Curb Appeal

Ken, Thanks for the help. Do you like any one of those particular companies' products better? Prosoco has a distributor near me and I'm going to head over there today to see what they have to say and see if I can get a test kit or some samples. Also, I just got a call from the new owner and she will spare no expense to get this restored. Music to my ears, and my wallet! Thanks again for the help and I will post pics after...

Front steps and under window...

Close ups...

Sorry about that Beth. Will know better next time... Here's more... Walls near gutters...

Thanks Bob, I'll be calling you soon and thanks for the fast shipping on my last order (X-jet M5 & pressure hose).

Where can I get a #25 or a #40 0 degree tip? The largest I could find were #10 tips. I have a 4GPM machine also and just bought both a downstreamer and an M-jet. I'll be using both to see which one I like best. Thanks...

While we're on the subject, does anyone have any thoughts or tips on getting commercial, retail jobs (store fronts, restaurant fronts, etc...)? I see dirty concrete everywhere in my town. Either no one is here offering the service or the retail stores don't want to pay for it. Any one tried to tackle this area in their part of the country? Marketing strategies would be greatly appreciated...

Thickness is good. I think it's 30 mils. The signs stick to the truck well, no sliding around. I was very happy with what I bought. Good Luck, Joel

Chris, No, I had a different guy do the signs. Believe it or not, I got them from a guy on ebay. Here's a link to his store: http://stores.ebay.com/MAGSIGNS_Magnetic-Signs_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ2QQftidZ1QQtZkm Really nice guy and turnaround was pretty fast. I emailed him my artwork and he pointed me to his auction that would best suit my needs.

De-magnetize America! Crack down on the businesses hiring these illegals and stop all forms of government freebies and healthcare. Illegals want to come here because there are opportunities here that they do not have in their own country. These opportunities need to be denied to everyone but those who play by the rules. There is no way we could afford to deport 13-20 million people in any reasonable length of time. If we made it impossible for them to find a job, go to school, get medical care, etc..., they would just go home and try it the right way. In Mexico, illegal immigration is a felony. Illegal aliens can be imprisoned for up to 10 years and/or deported. Businesses hiring illegals are subject to huge fines or even shut down. We could learn a lesson from the very government that advocates and even teaches people how to circumvent our own laws. my $.02

The Adobe programs are pretty expensive, $1200 directly from http://www.Adobe.com but it's cheaper elsewhere, and you can try them out free. There are cheaper programs out there. Just search google for publishing programs or page layout programs. One company out there has some very good products. All free. http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/ They are all somewhat limited, of course, but they are free and you can upgrade to a more feature packed version for just a little money. Look at PagePlus for design layout (compareable to Adobe InDesign), PhotoPlus for photo editing (compareable to Adobe Photoshop), and DrawPlus for vector drawing (compareable to Adobe Illustrator). PagePlus has templates available to help you get started with postcards but you can only save your work in the native PagePlus file format. Most print shops want a .PDF, .JPEG, or .TIFF file to work with. To get this capability out of PagePlus, you have to upgrade. I think you can upgrade to ver. 9 for $9.99 and it has the export to .PDF capability. There are a ton of other programs out there to do what you need to do and all of them have learning curves. My suggestion is to find a program that does what you need it to do and stick with it. With each job, you will learn more of the ins and outs of the program and you will become better and better. It takes a lot of time and energy to switch programs and go through the learning process all over again. Hope this helps...

OH! BTW, I just got my magnetic signs yesterday. What do you think? I got a really good deal on these. Got 4 full color 12"x24" laminated magnetic signs for around $60.

Good. Glad it worked this time. Yes, I used Adobe Illustrator to create my logo and then used Adobe InDesign to put it all together. I then exported it as a .PDF file and sent it to them. They got back to me very quickly with a proof and, after I accepted it, they started printing! Easy as pie. I really like them and they made it very easy. I will definitely be using them for all of my printing needs. Good luck!

First click here You'll see the options for the lists they offer on the left and a "Data Request" area on the right. Fill in your name, phone & email. In the "Geographic Area" you can enter zip codes, a city, metro area, radius around an address etc. This is the area that your list will come from. I entered the 3 zip codes nearest to my house. In the "Demographic Requirements" box, enter in the parameters for the search from the options on the left. For example, in this box I entered the following: Estimated Income - $60,000 + Home Value - $200,000 + Housing Type - homeowner Year home built - 2000 or earlier Click the "Submit" button and they will get back to you within 24 hours with the number of records that match your search parameters. In my example, they found 1700 or so addresses for households with $60K+ income, who own a house valued at $200K+ that was built prior to 2000. They will send you an email with all of your info and you can decide whether you want to buy their list or refine or expand your search. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any more questions...

I designed my own and I must admit, it's obvious. This is my first stab at advertising and if it works I may get one professionally designed. There is also some ad copy on the back along with my logo and a light background pic. I can't seem to find the file right now...

I used printdirectforless They offer 1000 postcards full color, glossy, front AND back for $125. I bought a mailing list of 3000 addresses from them for $90, and they addressed and posted the cards for an extra $115 plus postage ($0.17 each). Please, If think you may use them for your printing or mailing lists, click on the banner below to get to their site If you place an order, you'll get 20% off & I get a referral credit to my account with them. Disregard the Friday deadline. It's an ongoing promotion. :lgbounces

Thanks for the link. I am using something like it now. But I have found out that it's too slow to get the addresses individually. I recently ordered up 1000 postcards to be printed from an online print shop. Part of the services that they offer is a mailing list. I can order a list of addresses based on pretty much any criteria that I chose (home value, household income, rent or own, age of house, pets or no pets, etc...). The addresses that I pick out cost $30 per thousand. I ran a search in my city (Murfreesboro, TN) for incomes over $75,000, home values over $150,000, own the home and the home is over 6 years old. They came up with 1700 addresses in my city. The next order, I'll target Nashville. Joel

Speaking of mailing out postcards, or any othe direct mail that you would mail out, how does one go about getting the addresses in a particular neighborhood? Around here, sometimes, the house numbers jump around a bit. Do you all use an sddress service or just roll through the neighborhood and write down addresses? Thanks,

Hello all, I have a lady here that I have done a lot of work for and is a great customer. She stains her deck herself every couple of years because she actually enjoys it. She will be going back over it with the same color, semi-transparent stain. It's time again and she wants me to clean the mold and mildew off so she can stain it. I'm wondering what to use. I need to get the green and black stuff off without stripping the stain. Suggestions?

In the past, I too have liked the percarb cleaners better. So do my customers. Steve Rowlett has a house wash mix (RPC143) that he recommended to me and I think I'll try that. Plus he's right down the street. Thanks for the suggesttions...

By bleach are you referring to store bought household bleach? If so, what strength do you recommend I should mix it?

Hello Carlos, If you're still offering the contract samples, could I please have a copy. I have just picked up a couple of condo complexes and am bidding on a resturant chain and could use the insight. Thanks joelgrice@comcast.net

Yes I've used both on decks before, but that was on untreated decks prior to stain. This time I need to be a little gentler and not damage the stain under the mold and mildew which, by the way is not that heavy at all. There are just a few bad spots here and there but mostly it's in good shape.

John, what happened to your WaterJet? I just bought a 24" model with about 50 hours on it. I've put 25 more on it so far and I love it. Should I look out for anything?

I have about 180 gallons of V-Seal concrete sealer to put down and I'm looking for the fastest way to do it. my choices are 2 gallon pump-up sprayer, 4 gallon backpack pump-up, 4 gallon Shurflo battery powered rechargeable backpack, or a 15-30 gallon Shurflo setup mounted on my trailer with +- 200' of hose. Of course the pump-up sprayers are the cheapest route but I think they will be too time consuming and I don't like the idea of the inconsistent pressure. I like the portability of the Shurflo backpack but @ only 4 gallons I'd be refilling quite a bit. That leaves the trailer mounted option. It would be the most expensive option after I buy a battery (or could I hook it up to my PW battery?) and 200' of hose (it only comes with 15'). Have I missed anything? Anybody have any suggestions? Also, does anyone know where I can find tips for the sprayer wand? I'm not too fond of the hollow cone pattern and would much prefer a fan patern. thanks,