mas3372

Thanks for the fast reply. I never have used high pressure. When I get to the windows I rinse them with my dual lance on soft of pressure as I can get it. Yesterday I out giving a quote when the Homeowner and I noticed the guy across the street was having his house done by my biggest competition in the area. This guy has been doing PW for 15 years and yesterday he was 12 inches away blasting the windows full bore. I explained to the customer the myth as if I new for certain it was true and today I did the job. Another good selling point.

I just ordered Shimmer from sunbrite. I called and was told that you can x jet it on and rinse off and it works great. I should have it in a few days and when I try it out I will be sure to let you know what I think. It is cheap to. $12 a gallon which dilutes to make 10 gallons.

Whats even worse than heat exhaustion is heat stroke. I had it about 3 years ago while fighting a brush fire. Being an EMT as well, I should have know what was happening, but in the heat of the moment I didn't care to much. but then it caught up and off to the hospital. When you get hot and dizzy and light headed, take a break, grab some water and losen your clothing. When you stop sweating, that is bad. This is when heat stroke takes effect. Your body stops sweating therefore it loses its ability to cool itself. Not good. Avoid it. Take breaks, drink water or sports drink with electrolytes in them. Sunblock as well.

Hello, Have my first aluminum siding house tomorrow to do. Just got the job this AM. I have on hand, powerhouse, emulisfier plus, 12%, simple cherry, prodigy (fleet wash), and tuff stuff. Not really any oxidation or mold. Just wants it washed because he wants to paint the aluminum siding. My question is which of these would be safest and most effective for the aluminum. I have read that it is easy to take the paint off and although he intends to paint it, I don not want to remove paint in the event he dosn't paint it for sometime. Thanks

Thanks Ken, The bleach, TSP and Sodium Metasilicate for two step cleaning or for paint preping wood or both. And of course, I have yet another question. I noticed that sunbrite supply sells "shimmer for glass cleaing" I will call them on tuesday to pick their brain but I am impatient so I figured would ask a bit here as well. Has anyone used this and if so, do you spray on and let sit before rinsing like the windex stuff at the local home cheapo or do you scrub like normal windows. If this works well as spraying on and wiping off, I would love to offer this as an add on. Do the windows exterior as well for $x.xx per window. Just a thought.

Thansk Rod for the help. All the detergents and cleaners I have are alkaline, what would be good acidic cleaner to purchase for future two step cleaning. One more question, I will be doing a wood sided house as a paint prep in the next week or two. What would you recommend for a paint prep wash for painted wood. thanks again.

Cold Stone rocks. Yeah it's expensive but worth it. Dont' be a fool and get a small, for 99 cents more you can gain 15 pounds. My wife and I will on occasion skip dinner and go to coldstone for a dinner/desert combo. My oldest daughter loves it. We eat healthy most of the time so it is a nice treat on occasion. Oh yeah, this forum is about pressure washing. Sorry

thanks for the help guys. I use an x jet so I am thinking one gallon simple cherry,1/2 gallon 12%, 3 1/2 gallons h2o. Wish me luck. I am looking foward to putting an aluminum siding under my belt.

excellent advise. That is what need. thanks. I will try the simple cherry as advised. The prodigy is butyl base as well so that is no good. What will the butyl do, take the paint off?

I liked it. Works great and is very easy on windows. I x jet it so I can't help with downstreaming. As for masking bleach, nothing can do it completely. The stuff smells great but once you add bleach, you can smell it

I have had fair results with the aluminum as you describe with the gutter zap.

1 Million plus equipment. The price difference for the state minimum of 300k to 1 million was $85 per year. It would be irresponsible not to go with the million in this case.

I am 26 and started this year. Full time I have the greates job in the world as a firefighter and love it, even on the bad days. However, with 4 days off at a time and two little princessess at home, some extra money is nice. Did about 6 months of research and educating myself and here I am. 2 months into, still as green as can be, but so far I must say I like.

I started out trying to downstream but couldn't get enough chem on the house so I went with the M5 X jet and love it. The 5 gallon bucket can be a pain but I keep the lid on and even if it knocks over, it won't leak. I can reach about 30 feet with a straight stream and get good chem on there. I love having the M5 at the end of a dual lance 4' wand. I get the adjustable spray pattern with the M5 and adjustable pressure with the dual lance, best of both worlds. I am still open to donwstreaming for the regular old, not to much mold houses but the tip sizes and downstreamer options make my brain shake. I have a 5.6 gmp 3500 psi machine, can anyone tell me what size injector and what tips will jive.

HELLO, I am using gutter zap from sunbrite and it works well. I have been brushing it on with a brush on a 24 extention pole. I had some homes today with 3 stories on the back and could barely get the brush up there and not get enough cleaner on or leverage to get really clean gutters. Is there a better cleaner to use, a better method. This stuff is expensive so I don't see x-jetting it to be cost effective. Is there a house cleaner that will also clean those annoying black marks off? Any help would be great Thanks

Yes, much teak is being recycled as it should. But there is very little control in asia when it comes to lumber harvest as there is in the americas. Those chairs are very nice and I agree would be costly to be made properly. I would still give it a shot, you never know. And yes, joblot and other bargain places sell teak furniture. Just make sure it is teak. Also, the craftsmanship is usually found to be sub-par by my standards. But that dosn't mean you can't find a good deal.

Most wood used in production furniture does come from indonesia, thailand, india, philipines, etc. Kiln dried is optimal but for furntiure, I use 8-10% moisture. Exterior fruniture will of course vary. One side clear means just that. One side of the board is clear of knots, holes, cracks and other imperfections that are noticible with the naked eye. Select and better is clear both sides. Hopefully they used the clear side as the exposed side. Straight grain means just that, the grain is straight or more appropiate, it is regular in apperance. Free grain's definition is beheld in the interperter. I see free grain as everything less than straight, wavy or just out of sorts so to speak. Others see free grain as birdseye, quilted, tiger, burl, flecks, etc. Teak is a beautiful wood that will last for ever. However, don't rule out the other indonesian hardwoods. Many of them are just as durable and just as attractive. They are just plenitful because that part of the world has the climate, land and cheap labor to harvest such plantations. Many stores such as pottery barn, crate and barrel, peir one imports sell almost all imported furntiure made in indonesia from there plantation grown hardwoods. Before you go and buy anything, I would suggest this. Cut out some pics of what you are looking to buy and find a couple of local woodworkers. If you can't find one, call a local millworks and ask them to refer you to someone. They will probably be able to make you some one of a kind or at least "to your spec" furniture for about the same price. Probably a little more but it would be worth it. Especially with you being in New Jersey, wood is cheaper there like it is in north carolina, san jose and florida. A vast amount of the wood being imported to the US comes in those areas. Just one quick note on plantation grown lumber. They do a great justice to prevent more forest from being destroyed, but please don't see them as a replacement. A forest needs all the ingredients to produce the ecological phenomenom that they are. Planting a bunch of tress in a row dosn't cut it. A forest needs animals, plants, bugs, trees, weather, mud, dirt, algae, mold, vines, rain, sunlight, disease and everything else, good or bad, to be a beautiful forest. Although these plantations help preserve the forest from being destroyed, they are not a replacement. Moral here, go plant an American Chestnut tree

The lumber yards are wise to the wood species. Trust me. It is more convienant for them to play along since they benefit as well. Most of the time the lumber suppliers and harvester will only give a false name as long as the phantom wood possesses the main qualities it is imitating, ie. grain, color, density, rot resistive nature, etc. You will not find someone that will take pine and name christmas tree maple for instance. They would never get away with it. Philipine mahogany although it is not a true mahogany, it still features some of the same traits as true mahogany. Its all in the game.

I finished my first deck strip and seal today. When I priced it I priced it for the rare deck and she also wanted the landing and step on her side door as well. I told her it would be a freebe to help get the deal. Long story short, that little landing would have been an additional $75, not a whole lot of money, but it would have covered the materials. I have found that it is very easy to under price something because of no spindles, just a little landing, she's an old lady, looks easy, etc, etc, etc. But then I have found that when you are 3/4 of the way thru all I think about is why did I underprice this job? I am doing the work, I should be getting paid for it. Like everyone else says and I am now realizing, it's cost what it costs. Thats all there is to it. And as celest says, if you touch it, scrape it, strip it or seal it, you better charge for it. Moral of the story, don't adjust your price. charge what the job merits.

The problem with wood is that there are so many sub species of trees. This allows anybody to name any wood anything they want. The only real way to make sure you have a mahogany or an Ipe or soforthe is to know the woods latin or botanical name. Each main species will have identical first names for the wood.

No problem. Glad I could help. Baku` is very plenitful in my area and very poplular. When taken care of it will last for ever. Thanks for calling me Mas, I have been meaning to put my name with my info and always forget, so I will do that right now.

great article dan, it is amazing what some science can endure.

Luan I believe is its own creation. It just has the same color of mahogany. Rick, The wood you have is a mahogany. There are several species of which, mostly named from where they are found. It looks like a very popular mahogany found in my area that is used for exterior decking, porches, etc. Around here it is known as Baku` mahogany which I believe is native to south america. Most wood referred to as Genuine Mahogany are the pure woods such as African and south american in which the wood is very straight grained and tight with little imperfections and used for furniture. Most sub species such as Baku' and the other 100 names are less than furniture grade, will have swirl grain, small insect holes, whiteish or other off color streaking. Many boards from the same bundle will be different shades. But you defintley have a mahogany there.

feel free to ask away. Wood is facinating to me. one more tidbit. The purple heart medal first given by George washington was a heart carved out of purple heart wood. Not sure of how he obtained the wood, I believe it was from a ship built in south america but I am really unsure on that. Purple heart is still one of the most commonly used woods for ship building and exterior construction given it's outdoor resistive properties.

One more tid bit to bore you some more. With the constant drain on the rain forest in South america and lack of control in wood harvesting in asia and africa - many woods are becoming so rare and close to being gone. Leading to high demand and higher prices such as like teak, rose wood, etc. Scientist developed a truley amazing wood called lyptus. A hybrid of two eucalyptis trees, it is grown on plantations in Brazil. This is wood is hard like hard maple, the color of cherry and the grain of mahogany. A rather attractive wood when finished properly. These lyptus trees grow straight up in very straight bores and has no branches. The lyptus tree achieves full growth at 15 years as opposed to 30-40 years that many other trees require. The best part is that when the tree is cut down, the stump just grows another tree. A few more discoveries such as these can ultimately save what we cherish as forest. do a search on lyptus if you have a chance, very interesting.