Don M.

Larry, the tips are easy to change out. I had a bad tip and once I got one from Bob at pressuretek I changed it out in about 3 mins. I dont know if it would work or not( for wood) but changing the tips out is pretty much candy. Are you still using Steve's RM?

It looks like oil stains. Will just a normal house wash and some hot water take care of this?

I guess my best bet is to get a degreaser and do a sample area on it and charge accordingly.

[Of one thousand Grime Scene members with less than two years on their belt, 40 potentialy will remain in business in ten years. Nine hundred and sixty of you are going to fail ! Of the 40 that succeed I wonder how many of them have another business they do as well besides just pressure washing?

Aaron, your prices sound good to me, but I would have been over 3 grand on the deck. I've never used RS, so I dont know what the cost breakdown per sq ft is. They'll probably try and do it themselves, then they will call you back. Its happened to me before. Don

Larry, Man, I was down there last week for a couple of days and almost looked you up, but I got busy on my rentals and other stuff the time flew by. It was my last trip to Cape before I become a Dad. The doc says my wife could probably go Sept. 1st. I'll call you sometime and chat and see how things are going. I sent you a email from the other place. Don

Do I regret it? Sometimes. When business is booming, I am happier than ever. When business is off (like this summer), I have serious doubts about my ability to pull this off. Like Rod, I do not believe I can never go back. Once you have tasted the fruit, you cannot eat from the trough any longer. I guess if was obviously failing, and my family would suffer greatly, I would go back. But only to spare them the pain. Phillip, I was in those same shoes. I was going to work and just going through the motions. I hated it. I turned my dept. around and asked for a raise and I was told I was one of the highest managers paid in the company and that I would never see a raise. They would always dangle the "bonus" in your face. I worked there long enough to see a bonus and it was 500 bucks. My boss knew what I did part time and I told him I could go out on a Sat and double this. All and all, you have to be happy in life. I have been self employed for about a month and a half now, and yes I am getting ready to go through my first winter, but I would not change a thing. I love working for myself, and working on a company that began with a wal-mart machine and 25 feet of hose and to see where I am at know in just a year and four months is amazing. If at all possible I would never work for someone else ever again.

Some of my business has been on credit, I think its a must for any new business.

GS works great, but I would keep some spray paint with you. I did a house the other day, xjetted straight out of the bucket. 90% of the gutters looked great, but the last 10 for some reason the paint came off some.

Shane Pmed me about it. I'll talk to you about it next time we talk on the phone.

Its been very slow here as well. Last week was a good week, and this week is looking good as well. I just dont know what the magic touch some of you on this board have. Is it because you've been around 5 years or longer? Is it because you direct mail the same sub. 8 times a year? I read on one post where someone sent out 1000 postcards and so far they have booked $xx,000 worth of work. Is the main key to get into a newspaper that has circulation in it daily? I've read where another guy was doing this fulltime last year (his first year) and he knocked down 50 grand. Sorry for whining I guess, but I just get depressed then motivated when I see someone doing similar things that I do and they have so much success at it and then I try the same thing again for a couple of times and I keep striking out. I am holding off on my next marketing blitz until towards the end of August. I am looking for September to be a banner month ( I am trying to be optimistic here). If all goes well I should be able to work up until the first of Dec like I did last year. But I know July was llllooouussssyyy!!

Hey Barry, what was your mix for the deck? I've got about 700 sqft to clean on tue and I was going to cut 12% in half and shurflo it. Its just grayed out really bad.

It seems like mine is slowing down. I guess I will lube it up.

Why cant you print out the materials, mail them to yourself and put the unopened env. in a safe place. If there is ever a issue, have the judge open the env. with the date stamped on it from the post office.

Congrats Jeff, my wife is due in about 4 weeks!!

Travis, I would really rinse all the grass/plants very well around the deck very good. Then after rinsing off the hd 80 I would rinse the grass area again VERY WELL. If it has a lot of flowers around you could tarp them and just take a piece of pvc and stick under the tarp so it wont rest on the flowers. Hope this helps.

I did that one time with mineral spirits. I just wasnt thinking and I stuck a half damp rag in my back pocket just for a little while. It made a rash and was gone the next day.

What Ron said. I want to do my thing. She'll just say I am advertising too much, buying too much..so forth and so on.

I bought a hot box for my machine and it has helped tremendously on the gutters. Also, it has opened it up for the possiblity of commercial work as well. I'll post that in another thread.

I need some advice... As a fairly new company and the need to hire someone part time this fall, I need to know how to go about things. I have talked with my tax person and she if filing the paperwork to form my company into a LLC. But my main concern is this whole workmans comp thing. I just dont see how a new company can pay all of this. The tax/unemployment/social security is not bad I dont think. It is only about 12.00 per 100.00 in payroll. I could swing that. Another business owner that I talked to suggested that I dont go the workman comp way, but instead just go with a health insurance plan. He has his employees pay 1/4 of the premium and he pays the other 3/4. But thats going to be tough because we are so seasonal. I have also read on here that some people go to temp agencies and run through them. Do you just approach these agencies and tell them what you want to do? I looked at hiring some temp guys but they wont let them climb, and I need a climber for roof cleaning. Any thoughts.... Thanks

I know at a small company I used to work for they used to scan in all the invoices to a computer and create files for them. I am working on something like that.

Last year it was seal maxx on the radio here. This year it has been Seal St. Louis.

Has anyone heard of a new siding that is guaranteed not to have mold build up on it? We just had a siding guy give us a bid and he guaranteed that the siding would never have mold on it.

I dont know who the manufacter is, my dad is my property manager and I dont know. The house is about 1300 sq ft if that, and he wanted 8900 for siding and 5400 for windows (he didnt even measure the windows). We took a pass.

I will make sure I am extra careful when I am around asphalt. I had no idea.