to be with them a lot in the beginning. Once they start learning the profession and feel like a technician instead of just a laborer and they make decent money at it then there is a better chance that they will return each season and your company will be performing work at the highest quality.

This thread is a little confusing. As mentioned you cant just say so much per sq ft because there are too many variables. Does it need stripped, what kind of wood, how much railing, is it 2nd story, are there steps. We use a formula that takes each of these in to account so that everyone receives the same fair pricing and we do not lose money or charge too much.

I agree, reminders are the key. I always mention maintenance to the customer but it doe not seem like anyone wants to commit to anything 2 years or more in advance. I would be open to hear from anyone that has successfully implemented a maintenance program for deck customers or house washing and it guarantees you the work. In regards to color choices we keep a few colors that we know look best and we try to advocate these with the customer which works 90% of the time. We let them know that we can provide them with the other colors and brands as well but typically they look for your suggestions. We ask them what colors they have in mind and it is either a cedar, brown, redwood or natural and then it is easy.

I dont think there is anything that works for all gutters. I would like to know if anyone has used anything that works 100% of the time removing 100% of the black streaks. We have even in situations where the chemical barely removed any of the streaks and other times filthy dark black streaks are removed 100%. We do a test spot and if it doesn't work or make a significant difference in the customers eyes then we do not waste our time brushing them. We will still soap them up and wash them. We charge extra if the chemical works and the customer wants them scrubbed. I think it is crazy that people don't charge extra to scrub gutters. It can sometimes double the amount of time it takes to wash the house.

Soy Gel works well on some sealers but as mentioned it is costly. We always have samples of Soy Gel, Smartstrip and S100. We just stripped a log large log home with acrylic stain and before bidding the job we took all three and another to see which worked best for that particular strip. I would always recommend testing.

Hello all. I haven't been very active on here lately because I have been fairly busy however I just ran in to a bid that I am not sure about so thought I would get a 2nd opinion from some of the pros on here. This is actually a commercial building with a dozen or so windows that have streaks below the window sills where you usually see the black mildew streaks. These streaks are grayish in color so I assume that they are from the aluminum framed windows. Does anyone have any experience removing these? I think we have ran in to this on a couple brick homes and were not able to remove with house soap or sh. I am wondering if a light acid treatment might do the job. I will probably offer to go out for a small price to try a couple chemicals on one spot. I just want to make sure that I bring the right chems. Thanks ahead of time.

Okay thanks for the info. I didn't even think about the screens making the stains but that makes sense also.

My first two years in business were horrific when I look back on it. I have learned a lot in the last 10 years and this forum has really been amazing. For about a year before I even started the business I would search this forum inside and out all day for ideas. I think I may have read something from every thread on here. Anyway as far as accidents in my first year operating part time I had to go to the emergency room for getting stripper in my eye when spraying the outside of a deck railing (had to have suction cups put on each eyeball and gallons of water pumped, My pressure washer was on wheels that first year and one time it vibrated and fell in to the deep side of a customers pool, I didnt double check the nozzle seated in the QC and shot it through glass french doors (I had the door replaced the next day), I took some jobs that were beyond my abilities and made like $5/ hr when it was all said and done just to make the customer happy. Solid deck stain strip jobs and brushing decks by hand almost killed me (haha). I also was on a very high roof by myself when the extension ladder fell from the wind. luckily I had my cell phone and called a friend who still likes to make jokes about it.

The pictures don't show the gray color of the stains well but it is similar to what you will find where brick meets the aluminum siding on a house. I dont think it will remove very easily but I havent done a test spot on it. It is about a 30 min drive from the shop so Im not going back out there again to test it unless they are willing to pay something which I am sure they will. Ill just bring all the chems that we have and hopefully we can remove them. Im fairly sure that if none of our removers work than there probably isnt anything that will work. I like to get other opinions from this forum on things like this because I am not sure we will be able to remove them. I wish it was only mildew.

I just had a customer present me with a brochure about the One Time deck stain from the other bidder. I told him that if it sounds to good to be true then... I let him know that I would look in to it and get back to him. There are only a few positive posts online about this stuff and no negative web results. I read this thread and there has only been one contractor who has used it and it is not clear if it has held up as the product claims. Does anyone have experience with thsi stuff whether they used it themselves or knows of a customer that had it applied? I think I will just let him know that there is not a lot of reviews of this product and after searching this forum of hundreds of professionals in the field only one guy has used it and the experience was not positive. I just want to make sure that this One Time compny is not doing something that could be beneficial to our industry.

I am getting slammed also. I was worried as my first year FT and the economy but so far March has been doubling my previous best year. Hired another guy who didnt show up on the first day of work though. Put an ad on craigs list and received 12 responses in a day. 10 of them are either under qualified or over qualified.

I will be washing some condos and will be tapping in to a fire hydrant. I have a choice of standard 3/4 connection or a 2inch quick connect. Has anyone ever used the 2 inch QC and where do you get the hose with the 2 inch coupler? Do fire companies ever loan them out? I will probably be making about 15 trips to the hydrant to fill a 500 gallon tank so I would like to use the 2 inch if possible.

I will try to rent one from a firehouse or go to tractor supply. I imagine that through a 2 inch connection and three inch hose that I should get atleast 50gpm taking 10 min to fill the tank instaed of an hr. 2.5 hrs of fill time for 15 trips instead of 15 hrs. time is money. thanks!

I use about 2-3 oz of NP-9 per gallon of stripper and percarb and it works well. The wood will stay wetter longer and it does give it a little cling. I am not sure if it "boosts" the chemical as far as its ability to remove more stuborn stains.

Thats neat. Looks like a cool deck to restore and have in the portfolio. Personally I couldnt have the glass on my deck because Im sure either myself or my son would end up breaking some of them.

Are those plexiglass strips instead of spindles on the upper deck? It rained here last night and we have a 30% chance of rain today. Now if it doesnt rain for two weeks straight I might be able to get caught up.

I put my resignation in with my day job. After 8 yrs as a probation and parole officer and five years of running my pressure washing business I have decided to move in to power washing full time. I found a job that will allow me to work full time during my my off season. I want to thank everyone on here who has offered good advice and helped me to grow my business.

I am just hoping that I can get some good employees that will work hard, do the work as expected and stay for a little while. I am training one guy right now but I wonder if he can handle it. It is always more work then what the guys expect when you first hire them. They think pressure washing sounds like a fun and easy job and then they start working with chemicals, masking, spraying stain, heights, customers, rain days etc and it becomes more then they bargained for. I think one thing good about the poor job market is that the younger people are learning to work a little harder to keep their job. There are plenty out there who would take the job in a heart beat and do well. Its just finding them. Yeah Ken I can cover part of Chester County but I never really get calls from that area. Thanks for thinking of that. You are in Philadelphia County right? I often get calls that are further then i would like to travel. I have most of my marketing targeting about a 20 mile radius from my shop except for log homes. Is that about what you do Ken?

The pic of the woodland brown is a little more red then it actually is in person but it was a little more red then I had expected. One of my employees stripped that deck and stained it and I think it was redwood but I am not posative and the homeowner didnt know. The customer was happy with it because it had a behr stain on it previously and looked horrid. Beleive it or not two customers recently picked the woodland brown after seeing that pic and another that shows it as more of a brownish color. I always show the wood samples and then a couple pics and tell them that the final color will fall some where in between.

HA! Ken your funny. Dont worry I doubt I will make it over that far unless it is a large project. You can train my guys though if you want because that is one thing that I am not looking forward to. I will be covering mostly York and Lancaster County and maybe some Berks and Dauphin but not much. I hope I do not feel the pressure to lower my prices because I have closed a lesser percentage of my leads then previous years mostly due to lower bids by owner/operators.

I forgot to mention that the first pic is where my old deck meets the new deck. I think if I would have used most other semi transparent stains the two decks would not match well. The pics arent that good of quality because I took them with my phone.

The first three photos are of mountain cedar on my deck and the last one is of woodland brown deck that I just completed. I like the mountian cedar because it looks brownish in the evening and more cedarish when the sunlight hits it. I took these pics in the evening.