Mountain View

I've been wrestling with the same issue. I would love to add a hot water unit and have that along with my 3700/4 cold unit but I just can't seem to justify the expense (of getting hot vs. another cold). I'm residential and deck work but would hate to pass on a job because I didn't have hot water. The cold with the right chems seems to be doing fine for the res work, just wonder how much faster I would go if I had the hot.

Oh heck, me too. elite_powerwash@yahoo.com

I was thinking of sponsoring a little league team. I have great memories of playing myself and like the idea of giving back to the community. If it helps business then that's great but it's not necessarily what I'm after.

With any job I usually take a bunch of pictures. When the job is complete I send the customer a thank you letter, fridge magnet, and an 8x10 with (usually) six before and after pics of the work (all on the one 8x10 sheet). I just upload the pictures on the WalMart web site and pick them up a couple of days later. Everyone has called or written me saying that they like seeing before/after pics. It only costs a few dollars and a little time to do this. I'm all about customer service (that's what puts be above the rest) and there is a marketing element in all of this too. Do any of you do anything similar?

Sounds like oxidized paint was removed. Doesn't sound like you did anything wrong.

I'm looking into getting a hot box for my trailer. I have a 4gpm/3500psi direct drive unit. I don't need hot water very often but would like the option if needed. Can't really justify dropping 5k+ on a new hot water unit. What is involved in linking a hot box to my existing unit? Do I need to keep a battery charged for the burner and fuel pump? What are the pitfalls of running this type of setup? The high pressure hose hook up isn't an issue, it's really about running the burner and pump (I assume there is some type of fuel pump for the burner fuel). Any and all advice welcome. Hugs.

Russ, I'm all ears.

Dan, thanks for the input

Thanks, plugging into an outlet isn't something I want to have to do.

Another set of before/during/after pics to bore everyone with. You can see the fence work in the background.

I agree with Beth, the DIY'ers will be there whether TGS or any other board is on the net. I've always found it helpful for my customers to have all the knowledge about what I'm doing that they can. I go out of my way to let them know what and how I do what I do. I've found that they then have a better appreciation of the process and are even more likely to let a professional do the work rather than spend their valuable time and not getting as good of results. As with phone conversations, personal interaction, or on a bbs, professionalism is the key.

Thanks for all the input. Yes, it's Baker Super Cedar. This particular job had lots of mold and patchy areas of old failed stain (Behr's as far as I know) so I had to strip the whole thing, then bleach solution, then ox solution so it was a little on the intense side.

This is a before, during, and after of a fence I just did. It's about 7 years old and never been touched, except by years of chlorinated water from sprinklers. The customer is very happy with the results. The bleached wood wasn't really furred up, just very very bleached out from years of sprinklers. There are a few spots around wood knots that didn't seem to take to the new stain (Bakers Super Cedar, two coats).

That's a thought, I may explore that with them. Actually, when I went to take the final pictures today I locked my keys and cell phone in the truck (comments not needed, thank you) so I went to a neighbors house to borrow thier phone to call my wife so she could let me in the truck (I took her out to lunch after that). I got talking to the lady and will probably get a fence strip/stain job out of it. There's always a ying to a yang!

Ahh, the master speaks words of wisdom. Actually, I did hit them pretty heavy. Any more and it would have started to run down the darn thing. Those areas were pretty saturated.

There was a whole bunch of mold on this one (that side of the fence faced north and got almost no direct sunlight) so I used a bleach solution (about 2% hitting the fence) with a 20 minute dwell time then rinsed with a 2025 tip at about 18 inches. Applied a medium strength Ox solution and was about to rinse that when the sky opened up with heavy rain and lightning so I had to grab my stuff and run! I left mother nature to do the rinse of the Ox. Went back a few days later and put on two coats of Bakers Super Cedar. I'm guessing the knots in the wood have old dry sap in them that blocked the stain from soaking in. I told the customer that I would do the best I could about the sprinkler "bleach out", he was cool with that and understood that even I can't work miracle. Like I said, he and his wife are happy with it which is what counts.

While staining a fence, a gust of wind came up and now there are a bunch of little brown spots on white vinyl siding. The only two chems I had with me were mineral spirits and bleach, neither one touched it. What is there that I can try? Really nice customer, would hate to replace the affected siding.

I was using Bakers Gray Away. Goof off didn't touch it, I tried an orange based stain remover that worked great getting rid of the stain but left an even worse orange residue, super strong stripper mix has done the best but still some left behind, including the orange residue. I'm going to try a different stripper, if that doesn't work it may come down to color matching some paint to cover it up. Jeez, the job went great until this!!

I list what I'll do and the sq. footage then give a total price with tax included. Customers don't care about how much plastic, stain, etc you use, they just want to know what you'll do and how much you'll charge. I figure the details on a worksheet and decide how much I need to charge.

Attached are a few pictures of a kids playhouse that an existing customer(already done a housewash and pool deck clean for him) has asked me to bid on. I've measured most and estimated the rest, the total is 450sq ft of wood. This will be a total strip and stain bid. I'm curious what the price range you folks would bid for this and what pitfalls there may be to this type of work (as opposed to a straight fence or deck job). The fence in the background is supposed to be replace soon and I should get a crack at that too. The customer also has an outbuilding for his jacuzzi that he has asked me to bid on. There will, of necessity, be some tree trimmin over the roof of the playhouse. Thanks in advance......

A couple of pictures of the hot tub house and one of the pool deck after it was cleaned with the hot tub house in the back of the picture.

Outside of maybe making some comments that might have gotten under some peoples skin, I don't see how you did anything wrong. If they go ahead with filing some sort of suit against the other contractor, I wouldn't say a word. If the Real Estate agent or home owners want anything from you, make them do it through a subpeona, don't volunteer a damn thing. As far as the other contractor, they gave terrible results, don't let yourself get drawn into any confrontation with them...not worth it.

This is part of a bid for a very nice house. Who did this job on the fence, I'm not sure of yet. I've asked the customer and she can't remember. But she did say it was done a 'few' months ago and she has had them back to fix some issues. The pictures speak for themselves. I spent some time talking to her about preparation work and what a difference it makes to the final result and also that the product I use is totally different to what the previous contractors used. I had to contain my thoughts about what I was looking at, didn't want to talk negatively about the other people. I will post 'after' pictures if I get the job. Fence is approx 420 Lin. Ft.

I'm real happy with R-202 from Delco. How do you guys to the ox thing? Downstream application then rinse?

They certainley used way to high of water pressure. I'm going with application of crap product on wet wood. That would explain why it failed like this in only a couple of months.