Aplus

A.S. - Computer Information Systems B.S. - Computer Science - minor in Business Administration

Here is my main concern with the one day concept, and I know I can't be the only one facing this..... A lot of water and mud is created around many decks when stripping/washing. How am I going to stain the rails, then climb up on the deck, without getting mud and crud all over? How am I going to keep the mud off the deck floor? Let's say even if the deck were surrounded with stones and shrubbery, which many are, I'm going to get soaked manuevering around the shrubs, and kneeling around the bottom areas to get fascias, supports, lower railing portions, etc. I'm also concerned that customers won't accept this new product application idea as correct and sound. Most people realize that wood has to be dry before an oil based product can be applied, or that's how it used to be. And how long is it going to take to put down a base + a color coat? Seems like double work. At this time, I am not a supporter on the one day systems. Personally, I don't care what info is shared via demo's or what reps have to say. Ten years ago, CWF was promoted as a great product, and sold mainly in higher end hardware stores. And look now at what garbage it really is. When first applied, CWF provides a finish that is beautiful, problem is, it only lasts a couple months before it begins degrading. In fact, most of the entire Flood line is worthless, their stripper, brightener, etc is a waste of money. Time will tell with the Spa & Deck product, but as history has shown.....beware! My prediction, and it may be wrong, but I'm gonna say it now anyway...... Disappointment and future maintenance problems are going to be a bite.

TimberPro.....every bit as good as ESI, for less $$$.

Well, when I went to the Pittsburgh convention, admission to the trade show and demos was free. If I have to pay for those, I simply won't go.

All Bowties for me. Right now I have a 2005 Chevy 2500HD 4 door 4x4 6.0 liter gasoline. The best dressed trucks wear bowties.

I use e-spec for smaller items, like q/c's, plugs, o-rings, hoses etc. If I know exactly what I want, and need no help, their prices can't be beat. I look at it like this. E-spec is the Kmart price, with no service. For the lowest possible price, you take the chance that you won't require customer service. Beth, Rod, and many other vendors may charge a little more for some items, but full service and support is there when you need it. They provide a Nordstroms value. Capeesh?

You may not need chems at all. Depends on how much mold there is. I enclosed a pix to get an idea of the type surface I was talking about. Mold may not adhere as well to certain coated surfaces. The bonus is that if you need no chems, you have less to worry about regarding the carpet.

I did a job similar to what you describe. It was an add-on, aluminum framed, three season porch, with screened, and single paned windows. It had the green, plastic-like fake carpet stuff. I found that no chemical were required to get the green surface mildew off. It came right off with about 900 psi, and the carpeting survived just fine, although it got pretty wet and squishy. The homeowner wasn't concerned about the water, as a couple days with the windows open would dry it out completely anyway. I think most indoor/outdoor carpet is glued, and is designed to get wet. I attached a picture, which although only shows a small side of the structure, shows enough to see what kind of structure it was. Actually I was there to clean the patio blocks, and the customer then decided to include the inside of the porch.

The vendor that supplied my Cox reels said it was ok to leave hose on the reel if I didn't want to unwind all of it. Don't know if it matters, but I too use a flow actuated unloader, which doesn't bang and spike like a pressure actuated unloader does. I keep 150 feet, and often don't need to unwind it all. It can become quite a chore to wind up a lot of hose unnecessarily. I strained my rotator cuff, and it has been a slow painful recovery. Had to go thru a steroid regimen to get it to start healing. I may look at a power winder for my reels in the near future. Can Steven from Cox please comment on whether high pressure reels really need to be completely unrolled for every use? Thanks!!

Beth, It's funny how different regions vary so much in price and materials. Cedar is still king around here on the higher-end homes and condos. Treated seems to be more prevalent in the middle-range neighborhoods, as well as many home-owner built jobs. I have only seen composite a few times, and I do look for it. Composite materials are still expensive. As a rough idea, treated is cheapest, cedar about twice the price, and composite is about 50% more than cedar. What I am noticing is a LOT more higher end homes are being built with stamped concrete and similar products. I figure the typical buyer of higher-end homes have been in at least a couple smaller, maybe older homes, and got tired of the relentless maintenance task wood requires. I figure in about 20 years, the upkeep of a wood deck costs more than the original price of building it. A $5k deck may cost $500 or more every other year to maintain. Experienced buyers are realizing that it may be wiser to spend the extra $$ up front to construct a concrete based patio, which requires far less maintenance.

I hope this doesn't lead to an increase in composite decks.

I use a PO box on my invoices and anything to do with advertising. I don't want my home address listed all over in public view.

I bought one just like that a couple years ago. You can get them at most home stores.

With proper chems, I wash at about 400-500 psi on average. I prefer using a dual lance wand with a 25 degree #9 tip. If I need a little extra, or less psi, it's ready at the twist of the wrist. Sometimes wood firs up unexpectedly. Why, I'm not exactly sure, but I always expect at least a little, and sometimes get surprised when there's a little more fuzz. You have to remove the fuzz when the deck is dry. A Makita or Dewalt, variable speed circular sanders equipped with 9" defelting pads are the best bet for quick removal from accessible areas. Palm sanders and sanding blocks work best for spindles and tight areas. A gas leaf blower works well to blow off all the sawdust you will create.

Do a Google search on awning cleaning and you'll find a host of companies that offer proper chemicals and can tell you what you need to get the job done.

So many times I have customers tell me that no one has been able to get their gutters to look good again. I can tell they are apprehensive when I tell them I can do it. Well as they say, the proof is in the pudding.....have a look see.

I've always felt that it's best to NOT depend on someone holding the ladder, because I really don't think they could hold the ladder if it decided to shift. Too long, too topheavy, whatever, I'm not going to depend on someone holding me up, especially on a ladder longer than maybe 20 feet.

Well I wouldn't say I helped evolved the CD, a joint venture between Sony & Phillips did that. But I can say that we dumped tons of 'seed money' that was likely used to further the research and development. Like I said, blank CDR media was $50 a pop, and only available from one supplier, a company called Taiyo Yuden. We bought hundreds at that price, and like any other emerging technology, the price gradually came down. It's also important to realize that I'm speaking of data CDs, not music, which were already out in the stores. The idea of actually being able to dump data, arrange it, encode it, and actually 'burn' it to a CD was completely unheard of at the time. It was no doubt the most enjoyable working time of my career. I had a nearly unlimited budget, I was sent to Vegas for the Comdex show, went on several research trips, and set the standards for equipment, software, and how we would incorporate it within our company. Alas, good things always come to an end, as that did, and I had to move on to something else.

Hired out of college at age 24 by EDS. Completed their year long computer operations development program. Computer operator on IBM, Burroughs, DEC, Tandem, & others that slip my mind right now. Moved into production support, which is the group above the computer operations, that is called on to troubleshoot problems and restart jobs. Moved into technical writing for about a year, creating manuals and procedures. Did a couple years as a business relations analyst, interfacing between customer requests and the the programmer/developers. Library support came next, which is creating and maintaining thousands of volumes of backup tapes, which at the time were reels and just starting into cartridges. Boring as hell. In 1991 started working with the first commercially available CD recorders. Two pieces, a writer and an encoder, made by Sony, weighed about twenty pounds, and cost $20k! Blank CD media first cost $50 per disk! That was fun and exciting stuff, and for a time I was the corporate knowledge base of everything relating to CD creation. When I left, we had recorders in banks of 8 postion towers, burning 100's of CD's a day for developmental work all over the country, at least as it pertains to automotive diagnostic development for General Motors. Moved into pc desktop support, setting up and deploying 1000's of computers at several GM locations. Moved into server system administration, again supporting 1000's of users over several locations. During those 17 years, I was provided with so much training, along with professional development seminars, that it would take a couple pages to list it all. I never passed an opportunity for free training when it was offered. When I left EDS in 2004, I hated everything about the corporate world. THey sucked, and treated employees like expendible pieces of crap. At this point I don't think I could ever go back to being a number in a big corporation.

My reels are blue powder coated, and have been holding up well. Of course mine are inside an enclosed trailer, therefor not exposed to the environments every day. In the picture, the top reel has 150' 3/8" high pressure and the bottom has 225' 3/4" supply hose.

Turned in my old lease and picked up this one. 2500HD, 6 liter gas. This is my first 3/4 ton truck. It's a beast. It can compete with any other 3/4 ton, gas engine truck on the market. I wish I could have squeezed in the diesal option, but at $5800, just a bit too much. Plus, diesal fuel here is a good .30/gal more than gasoline. Two previous 1/2 ton trucks never failed me, but I know it's limit was stretched quite often. I have no doubt the transmission was the weakest link that would prematurely fail at some point. I was lucky enough to not have tranny problems, but I think because I turn them back in with less than 40k miles, the damage hasn't yet surfaced. It might be iffy to buy a used 1/2 ton with higher milage. Unless you can get a really good price, and expect that the tranny will need to relaced, and maybe soon. Here is a pic of the new 'big dog'. These pics were taken right after it was delivered to the dealer, but before it was prepped and delivered to me.

Why is it called unsanitary if a woman cooks carrots and peas in the same pot?

This is exactly how we wash houses.

Yes, the ball bearings inside the coupling corrode, and sometimes even the housing bends a tiny bit and makes it hard to operate. But actually what I find happens most is the plug ends get mushroomed, and don't slide into the coupling smoothly. I think with pressure actuated unloaders, there is a spike "bang" when the trigger is pulled, and the plug end takes the brunt of the force. More often than not, I can get away with just changing the plug, but when I but in quantity and get them so inexpensive, it doesn't bother me to change both sides, even a couple times a year.

I don't put a lot of focus on the $$ per hour. Some you make out well on, and others not as well. I prefer to look at the bigger picture, which for me is weekly $$.