John Orr

Sorry, I was out of town for a few days. Yes, it works very well on old and new stains.

I tell customers that I get wet for a living, so a little rain doesn't bother me...though I hate looking up into the rain. Standing outside, on wet ground, holding a long metal rod in my hand when there is lightning in the area does not seem to be a good idea. For an additional $5/mo on my Sprint phone, I get The Weather Channel radar. I can tell if its going to be a shower, or an all day rain or if its likely to have lightning.

The very best way, I have found, to remove oil stains is with kitty litter - the cheap stuff. You can use oil dry if you like, its the same thing (clay) just more expensive. Apply a layer on the spot, then grind it in with your shoe, until it is reduced to a talcum powder-like consistency. Sweep it up and repeat. This should remove the stain completely. The principal is that clay absorbs oil, but oil gets in the pores of the concrete and by pulverizing the clay, it gets down into the pores and sucks the oil out. John P.S. The concrete/oil stain must be dry.

I usually add that T!@#$%^n's quality is not just my opinion...Consumer Reports no longer includes it in their long-term testing of deck treatments.

OK, I'll admit it, I too once did the wrong house. I had been given the right house number, but somehow misread it. The homeowner wasn't supposed to be home and I washed the house. When I was done, I rang the bell (just in case they were home and I could collect) and the homeowner answered. They thought that the homeowners association had ordered the cleaning, so they didn't stop me. I apologized for the mix-up, assured them it was free, and gave them my card and asked them to consider my services next time. (They were very pleased with the work.) Fast forward 3 years. Last week, I received a call from one of my regulars in this same neighborhood, wanting to schedule his home for cleaning. He informed me that he is now the president of the homeowners association and that they would like a proposal to clean all 125 condos on an annual basis. (These are 1400 sq ft, individual units.) There are several board members that are also regulars, so there should not be a problem getting this passed. This neighborhood should go a long way toward "filling-out" my Feb schedule. Each unit takes about 30 to 40 minutes - max - to clean and will take even less when we can do them all at once. (I normally charge $150 each, but am thinking $100 per with a contract.

Jeff, there are always going to be low-ballers. They are not your competition. McDonald's is not competition for Ruth's Chris or Outback. You are not serving the same customers. Advise people of the difference, and why they might want steak instead of mystery meat, and you just might see an increase in your bottom line.

I use the easy-pull guns from Northern Tool (about $30).

I recently installed a ZK1 on my HydroTek 8 gpm/3000 psi 2-man rig and I LOVE it! A few years ago, I was turned on to the K-7 on my 4000/4 rig and it made a huge difference in ease of use/fatigue. Aside from not getting rocked every time I pull the trigger, not having pressure in the hose is awesome when pulling hose around a building. A relaxed hose is MUCH easier to deal with. As a bonus, if you need to swap guns, it can be done without shutting off the machine.

I too agree with Ken. If you give a homeowner nothing else to go on but price, that is the information with which he will make his decision. Unless you are the lowest priced guy in your area, you have lost more than you have saved by giving a quote over the phone. So, I give them more than price. The name of my company says that I am different and I add my website to all my listings/ads. By the time a customer calls me, he will either know all about my company or have questions before we ever get to price. I do not "negotiate" prices. When asked if I can do better, or confronted with a lower quote, I explain that when asked for an estimate, I assume they wanted my best price up-front. To lower it now would be an insult to them - meaning I was trying to overcharge them to begin with. Since the majority of my business is repeat and referral, I can't afford to charge everybody different prices, I must stay consistent.

I recently did a house that size, including the (one car) driveway, in 1 1/4 hours - by myself. The house was VERY green. Hot (130 deg) water will take a lot of time off of each wash. If my assistant was with me that day, it would have been 45 min. Thursday of this week, we did a 2400 sq ft, 2 story vinyl home - including gutter wash, 2 car driveway, a large, covered porch and a hot wax rinse - in about 1 hour 20 mins...including setting-up and tearing down. $225 with coupon from the Yellow Book. P.S. No x-jet, no ladder.

I have no problem giving quotes over the phone. In fact, at $3/gal and 13 mpg, I prefer it. I always offer to come and look, and tell them that to give an exact quote I will need to see the house, but my price is 10 cents/sq ft - give or take. Most of my customers' homes are between 2200 and 3000 sq ft., so the average charge is $220 to $300. People understand that the price of gas makes it expensive to do "free" estimates and I rarely have anyone insist on an in-person estimate. John P.S. I get the job most of the time - 80% or so - for two reasons: I wash houses without pressure; I was willing to give an estimate over the phone; and the fact that I answered the phone at all. People are busy and appreciate getting service when the want it.

Can you get your money back? CWF is hard to apply, hard to strip, and looks like !@#$ very quickly. It peels instead of fading. I'm sure if you do a search, you will find the fond remembrances of many regarding this product.

Don't forget the blower so that you can blow-off the decks and drives before you seal them.

Whatever you do, DO NOT use more than a few hundred psi on this brick, or you will remove the coating - which is baked on, but usually fragile.) Your normal housewash mix is fine and oxalic on the rust is OK (rinse after washing and rinse after applying acid. If you don't rinse before applying the acid, the chlorine will neutralize the acid.) but as we don't have red clay around here, I can't advise you on that.

Definitely Steven Rowlett http://www.rowlettpressure.com/ for chems and I have recently found http://www.higherpowersupplies.com to be a good source for parts.

My solution is to reach behind and hold the hose in your left hand, so that there is no pull on the right. It makes it easier to manage the hose as well. As I walk, I am pulling the trigger/steering the sc and holding the hose in my left. Try it, it works for me.

You won't regret the switch.

Seriously, get the easy-pull gun and a flow-type unloader. Not having to fight the gun and the hose all the time makes a huge difference. Not having pressure in the hose when you pull the trigger not only relieves the stress in your hand/arm, it relaxes the hose so that it pulls easy - like when you are rolling it up. The swivels swivel and it won't fight back. I had heard of flow-type unloaders for a few years, but never understood the need...until a round table in NC a few years ago, where I was able to try a 3500/5gpm rig that had one installed. I bought one on the spot and installed it before my next house wash. I just installed a K-1 on my 2-man 3000/8gpm rig. Ahhh...

Am I missing something? Around here, town homes are usually grouped in sets of 5, each approximately 1600 sq ft. Duplexes come in pairs (side-by-side or up and down). In any event, I won't tell you to pass, but I will answer your question on the surface cleaner. The one from Northern (I have one) is fine, but unless you have higher gpm's (5 and up) I would stay away. The thing is very heavy and not fun to maneuver. I would suggest that you use this income opportunity (assuming you do the job) to reinvest in your company and buy a better sc. Barring that, I would suggest that you rent a good one. Locally, I can rent a Big Guy for about $120/week.

The easy-pull guns work very well...especially with a flow-type (ie: K-7) unloader. With no pressure in the hose, you can pull the trigger with your pinkie or even the side of your hand. Due to my ignorance of the issues involved, I gave myself Trigger Finger. The middle and ring fingers would lock closed and had to be, painfully, pried open. I've had 3 surgeries on my hand in the last 6 months, and am still recovering. (No more locking, but hard to extend fully. They tell me it will get better.)

Before I knew the dangers of caustics, I had an incident using a backpack sprayer that should have had me in the ER. Real bad burns. Fortunately, my wife is an RN, so I had the best of care. (I wonder though if she secretly enjoyed the dressing changes!) I still use a backpack, but if there is a leak, I wipe it down asap with either oxalic or vinegar (which is also useful for muffler burns).

Is it possible the the "spots" are actually clean areas? Could you try wiping some more on the door (what could it hurt?) and see if they will blend-in?

Here's another use for oxalic...mulch! When irrigation rust is a problem, many times it will darken the mulch. A light spray of oxalic will brighten the mulch and make it look new. The homeowner will be amazed.

No one cares as much about a business as the owner.