Mountain View

Rick is correct that I'm using Ready Seal (Natural Cedar). The days are in the mid 70's around 60% relative humidity mostly sunny, nights are in the mid to upper 50's and mostly clear. The mornings show some dew on grass and vehicles. I'm going to try a few slats on the fence around noon tomorrow, if it soaks in well then I will do the rest of the fence. This is a new housing development with houses still going up and significant potential business. The customers are very patient but they want it done as much as I do. As always, input from all of you is very appreciated.

What techniques and/or products do you use to remove graffiti from a recently stained cedar fence? P.S. All of you that I haven't yet put on my links page, I will take care of it soon. Been out of town on family business.

I believe you are correct. I started out using Baker's for the first couple of years. It's a good product but I always walked away thinking it should have more "oomph" to it. On a deck for a close friend, I have put on two treatments of Bakers over 4 yrs. It is fading at a faster rate than I, as a customer, would consider acceptable. Baker's seems to sit on top a bit while RS seems to soak in better, more of a wood tone than a wood color, if that makes sense. I now use RS exclusively. The end result is nicer, more of the wood grain shows through. The longevity of RS will be watched closely.

I love what you said to him. Beating a dog like that is a cowardly thing to do. I had one customer micro-manage what I was doing in a similar fashion. I finished the job and it looked good but I won't be returning any of his calls in the future.

I've been noticing a fair amount of professional rigs for sale locally on craigs list and ebay. In your opinion, how many start ups don't make it past a year or two? I get the feeling many of them think, "Hey, that's easy, I can do it" and drop several thousand on a trailer rig only to find out it's not that easy. Did they underestimate what it takes to sell a service to people, charge too little and get frustrated because they can't make money, don't realize the amount of work involved to get something like this off the ground? Probably all of the above but I'm interested what others think. I'm in my fourth year part time, wood and residential only for now, and am happy with the income I make (profitable from year one). I may pull my finger out and get more aggressive next year.

Very nicely done. Music goes well with the video. I'll have to do one myself.

I don't care what anyone says, fresh Ready Seal Light Brown, 8ft tall Cedar fence, 6 inch wide planks, 300 linear ft, at least five years old, stripped of solid brown garbage ; the pictures don't even come close to showing how good this fence looked when I was finished. This is a once in a year project. Boo Ya!!

Those are grass stains from the gardener weed eating the lawn. Sanded but that was the best I could get; well, without grinding deep into the wood and maybe making it look even worse. It's been a lesson to me when it comes to wood to follow the physicians creed, "do no harm". Sometimes I don't get things to a sterile condition but, based on my customers reaction and my "trained eye", the end result is very satisfactory. Edit: Based on Ready Seal "spreadage" rate, this fence should take just under 19 gallons, I put 23 gals. on this bad boy.! Don't worry Ken, the budget was for 25. Edit due: This was an insurance job due to hail damage. The insurance company's original payment only covered 2/3rds of the cost. The owner asked if I would talk to the insurance company to explain the "above the adjusted amount" of my quote. Five minutes of talking to the company and explaining to them the reasons for my quote figure, owner got full amount of my quote for the job. No money out of owners pocket.

Before

Looks nice. Is wood tux going the way of the dodo?

My Daughter went to the midnight showing at our local multiplex, something like 16 theaters. All the theaters were cleared out after the last "normal" showing of the evening and then all, yes all, sixteen theaters were filled back up showing ONLY Harry Potter! I think I'll wait for the weekend matinee myself.

Hey, the music was very soothing though.

I stand corrected. I didn't want to make it sound like I adjusted the unloader all the time, I only do it once then vary the tips according to what I'm doing. Your point about max flow is valid. I am now having one of those "duh" moments.

I'm not the most expert at this but; when the unit is running I held open the trigger gun and adjusted the unloader (via the nut on top) until I had the desired pressure measured with an inline pressure guage mounted right after the pump. I chose to set it around 3000 psi, the unit will go to 4k. I'm using a buffer tank so even when I'm using the pw, there is the "unloaded" 1k of pressure feeding back into the buffer tank.

I started with 3k seed money, basic equipment and trailer. Paid myself back and only upgrade when the business can pay cash for it. I agree about others financing too much and then going bust.

I never power wash my vehicles, it doesn't do as good as the ol' bucket and brush technique. It may sound funny but I've found that Johnsons Baby Shampoo gives the best results for a car or truck wash.

This is one to walk away from for sure.

How many of you include driveway and patio sealing as part of your services? I don't at the moment but am getting some calls wanting it done. Is there anyone (not local to me of course) who would be willing to train me in exchange for free labor? Thanks.

Overlooking the obvious, going down the wrong road to find the problem, slapping my head when it turns out to be a 5 minute fix......welcome to my world!!

I can't help but be curious why the name change.

Yeah, I'm talking about clear sealer for concrete driveways.

Mike, Can I give you a call about this later today. If so, let me know a good time. Thanks

I have the 20in General Pump brand sold by Northern Tool. It has worked very well for me. However, the next one I get will have wheels as opposed to a "floater" type.

I like the layout. Simple. I can only speak for myself; I don't break down my bid into labor and materials. I may break it down into parts of a job ie: deck, fence, house wash but I don't break out labor and materials. The customers don't really care about that, they just want to know how much the job will cost them and what will be done. I'll certainly break it down for my purposes to track my costs though. Just my way of doing things.

I've used Bakers for the last couple of years. I tried Ready Seal on a job and was pleased with the results so I will continue to use it next year.