Aplus

Spider droppings are similar looking too. But they are often confined to a small area. Spider droppings can also be difficult to remove.

Thanks Paul, Based on the information you provided, I think it's safe to say there are too many variables in making your own granular mix. It's easier, faster, safer to just use regular liquid pool chlorine.

I go with Pauls' approach.

Paul, If we knew what the ppm # of liquid chlorine is, could we then duplicate it by mixing the correct # of bags with water? Maybe it isn't even worth fooling with. Like you mentioned the hassles of transfering to containers etc.... Too much additional time and hazards involved. CCHSNC, I mentioned pools because I thought it would be a good analogy regarding the mixing and usage of dry chems, for either pool usage or wash mix usage. Trying to generate some disussions and toss around ideas regarding dry to liquid conversions.

Paul, Since your team members don't like to mix granulars, why not mix up say a 55 gallon drum ahead of time, transfer to the appropriate sized containers, and distribute to the team members like that? Ron, I've had a swimming pool for the past 17 years. I try to keep the water properties in proper balance as much as possible. And believe it or not, just by following the directions, I have. I have bought granular stabilized chlorine in 25 or 50 gallon pails, usually from a mail order company called "In The Swim". A scoop in the pail is used to apply the chlorine. The number of scoops is determined by the gallons of water in your pool. I don't remember the exact percentages of chlorine and inert ingrediants. In my hand right now, I have a 1# bag of pool shock. The label lists it as containing 68% calcium hypchlorite, & 32% inert. The directions on the label say to use 1# per 10,000 gallons of water. This provides 7.5ppm free chlorine. A highr ppm is achieved by adding more product. They are implicitly stating that it's ok to measure and use by weight. The manufacturer must be confident the instructions are correct for liability issues, regarding its usage. I know Paul is probably thinking "Here we go again" :) My point is that every single manufacturer says to scoop out, by weight, the amount you need to use for your pool. It works perfect for me everytime. So why not use manufacturers' directions for at least a starting point?

Actually, 7-8 hours is way too long. 1-2 hours at best is realistic. Sodium Percarbonate is actually best used immediately. Mix only what you need for each job. The chemical reaction and the resulting "fizzing" provides the cleaning power. Mixing with warm water works best, you get better dilution.

George W. Bush has a heart attack and dies. He goes to hell where the devil is waiting for him. I don't know what to do with you here, " says the devil. "You're on my list but I have no room for you. You definitely have to stay here, so I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I've got three folks here who weren't quite as bad as you. I'll let one of them go, but you have to take their place. I'll even let YOU decide who leaves." George thought that sounded pretty good, so he agreed. The devil opened the first room: in it was Richard Nixon and a large pool of water. He kept diving in and surfacing empty-handed over and over and over. Such was his fate in hell. "No!" George said. "I don't think so. I'm not a good swimmer and I don't think I could do that all day long." The devil led him to the next room: in it was Tony Blair with a sledgehammer and a room full of rocks. All he did was swing that hammer, time after time after time. "No, I've got this problem with my shoulder. I would be in constant agony if all I could do was break rocks all day!" commented George. The devil opened a third door. In it, George saw Bill Clinton, lying on the floor with his arms folded behind his head, and his legs staked in a spread eagle pose. Bent over him was Monica Lewinsky, doing what she does best. George Bush looked at this in disbelief for a while and finally said, "Yeah, I can handle this." The devil smiled and said....... "OK, Monica, you're free to go!"

I think I may have some property in Florida you'd be interested in buying.

I've found liquid pool chlorine to have varying strengths. I buy cases of 4 gallons that are in plastic disposable bottles in cardboard boxes that are labeled as 10.25%. These are sold in super stores and regional hardware chains. I can get these for around $2 to $2.25 per gallon. The premium brands from the pool store are in the 12.25% range. However, these are sold in plastic crates and both the crate and bottles have a deposit on them. ($5), and for me, it's too big a hassle to tote crates and bottles around for the deposits. They take up too much space in my trailer, and in my garage. These are usually around $3.00 per gallon. I like to buy liquid chlorine in smaller quantities, in order to keep the supply fresher and stronger. My feeling is that stabilized granular chlorine has a longer shelf life than liquid chlorine. Maybe Paul can shed wisdom on liquid vs. granular chlorine expected shelf lifes. I would suggest that everyone conduct their own testing to determine what strength/ratio chlorine works best for them. Many brands of housewash mixes are available. Mixed and applied correctly, most will likely give satisfactory results. I used to use various home brew recipes containing ingrediants such as Tide, Dawn, TSP, Soda Ash etc, and never really was thrilled with the results. I now use Emulsifier Plus, which works fantastic for me, far superior to the home brews. It works so well I haven't had the need to try other brands. My main concern is that the detergent is compatible with chlorine. Some detergents are not. At least 75% of the houses I wash have mildew on them, and a detergent without chlorine is not going cut it. I wonder if a tool exists that can measure the strength (%) of chlorine? Paul......?

RFITZ, I also use the Emulsifier Plus and pool chlorine. I add 2oz wax and a squirt of cascade rinse aid to a 6 gallon pail. I apply with an xjet open nozzle, using a cold water 4gpm machine. I let the mix dwell for about 4-5 minutes, and also make sure to keep the windows rinsed. If that stuff dries on the windows, you're in for a real mess. I rinse the house with a #9 nozzle, which delivers about 3.9 gpm at 750 psi, attached to an Extendawand. This formula may not work for everyone due to varying hardness of water in different geographical areas. Do testing yourself to see what works.

I've got lowballers in my area too, and I've found that with the right sales presentation, and by educating the customers, I can get my fair share of the jobs that I bid. I find it very easy to discredit all the beer-money fools out there who don't have a clue how to properly clean and restore something. Now, it helps to be marketing in an area that has the disposable income to afford quality work. That's why I avoid trailer parks, older "row home" neighborhoods and such. I find higher end neighborhoods and higher end condo complexes to be lucrative and people will pay for quality work. I used to only sell 50% of house washes I bid on. I've made some changes, including a demonstration, and have raised my sales percentage to well over 90%. That proves to me that the sales presentation is more important than the price itself. I have had a few occasions where the customer has had stain already purchased and wanted me to use it. Actually, even though Behr and some others are generally crappy stain, you'd be surprised how much better they perform when the preparation is done correctly. In my opinion, most of the failures of lower-end stain is due to improper surface preparation, especially failure to neutralize.

Paul is talking about Key West, and it's exactly as he described. It's so nice to not hear a power washer for awhile.

It is possible that products achieve varying results geographically due to the hardness of the water supply.

30" 2 bar Steel Eagle. Works great so far.

My experience with Honda has all been good. I have one 11hp that is 8 years old with at least 2000 hours, and it runs like a champ. The only repair was a muffler gasket I replaced a few years back. I have a 2 year old 13hp that sometimes gets temperamental starting, I don't know why. Sometimes I'll have to pull cord 4-5 times before it starts. My newest is a 20hp on my hot water rig, and knock on wood, it has run fabulously as well. Of course if one ever fails my opinion may change.

Henry, I understand what you're saying. One often overlooked factor during product testing is the lack of broad regional testing. In other words, the differences in climate between two regions can affect the performance of a product. What works good in Maryland may not perform the same in Michigan. I think after a year or so, the real world results of Wood Tux will be available for us all. I think the product recipe might be tweaked along the way, looking for better performance. I don't doubt for a minute that Russell had his product well tested. His wood restoration chemicals are excellent. I also won't buy a new car that's in its' first model year. I figure by the second year, many of the bugs will be worked out, for the better. For this season I'm sticking with ReadySeal & TWP. Next season I may include the Tux. I could never switch entirely to one brand because each product has a limited color selection. The TWP Cedar Tone is my most requested stain, because of the specific color that it is. Nothing else comes close. The Wood Tux Honey Tone is unique, and may fit nicely in my product line up.

I know I've come close to heat exhaustion a couple times this season. The symptoms can sneak up on you when you're busy concentrating on something else. It's the headache that usually makes it too uncomfortable for me to continue working. That's when I know I've had enough, and quit for the day. It's nothing to fool around with.

In my opinion, washing a house without doing the gutters is an incomplete job. Sort of like washing your car, and not cleaning the wheels and tires. If you're getting $250 for an average sized house wash, without cleaning the gutters, and doing it in an hour, then you've been making out very well! Even on two story homes, gutter cleaning, via brush only takes me about 30 minutes. So for the same $250, my customers get a complete job, and it takes me between 1.5 and 2 hours. Considering my house wash mix and supplies costs me about $10, I don't have a problem with $240 for two hours work. I wish I could wash all houses in an hour, but the fact is that there are usually too many obstructions, like flower beds, patio furniture, trees, fences, etc in the way which slow me down.

I've got a Graco Magnum XR7, which is perfect for what I use it for. Was looking at the 190ES, but I decided that was more than necessary at the time. Here is the link for my sprayer....http://www.graco.com/Internet/T_PDB.nsf/SearchView/MagnumXR7

I can't imagine using a turbo nozzle to remove gum. Talk about a fast way to scar the concrete!

I've used the Floetrol 2 times with excellent results! The first time I used it was on a very hot, humid day, and the paint was getting funky, sputtering thru my Graco airless. I added a quart of Floetrol into a 5 gallon bucket that had about 4 gallons of exterior paint in it. I stirred thoroughly with a paint stick till well mixed. The paint sprayed much better, it seemed to atomize a little finer, yet still retained good "cling" to the surface without sagging. Thumbs Up!

Robert, On the deck that had the dark spot from the hot pan....you can probably sand out that mark to become less noticeable. The customer would likely appreciate having that reminder eliminated.

Paul, Check it out.....http://www.floodco.com/Products/floetrol.cfm

Playsets are a pain in the butt. I will only do them if asked, which is not too often. I worry about the liability of chems, stains etc, on items that children play with. We all know how ofter kids wash their hands, right? There are usually too many ropes, tarps, slides, chains, etc, that have to be protected throughout the restoration process.

It's the Behr semitransparent that has had problems, not the solid stain. A better solution for thinning a latex product is Floods' Floetrol, which works better than water. I personally do not like to thin latex stain, because it can get too runny on vertical surfaces. I've used many different solid stains over the years, and honestly, they have all performed similarly. Lately I've been using Olympic and Sears WeatherBeater for my solid stain needs. They both have good standard colors as well as tintability to almost any color. One other thing is that with custom mixed stains, you can't return any that you don't use, so I would rather have to go get another gallon than have leftover $25 per gallon stain. Sears hardwares are always nearby and conveniant for me.