mas3372

Has anyone used wet wax for vinyl. If so. what conc. do you use. I want to apply thru my downstreamer. Thanks

While latin decent persons do have high work ethics and work hard all day. the one problem I would fear are customers or potential customers stereotyping you as hiring illegal workers and so forth. Rigth, wrong or indifferent, I would keep it in mind. When Hiring, go with your gut and people instincts. Dont' be afraid to say goodbye if someone isn't working out. 89 calls in one day, I would not be agraid to say bye bye, there are 88 more people to give a shot until you find what your looking for. good luck.

Well I do agree that upselliing is everything, I must disagree with upselling gutter scrubs. Scrubing the gutters is including in all my hosue prices. I did one job in which the gutters were extra, the howner said no and the house looked like crap with the dirty gutters. They are now included in everything and I charge accordingly. Foundations, wax, steps, decks, porches, gutter cleanouts etc are all upsells. And I do well with getting them. My pickle now is what to charge for offering wax. The wet wax is affordable at $92 per 5 gallons which goes a long ways. I am thinking of charging 25% of whatever the vinyl wash was for the wax upsell, or 2.5 cents per foot square - both the same in my case. My hope and question is,will this be a fair price to charge for the upsell and will I make a consistant profit with what I make now. I figure to wash and rinse a house will take so long and the wax rinse afterwards will only take about 15% of that time. by charging 25% I am covering cost of the was and makeing a the same hourly income I need to achieve to stay afloat. Any thoughts, Thansk.

Anybody???

Celeste, Would you be willing to ship to rhode island via the pet shipping service we discussed for Bawston. I have an aunt that might be interested and perhaps a few friends.

Hello, I did search but was unable to find the answer. I just washed a tannish green vinyl house. The front has a lot of chalking when you run your across it. I am guessing this is from the sun since it is highly exposed. I did a wash with 12%, simple cherry and a bit of cascade. House looked great but still had the chalking. I rinsed very well. The Home owner wants be get rid of the chalking for good or at least for a while. Any idea how. Thanks

For those who add a wax to prevent the chalking: What type of wax do you apply, how do you apply it How long does it last before the chalking starts rubbing off again. I have another call today with a white house that has some major chalking. The vinyl looks great, just chalks like crazy when you rub it. the homeowner is interested in anything to stop the chalking, temp. or not. Any thoughts or help would be great. Thanks

Celeste, Yes it is. He is already 60 pounds and strong. he become a great family pet and gets along with my girls very well. He says hello to you and roger and still answers to tator every now and then.

I havn't had a hard time mixing the cherry. What I do is put 3 1/2 gallons of 12% and add 2 scoops of cherry. The 12% with no water helps mix it better I think, I then top off with 1 1/2 gallons h20 and a splash of cascade. Put the cover on it and leave on my trailer to get bounced around on the way to the next job.

Changing to a larger orifice tip will cut down pressure and for delicate work, user a broader degree tip such as a 40 degree. Also, a dual lance wand works great for adjusting pressure with the same tip.

I tested my psi at the nozzle the other day and came up with 2600 pounds and was scared something was wrong with my pump. I bought a few more guages and plumbed them in at various points and test where the most pressure lose is and what to expect at the tip with a healthy pump. My experiement is over. Here are my findings I have a 5.6 gpm with 3500 psi. 24 HP honda Initial pressure at end of 200 feet was 2600 pounds. All pressures were with a zero degree tip. 1. Tightened all intake water lines and this helped by 300 pounds. 2. Put a pressure guage right off pump and pressure was 3600 pounds. 3. Guage right off unloader was still 3600 pounds. 4. Guage right after coil was 3400 pounds - 200 pound. 5. Pressure right after hose reel which includes downstreamer, 10' line and 1 elbow was 3200 pounds - 200 pound drop 6. After 100 feet - 3000 Pounds 7. After 200 feet hose - 2900 pounds. My pump is fine, unloader fine. Biggest problem for drop was air being sucked in intake. It is good to know that my pressure after all my plumbing is normal at 2900 - a 20% drop due to hose, coil, and reel. Just some stats for everyone. maybe they can help someone.

Tested my GPMs today, came out to 6.5 gallon per minute with a machine rated at 5.6. Any thoughts as to why it would be so much more. I am not complaining, just curious.

Hello, I got my trailer out of my storage shop today for the first time in 3 months. Driving home I had no brakes. The brake controller was showing 0 on the digital display and when I would hold the manaul control in, I would getting a reading of how much braking, but still no brakes. The fact that I am getting readings tells me the brakes wiring should be good. A friend was saying that perhaps the battery on the trailer was dead, but I thought that was for the breakway event only. Anyone have any thoughts. Thanks, MIke

Thanks for the help. I figured that. I did just go back out and cleaned the connections real good. I had all the lights and blinkers, just no breaks. I cleaned them and its now reading that they are being applied. I just have to test them tomorrow.

DAS Auto Shippers on eBay This is who my uncle and the buyer of my truck used. They are thru Ebay and make it very simple.

Have it shipped up. I sold my old tacoma on Ebay about 2 years ago and the buyer paid about $400 to have it shipped from Rhode Island to North Carolina. I Uncle just bought a lexus from texas on ebay as well and paid about 500 to have it shipped up to mass. There are many companies that do it. You would just need to request the seller drop it off to the closest shipping site or pay to have the shipper pick it up. When time is money plus the cost of a plane ticket, fuel, tolls and lodging, might be cheaper to have it shipped to you.

The biggest suprise was 200 pounds for the coil. 80 feet of coil to lose 200 pounds. It was also nice to see at what pressure I drew chems at using a shooter tip, that was higher than I thought at 1100 pounds.

Jeff, I have a few jobs lined up for my opening Day of April 7th. I have a few estimates pending and a few to give today. All residential as this is what I target. I want to get more work for PMs this year but had no luck last year. I mailed them postcards, flyers, and fax them every month but no luck. I keep on them but so dont' have much confidence I will get their work since I have noticed they usually have their own crews do the pressure washing. I just signed for one more year with the yellow pages despite not getting any work from them last year. I have sent out 3 rounds of post cards to my demographic are and are advertising in my local paper. I also sent out a flyer to last year's customers offering them last year's price this year if they schedule before July 1. Thats about it, I don't expect to get busy until the end of April, early May.

Hello, Well, I just bought my wife a new Pathfinder for New Years - we needed it anyways - so in return, I get to redo the counter tops in the kitchen. Our house is a little over a year old and I can't stand the formica. I do a ton of cooking and want the granite look. We are also adding a 10foot by 28inch wide kidney island in the center to eat at and cook at. My questions are these. Does anyone have granite or other stone counter tops they like, don't like, etc. Problems with any. We are also considering the silvinsteen and similars engineered stone. Granite is pricey but as are the others. In this area, the price is about $100 to $125 ft2 and we will have over 65 ft2 to do. So if anyone knows ways of saving money that would be great as well. Any help or advise or anything you can think of that would be of help, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Mike

These pics might be better

The kitchen was done a few weeks ago, finally got around to doing the final pics. I installed the base cabinets myself and build out the pony walls, added some corbels and dressed it out with the ply backing and baseboard. The cabinets with the glass doors and the cabinets below I added as well. Sat 12 people at the island for dinner and all were comfortable. Total price for granite for the kitchen ended up being $3200 with sink and faucet, cabinets added $2200. Not a bad deal The granite guy was cheap and awsome. Ended up going with Saphire blue and brown over the Ubatuba and are very happy with it. Just wanted share.

Pool Water, already has chlrine, water is balanced and has algecide. This might be the big break. LOL

I tried E plus at first because of the great price and etched the heck out of all my house windows no the front and my truck and wife's car. The sun was hot and the soap dried in about 3 minutes, before I even finished soaping up. Never again. I then tried the citrus cleaner from sunbrite and was very happy but got fed up with filling pails after mixing a batch in a drum which took forever. I know use Bob's simple cherry which is great because it is just the powder and it works great. I think the citrus cleaner has a slight edge on aluminum fascia and trim but not enough to go through the hassel of mixing drum and filling jugs. But one thing I am certain about, E plus is not worth the headaches. A little overspray on a car and not reallizing it, will result in ethcing the windows and clear coat. Trust me.

For a 1700 house I would be at about 4 gallons. If the weahter is warm, I would think that perhaps you are skimping on the soap or the downstreamer is not drawing enough. I too have x-jetted and downstream and for me, downstreaming is the way to go.

Celeste, You should be so proud. Ken, Thanks for pointing her out.