jnoden

I apply plex master as a 2nd step as it is recommended. I was the house, rinse, apply wax, rinse again. It is a great up sell and I know that it is better to do it this way. I will continue to offer this process as an upgrade for a small fee. I was just wondering if anyone has put this in their house wash and if it is effective. I am thinking about doing so for free. In case the home owner is looking for the cheapest way.

I dont charge much for it. It is a considerable amount of extra work for me though because I wash and rinse the entire house, then i use the brown portioner ( i think) with x jet to apply and rinse. Most customers go with it. I agree that the wax probably breaks down when mixed with most house washes with chlorine but I am not posative. I also think that the soap does not adhere to the siding as well when there is wax but I could be wrong about this also. I do know that the wax does not form a uniform film when applied this way. I dont think they would tell people to take an extra step applying this stuff if you do not need to. You can buy car wash soap with wax in it also but everyone knows that it is better to two step it. I just figure that some customers might be happy to know that they are getting free wax.

I use percarb for cleaning wood. I think I am using disodiumhydroxycarbonate but I think I read that Disodiumperoxydicarbonate is better for cleaning wood. Dont you use either of these Jon? I also heard that some contractors use only sodiumhydroxide and dilute strength for cleaning that way they do not need to caryy more chems than needed. I would rather use what works best and carry as many chems as needed but I wonder if sodiumhydroxide would be a good subsitute for the percarb. I understand that one is eviro safe and the other is not but if the contractor is careful then would this be as good of a chem? It would be cheaper.

I guess it is the alkaline properties that helps to strip and clean then. If acid were to be added It would neutralize and therefor would be totally ineffective. There is a company or person however who sells percarb with oxalic already in it. This is why i am asking the question. I dont want to look foolish. Just trying to understand things better.

I do not have any experience stripping this stuff but a guy applied this to his small deck and about 40 steps with railing about a year ago. I think he applied it over grey wood and it looks almost black in many areas ( the worst job I have ever seen)The thing is this stuff looks shiny and waxy and I was wondering how difficult this will be to strip ( it still repels water). He showed me the can and it says that it is a clear but the sealer looks pigmented to me. I cant believe how smooth and waxy the wood feels to the touch. I bidded it at $1300 plus stain ( he agreed to try wood defender as a first time client) but told him that I will need to see if I can strip this stuff first. I have PressureTeks stripper. Is this job a lost cause? Sorry but I didnt take any pics yet.

Good advice. Thanks Reed. I just got samples of WD and I plan to make some sample boards this weekend.

I have been mixing my chems in a 5 gal bucket by filling it about 1/2 putting a lid on then shaking it and topping it off with more water and shake some more. I use the bucket then with a deskster sprayer. The problem is the lids are not a great seal and I end up with stripper or per carb leaking out pretty badly when I shake it. I was just wondering what you guys do.

Im not a fan of washing aluminum siding but I did accept a job right up the road from my house and the pay is right. It is painted aluminum siding painted about 5 yrs ago. the paint seems to be fairly sound and it didnt come off when I wet my finger and rubbed it on the siding. Do any of you have any experience with this? The guy is selling his house and just wants to clean the dirt and mold off. I was planning on x jetting with low pressure with emulsifier plus. Please tell me this is feesible.

I would be interested as well if you are still emailing it. jnoden@earthlink.net

Sturgis, I intermixed the 1400 series semi solid with 1400 clear on my last deck and the results looked good. Much better than just using the semi solid which covers the wood grain too much. I just spoke to a rep from Cabots and he said the semi-solid last 2-3 years and the intermixed last 1-2 years. Hopefully he was being conservative with the intermixed because I gave my customer a 2 year warranty and let him know that I would recoat it for free if there are problems before two years other than some fading. These stains are penetrating oils by the way. I love their oil based solid for two tones because it does not need a primer and covers better than any other solid i have ever used. I wouldnt want to try stripping it though since it has acrylic but recoating is fine on the spindles. I would like to try the SPF but I am reluctant because I want to see what others say about it first.

I know that most deck restore pros try to pursuade the potential customer to choose a tinted sealer (myself included). I know that they offer more UV protection. However, because a clear sealer takes less time to apply (sprays with less worry) you can typically charge a little less and often the home owner does not mind doing it every one to two years. Wolmans water based rain coat states that it offers 3yr protection and I would recommend it be recoated every 2-3 yrs with this sealer. It just seems that more clients are not as thrilled with the sealer as they are after I just clean the deck and many love the natural wood look. Also maintenance coats would cost a little lest and would be a breeze. What do you think?

I hear what you are saying about the gray look but how long does it take a deck with no shade to turn gray? I know some people like the gray look (not sure why either) and I know that Cabots and other stain companys market it and is a popular choice in stain color.

Washed a house yesterday and on a dormer below the window a piece of Dryvit a little larger than the size of a silver dollar flaked off. Even though in my disclaimer it states that I am not responsible for loose siding etc., I felt that I should allow him to deduct some money or repair it. He kept $150 out of money owed contingent on its repair. I know Home depot carries stucco patch kits but not dry vit. Does anyone have any experience with this? I now know that I will turn down any Dry vit jobs (not many around here anyways).

I had bought a pw from Lowes last August. direct drive 13.5hp honda, 3700psi @4gpm. It has an AR pump on it. For some unknown reason it always takes 1-5 minutes before it puts out full pressure. I never really understood this and being that I am new to this proffession and it is a new machine, I figured that it is normal. Yesterday during a house wash the pump stopped pumping high pressure and was only at about 1/8 the pressure it should have and it never primed in to full pressure. Left it cool down and same thing. Water supply was adequate. Called Lowes and they said they will send a tech out since it is under warranty but it could take a week or more. I have some jobs lined up and think that I should just buy a new pump. Ill pull the pump off tonight to see if the drive shaft key is broke. Does anyone have some advice or suggestions? This is stressful. My next pw will be belt driven.

I found someone who will look at it tomorrow and throw a new pump on if needed. He is qualified to do warranty work for Lowes. I might have lucked out here. I already postponed two customers so hopefully it will be fixed in the next couple days. I was researching it a little Scott and I think you might be right that it is probably either an unloader problem or the packings. Guy told me that they have a lot of problems with the pumps from Lowes. They are AR however and I thought that more could be expected from these pumps. My last PW from Lowes did the same thing and I took it back and upgraded to this one. Cant wait to get a belt drive. thanks for the response just the same.

Until this year I did just exterior wood restoration. This year I am adding house washing. Two of my phone calls this year stated that their house was not that bad and you can tell that they didnt want to spend much money. I checked the one house out this morning and it was large. My quote was $480 to wash everything (2 story vinyl with stone in front and about 240 linear ft including garage.) and the outside of the gutters which only had light marks on it. He said that another guy quoted at $200.00. He said that he did not want chemicals on his house and this guy was just going to pressure wash the dirt off the siding and wood trim which the home owner was planning to re-paint. The siding had some dirt on two sides and was not bad at all on the other two sides and there was no mildew. My question is to those who try to offer the highest quality house wash. Would you give in to these request or offer down grades services without guarentees? ie wash the dirty side and rinse off the other three sides.

lol...that a good one Ken wish I would have thought of that. I tried to explain the negative effects of pressure and the fact that the chemicals will not harm anything but I think he just didnt like the word chemicals because he said a couple times that he does not want chemicals on his house. I think it was a worthless cause anyways because he said that for that price he would just rather borrow a friends pressure washer and do it himself (It wasnt even worth trying to defend professionalism with this guy and besides he looked like he could have a heart attack just pulling the ladder out of his garage ). Dont you hate rich bone heads who think they know it all?

I would really like to decrease the water pressure coming out of my gun while keeping the GPMs at 4gpm. I have an adjustment on my pump but it lowers the GPMs along with the decrease in pressure. Im assuming that a slightly larger hole in the nozzles would remedy this problem but Im not sure if this is the solution. Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

that is very helpful. I didnt know about the charts. Thanks.

Has anyone heard of this acid? I know that oxalic and citralic are themost common acids for neutralizing but I saw that a company is advertising this stuff as a brightener that you spray on and do not rinse.

well dont i feel a little embarassed. I do feel like ive been tricked though. Thanks for the quick response.

If you use the search option you should find answers. The answer varies between contractors so any one person can give you a different answer. I just started out myself last year and spent months researching these forums and then tried different products in the field to come up with what works best for me. All the chemicals in the Grime Scene store are contractor grade chemicals and will give you optimal results.

Now why would anyone want composite decking if wood can look this good? People think that wealthy people have large composite decks built but if I were wealthy and could afford to hire someone to make wood look like that, I would not ever go with a dull looking composite. Great job!

I currently run a 4gpm 3700psi unit. Some times the pump kicks off and I have no pressure. I think that it is because the water source is not putting out adequate gpm's but not sure. I know I need to start timing how long it takes to fill a 5 gal bucket and will start doing so but I was wondering if I need a buffer tank for low flow rated water sources. I think I read that it can be real bad on pumps if they are starved. I was thinking that 25 gallons will serve its purpose but I have no idea where to purchase one. Sorry that this turns out to be a question and not info on a new great discovery that can change the power washing industry. I am still working on that one.:lgmoneyey

I havent thought about the y connector and two spikots. It will not change the water pressure but it would certainly double the gpm's. Sometimes its the simple solutions that we over look. Thanks for the idea.