FLORIN

Craigslist works great for me. I get about three jobs a week thru CL. I don't know if its the area that I'm in or what but I get some really good paying jobs. Of course you get some bargain hunters that call but I could usually weed those out with me telling them what my minimums are. They call. Then I tell them what my process is. Then I give them a minimum price and a high price and tell them its going to be in between that depending on difficulty and dirtyness. Then I ask them what day is convenient for them for me to come out and do a free onsite consultation to firm up the price. Out of those calls I go out to about 70 percent of them and land about the same number. Same goes with me about landing my biggest payday thru craigslist.Now I've heard a few people gripe about people overposting on the site. I do it anyways. I post about six different ads every two to three days. This way I stay on the top of the list. I've found any longer than that and they won't call or they have called a few companys already that their business plan is to get customers on price rather than salesmanship. Most times after they call me they don't call any further once they are educated on what to expect.Well that's my 2 cents worth. Oh by the way as far as the guys that are just starting and are calling you for prices goes. I think you should be more than willing to give the a ballpark price. At least they aint gonna sell a housewash for 99.99. They will see that they can get more and hopefully won't draw the prices down. I think there is plenty of work to go around.

How big is this deck?

I'm getting a Graco brand professional airless paint sprayer from a painter. It has seen quite a bit of use and has quite a bit of overspray on it and buid up of paints on the pickup tube and sprayer gun. I would like to clean it up really good before using it for my deck staining.What chemicals and process should I use to clean it up. would like to get the outside looking perty but my main concern is the pickup tubes. tthe sprayer. and the inside of the lines and so to not contaminate the stain. What should I use and how not to damage machine.

Be persistent. Try different venues of advertising... like try Craigslist( its free). I get good results from them. Try a mailer.

I have a fence clean/strip that I am doing that I have scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. My shipment of oxalic is late and will not reach me in time to neutralizze after stripping. Is there an issue with applying the oxalic the day after or it has to be just after the strip? Normally I apply right after, and of course its not cost affective to have to go back to job to neutralize but would not like to have to call the customer and reschedule and would not like to waste time that could have been used for stripping.

NICE!!!! Great job

Thanks. ended up rescheduling. Now for future reference..... applying the neutralizer day after does not affect the quality of work correct? its just the safety issues of leaving the caustic out.

Went out to see this deck today. It is aprox 1500sf counting all the rails and posts and steps. It has badly peeling PAINT on it. Im thinking its a latex or acrylic or something. The chips are not briddle, its kinda rubbery. Can all of this junk come up with a strong strip or does it all need a hard sand to remove all so i could put a wood stain on it. He wanted me to just strip and repaint with same stuff but i got a feelin it will do the same thing in couple years. Or is there a paint that can be applied succesfully to a deck. Its a gorgeous home with a great view in a great neighborhood and am pretty sure customer wont be too cheap. But I am wondering if its just a lost cause and will be more headaches than its worth. How would you guys tackle tghis one?

Bid it for $5200.00 plus being on contract for at least the first maintanance. Even though after all my educating on why he needs it restored and why paint is bad for his deck he said he needs to think about it. Most likely will end up going with a painter that will repaint it for 500.00. If maybe I was a better closer maybe i would have gotten it. Ahh, no lost sleep here. Im not writing him off though, ive had customers come to me when i thought there was no way i was going to get the job. Wont play the chasing a price game with them to get the job. Thanks for the info all

Hello Thomas.Here is my pricing advice.... You have to figure it on your own.Sorry, don't mean to sound like a ***** but each company here is different. For starters demographics plays a lot into the bid. Even though we service the same state, region by region is different. Also every company is different on what they need to make on a job to survive. A company that has very little expenses or has the experience and machinery to do it a lot faster is able to price it lower and then if you base your price on their suggestion you will be in trouble.My suggestion is this... Figure out how much chems and gas you will need. Then figure out how much time realistically you think it will take you to do the job. Then price it to where it comes out profitable for YOUR business. I have gotten in trouble myself by going on another persons price range.Another piece of advice. I have found apartment complexes to be really cheap. I'm guessing the reason they wanted you to just spray it is because they don't want to pay. I have bid on quite a few apartment complexes and got very few that was willing to pay what I needed.Sorry I can't be much more help. Give me a buzz if you have any questions. GOOD LUCK.

DITTO. I used that guide a lot when first started out. Some pricing was in line on it and some were not. As the years went by I adjusted my pricing to where it fit my biz and my demographic. As for the 39.99 wash thing... hey I believe there is guys out there doing it for that price. Don't concern yourself so much with that guy. You are not in competition with him. ... I see so many threads about the "lowballers" and how it hurts the posters business and so on. I personally don't think it hurts mine. if anything the "lowballers" help my biz. I get countless jobs where someone hired one of these guys and after the job was done then realized the true worth and eventually call a company like mine either to fix the job or after a couple years they try to look them up and realize they are out of biz. And you know what? To some customers it is all that they want. Some guy to come out and squirt some water on the house and that's it. The don't care that its not really all that clean as it could be with another company.I love the Mercede and Hyundai analogy. If you are a Mercedes company you compete with BMW and Jaguar and not with Hyundai and Kia. Even though people out there find value in the lower end ... there is equal number of people that understand that quality, customer service on a higher level demands a higher price.Ok I'm done jabbering now.

thanks all. ill do a little more research on strippers available for this and cost and ill give him a bid on monday. we will see.... if he goes for it it will be one hell of a nice deck.

the customer is ok with a solid. When he called me he was exppecting me to just strip it and repaint it with the same stuff. The guy that did his deck 2 years ago sold him on that its better to apply an exterior paint rather than a wood stain. He can't get ahold of the "contractor" for some reason. Go figure.Ill give him the bid and explain the right way it should be done by using the correct line of strippers and stains. The sad part is though is he is probably gonna call a painter that will just tell him "sure we will repaint it for you" and then he is gonna be in the same predicament in two years. Gonna try. will see what happens.

Here is one im working on that has the mark of the HOME DEPOT ZORO. It had a solid stain over it so it was done a while ago.

I have been using Cabots mainly. Tried wood tux. Liked it. Just tried IN-WOOD stain on my last three decks and I love it. I love the way it looks and goes on.

I use a trager smoker/grill. All comes out good

This is a deck ive been working on. It was in pretty bad shape. It had on it what im guessing is acrylic cause it came off in pieces like gooey skinny tape. i removed all surface sealant except for this spot i pic. my dilema is there is quite a bit of discoloration in the wood that to me still looks like stain but for the life of me will not come up. I've applied stripper on this deck three times and it wont budge a bit. Everytime i went hotter to the point i am getting really fuzzy. maybe you guys could shed light what im doing wrong. Im wanting to put on a transparent stain similar in color as wtw warm honey gold. maybe a little darker. First pics are the befores. second set are after strip and brighten

this deck has wand marks all over the stairs. even a zero tip slash that i have to sand out from previous attempt of homeowner resto. im thinking they did a botch clean strip before and just applied new stain on half a$$ stripp.

first pic is of the one spot of sealant remaining. the others are the after strip the wood is still wet

60s on my end. Its been raining on and off last week and we had rain two weeks straight prior to that. Just wondering when summer is gonna be here. Got three decks waiting on the weather.

what i use is an old lid off of a paint bucket. it has 3" screw cap towards one edge that i could screw back on when done and it still has chems in the bucket. when you take the cap off it has a thick rubber seal that was meant to be able to pull out and pour thru the 3" hole but i left it on and drilled a hole just smaller than the hose and i pushed it thru. it is really snug air tight. I had to cut some slits on the other end to release some air from the bucket so it dont squish the bucket. the hose actually stays in pretty good. ive even lowered the bucket off a roof by the hose with half a bucket full of chem and it held. Also if the bucket tips only a few drops ever spill.

Hello all. Got this small fence that goes around a koi pond full of fish. It has rose bushes and all sorts of plantage next to the fence. This is on a property that I am doing a decent sized wood playground resto and lots of wooden patio furniture. How would you guys/gals go about doing this fence with minimal plant/fishy damage?

Just be proactive. Dont just advertise in a few spots and sit home and wait for the phone to ring. Get out there and knock on doors if you have to. Offer a free house wash in a neighborhood that looks promising in terms of demographic criteria you are after. Have signs up while ur washing. Hang door hangers at all the neighbors when you are done. Offer a referral fee to any existing customers you do have to get you more biz.

the ones that beat around the bush and be sneaky and i realize that they are just others trying to get in biz i usually throw them off. But had a couple that were honest right away and told me what they were doing and were trying to start a biz and need a general idea... those guys i helped. Told them average pricing that i do, tecvhniques and so on. Rather them be in the same price range as me and not screw up peoples homes... there is plenty of work out there.