Curb Appeal

And the final pics...

Now for the after pics...

and some more...

Hi again all, I finished this deck a couple of weeks ago. Here are some before pics...

Paul, Emailed you last night but I didn't hear back from you. I'll call you on Wed. I'd really like to attend. I hope there's a slot left...

More pics... And another question I have is: This sealer is still repelling water on the vertical surfaces. It's still beading up and so is my stripper mix. How do I get the stripper to stay on the verticals when it beads up and flows right off of the wood?

Here are some pics from after 1 go at the strip. I used 8oz. (by weight) of HD80 and 13oz. (by volume) of Propylene Glycol per gallon per Russell's instructions. I let it dwell for 30 min. As you can see, it took off most of the sealer. I did notice that as the stripper was working, some spots turned dark and the stripper came off without any effort at all. Other spots did not change color and that is what you see left on the wood. When trying scratch tests, I made an "X" in one area of the sealer that was not changing color. Almost immediately the lines of the "X" that I scratched turned a dark color and the sealer came right off when I rinsed. It was almost as if by breaking the surface of the sealer with the screwdriver, I allowed the stripper to penetrate down to the wood and dissolve the sealer. Does that make sense? What do I need to do to remove the rest of the sealer? Should I apply the stripper a second or even a third time? Should I mix it stronger or let it dwell longer?

Pics before... These puddles and drips of sealer are all over the deck, especially under the rails.

I use Simple Cherry too... I was noticing that very thing again today. What is the best way to mix it? I thought about letting it sit overnight in the water portion of my mix and adding the love the next day. Any thoughts?

Thanks Russell. I call you tomorrow...

Temp outside was mid 70's. My heat is down right now so that's not an option for me at present. Other suggestions?...

Hey all. I washed a doctor's office this weekend and had a problem getting the efflorescence off of the brick. I tried NMD-80 cut 4:1 but it didn't even hardly touch it. I'll be calling eacochem later today, but I thought that I'd check with you guys first. Any suggestions?

How strong? How many oz per gal of water?

I have to say I really enjoy working with Mike at Eacochem. He threw in a sample of calcite remover with my order, just in case... Celeste, any pics would be greatly appreciated. I'd love to see this stuff in action... Thanks,

Sounds a lot like the poultice powder that Prosoco sells. Goes on like a gel and dries to a powder. It pulls the oil out as it dries. I wonder what the price difference is. How much was that stuff at Lowes?

Talked to Mike at Eacochem today and he recommended a two step treatment. GSR followed by NMD-80. He said that he thought it was white scum and that should do the trick. I ordered a gallon ($$$ YIKES $$$) and I'll post pics ...

Paul, I just wanted to say thanks a ton for the free gifts. I look forward to trying out the Limonene. Those pressure guages came just in time. I'm trying to figure out an issue with my surface cleaner and the pressure guage I have is stuck on 1400 PSI. Thanks again and I will definately be calling you soon when I plan to put together my next rig. 30hp and 8.5GPM!! I can't wait...!

Here's a building I cleaned today. I gave the PM a big discount on this one building so he wouldn't have to run it past the HOA board. This building has 3 units in it. There are 126 other units in the complex. The HOA meets next week... I love my job... Sky Album--Cottages of Lavergne

At $200 per building it would be close. I'd have to bust it and if I ran into any stubborn spots, I'd loose. Most of my residential I start at $1/ln. ft. for 1 story and $2/ln. ft. 2 story and add to that for complications. My last 2 complexes, I charged $2.65/ln. ft. plus $.70/ln. ft. for gutters but that was for another PM company. Looks like every PM and PM company may be different... Now I'm thinking $325 per building...

Thanks for all of the compliments. I'm still trying to figure out how to integrate the slideshows into my soon to be unveiled website...

Thanks Jeff. To tell you the truth, the more I think about it, the more I think my bid was too high. I was basing it on other, smaller complexes that I've done. This is the first job for this PM and I came down on my Ln. Ft. price but I don't think I came off of my price enough for the size of the complex and the amount of work. I'll come down some & see if they bite...

Hey all, I got a reply back from the PM on this property. It seems that another company underbid me. This is a company that advertises in the coupon magazine for $99 house washes. They also were the ones who washed the complex last time and the PM said that they killed a few plants. The PM said that he would rather use me but the HOA is wanting to go with the lower price. My bid was just over $16K for 130 units in 33 buildings. That works out to around $484 per building. This other company has bid $200 per building (or so the PM says)! That's almost $10K less than me. My question is how would it look to come off of my price? I can't come down to $200 per building, but I might be able to come off of it some. Or should I just let it go and let them suffer the consequences and wait for them to come to me next time. I could really use the work, but I don't want to make myself and my company look bad in the process. Any advice would be helpful...

I would also like to thank Don for setting everything up as well as everyone who spoke. I learned a lot and am putting it into practice as I write this. I've been up almost every night since getting back working on creating my website. I wish I could have been there for the all night brain picking sessions but my fiancee and I ended up staying in St. Louis and making it a Valentine's/Birthday trip. Next time I'll be eating hard boiled eggs with you Jarrod... Lastly, special thanks go out to Bob from Pressuretek for providing the Delavan pump that I won and to Don for picking my ticket! :lgsideway Looking forward to seeing all of you at the next RT...

Took me 2 hours & charged $250. But that's with some old leftover love I had. Will take less time to do the rest of them with a fresh drum. I figure about 30 min per unit. That works out to around 60 hours or so by myself. We'll see... That would be nice since my bid was just over $16K. Here's a pic of the complex. All of the buildings inside the red line except for the big blotch. That's some older rental units. Does the price sound right to you?

F-13 "Gutter Grenade" from Bob at Pressuretek is what I use. Best stuff I've ever seen. Best of all the $50 you spen on a 5'er will mix up over 100 gallons and I only use about a half gallon per house... If you're using Clorox, that has 6% chlorine in it. 6% is 6%. When I've been in a pinch and needed to get some right then, I usually go to Wal-Mart & get their store brand bleach. It's still 6% and it's cheaper. But you really need to source some 12.5% chlorine. It will cost you less in the long run. I get all of my generic chems from Univar. Check them out. They may have a distribution center near you. Univar USA -- Home Page Hope that helps...