Celeste

Silly Me! I was so busy being impressed by your photos that I didn't read the wordy stuff :) Celeste

Soooo, whatcha using to clean with - or is it a "proprietary secret" :) Celeste

Wow - what a difference! Very nice work - Celeste

Dale, We'll all be sorry to see you leaving the business. I personally have learned much from you however, your family is the obvious choice when you have to make a decision like this. Our family was the direct reason for us getting into this business as Roger was 2nd shift for the past 12 years and missed half of our kids growing up. We wish you all the best in your "new" life. Stop by and tell us about it - Enjoy! Celeste

Nick - thanks for the suggestion (LOL I was the one sending you to eacochem for your alma mater job) I don't know if the previous pressure washer was taking advantage or didn't know what he was doing to the surface. She was perfectly happy to have us come do the same thing every three months because that's what she thought she was supposed to do. (Anyone seeing Carolina ProWash working on educating the customer????) We are offering a full restoration at just a moderate amount over what she was paying annually. This will cut her annual maintenance down dramatically and improve the longevity of her sidewalks. This is also in the high profile neighborhood in our town. The entire brick driveway across the street is just as mossy & green - they will have to keep up the same appearance as the kids across the street :) The plan is to use Eacochem's Saferestore to bring the color of the brick back to it's best. We are looking at two siloxine sealants, one by Prosoco and one by Diedrich Technologies. Each is supposed to be water resistant but Prosoco H40 is also supposed to strengthen the old mortar. We want to push for the sealer that will prevent further erosion of the brick. The mildew, mold & other green stuff preventative is called Anti-Growth - order through Sherwin Williams - supposed to last for multiple years. Wer're comfortable with the cleaning, restoration, sealing but the question of the hour is, at what stage would he Anti-growth be applied? If applied before the sealer, it is under the sealer and can't do anything about the green stuff. If applied after the sealer, it can't penetrate into the brick and will just wash away with the first heavy dew or rain. Product mfg says you are not supposed to add anything to their product however, he's heard of mixing the anti-growth to the sealer being done...again, against mfgr instructions for use. Hmmm, suggestions - experience??? Celeste

I had to edit.....my pics were too big....drives me craazy! Celeste

We have an x-jet which is wonderful for the high houses we get. We also have a dual electric pump setup (Cobra JobBoss which I think is along the Flojet type) that has its own purposes. When there are two doing brick, pump system is outstanding....one applying acid & one washing right behind. We run a minimum of 5 gallons clean water immediately after every job (on the site, not after we get home). We're thinking about spraying stain with that as well....but that's still in the thinking stages, no practical testing yet. The x-jet is an investment you will not regret at all.

Have a very happy one today and many more Rod! Celeste

Jon, I'll freely admit that I've learned more than just pw stuff from your posts. You are a professional in every sense of the word - we wish you the best with your health and future plans. You will be in our prayers. Celeste

DO NOT get one of those noodly things from Northern! I believe Beth carries one here. Another type (pricey but well worth it) is the Coress Wand. I personally can't handle any other wand but the Coress - it's rigidness helps me to hold it where it needs to be....but then again, I'm just a girl :) Celeste

What he said :) Celeste

Troyt, When we installed ours we had the same problem - turned out that our hose was the wrong size. We squeezed the hose ever so slightly and voila, no burping. We now have 3/8" hose (exterior diameter) attached with a barb, not a clamp. Maybe this would fix you?? Celeste

Don't you love relatives? Great place to practice 'cause if you screw up, they still love you and nobody will call you a lowballer when you're doing family :) Celeste

Reed, I always love your very professional & informative posts - best part is the political correctness of them :) Thanks for the tips. Celeste

When I look at work like yours and Reed's, I absolutely classify myself as a novice. That being said, in the event there are more than one of me out there who truly do not know the varieties....could you explain exactly what IPE is? I live in PT land so I've not really heard or seen of this IPE stuff and may not know it if it bopped me on the head. Thanks for not laughing out loud at me - only way to learn is ask the questions, right? Celeste

Would you minding posting some further information about the class action suit with Trex? My dad had it installed and it's nasty looking already. Thanks, Celeste

If the rain comes back through here again, our mountains are going to be the flat part of the state ! Celeste

Isn't this $179.00 charge for updating the actual tax tables in the program? Seems like you could go to your respective state's website and get the new tables and the Fed site for that one and make your own adjustments. They still make the booklets as well......We use QB Pro as well but yippee - no need for payroll taxes yet. Just a thought ?

Does your new construction come to a screeching halt in the winter there? Inside cleaning of those isn't bad money :) We've also thought about starting a line of wooden deck furniture .... build & stain inside in the winter - sell sell sell in the spring.

Another masterpiece - glad to see someone's wood isn't so saturated that it may never dry out! Beautiful work once again Reed :)

Here in central NC we've all gotten out the snorkels and flippers - we haven't had the wind but if we get much more water I think all of North Carolina just might be a great big ole lake. It's making any kind of wood cleaning IMPOSSIBLE! But, isn't this the kind of stuff that makes the mildew and mold grow like crazy? Celeste

What a blast from the past - thanks Dale - that may have been the highlight of my week! Celeste

As I understand it, they make another product (imagine that!) that you use to re-prep the surface then just reapply - no stripping is necessary. I would imagine there would be a cleaning involved. Truthfully, I haven't read about what happens later - that's Roger's department. We did have some left over which I am going to experiment with using some tape to see if I can put a pattern on my concrete steps. This would make this a really nice (simpler) alternative to some of the very complicated looking processes of staining with an overlay.

We rolled primarily because of the sandy additive we put in the sealer. The Xylene in the stuff is what is really hard on the pump also. It can be rolled both times in one day (during daylight savings time), however, mfg recommends 12 hours between coats (whether 2 or 3) and Roger didn't start until late afternoon yesterday. It was drying long before he finished though since it was about 150 degrees yesterday. We stuck pretty close to the instructions this time since it was the first one. This is supposed to last 3-4 years, depending on the traffic. Also they say if you use black, you may have to reapply much sooner as it seems to fade quicker......but then again, asphalt fades from black to a dark grey pretty quickly too doesn't it?

It doesn't matter - this one was a smooth surface which is why we put the Shark Grip additive in it.