plainpainter

So far I'd say 100% of trex composite deckings I come across have no gaps whatsoever. Pat - please send a thanks to your president for your 'no' or 'low' or however you advertize your product's maintenance schedule. As I make tons of money doing maintenance on them.

Man after the monsoons of June & July are gone - you'd think folks would be calling like mad to have work done - the 'lead' generator has been turned off. I got one estimate to finish, one return phone call to timbertech, and one job to close out - but everything is sooooo slooooowwwwww.

I'd love to - but I have to find ways to increase sales - on the bright side, even though my total sales are down - my checking account has more money due to cutting costs on all fronts and getting rid of 'duds' for advertizing.

Pat - I never pressure wash composite decks.

Unless you are working for the upper 1.5% income bracket of America, a.k.a. those with household incomes of 250k+, then doing residential work is for the birds. I think it's also indicative of your level of business acumen. I think commercial is the only real 'true' business model - and any residential model is good for 'cottage' industries.

...you start getting all these calls for exterior house painting, and you just don't want to do it anymore? I've gotten about 5 calls in the last week looking for exterior house painting quotes - and all my marketing is not focused at all on exterior house painting. On one hand - I am like damn, haven't painted a house since the spring of '07 and here is an oppurtunity to get back in - yet on the other hand, my company man-hour after materials was never more than $25/man-hour. I have no idea how to get guys anymore to help me out - and I have no ambition to attack these 150, 200, 250+ man-hour projects that people are looking to get done ultra cheap. I pressure washed an outside wall for my buddy yesterday - just 8 feet tall with 4 foot extending exposed eave construction - and I was chock full of bits of crusty white paint everywhere on my body - a good reminder of how much a pita house painting is in New England. All the years I painted - I never was able to come up with a 'system' that balanced good prep along with time management. I realized that if you spent double the time on prep - did not yield projects lasting twice as long. At some point there is a 'breakway' moment where your labor is only increasing your operation costs and not producing better results. Well back to grindstone to figure out how to get pressure washing jobs - it seems the economy and/or stock market is really beginning to come out of it's cave - yet I had much better sales earlier in the year. Hopefully after labor day will see much better results.

Can't even bid the stuff anymore - don't know how. Exterior painting I realize is a service that you offer with large crews, fast turnover, and very low pricing. It's turned into a volume business model in recent years - and nothing against that, but I am all tuckered out.

I've run out of the proverbial 'steam' when it comes to exterior painting - can't do it anymore. I continue to offer interior painting services. I never liked exterior painting - but that's where the money was when I started my business.

I bought a used one off of ebay that worked great for a week - paid $300 for it plus an additional $125 in shipping. Then I purchased $569 in parts to repair it. Still haven't repaired it though. Good luck!

That's a good idea, Adrian. But my insurance company doesn't like the idea, I have no idea why? I need to reach a critical mass in my washing and deck operations first, and if at some point in the future I will revisit the idea. As it is - I can't keep a crew busy with these projects - thus I can't keep a crew. I use to attack these homes by myself - and then look for help - but it usally ended in disaster and at best a bunch of really underperforming guys. Just moaning and groaning - I am working on enclosing my trailer today - so it will be a billboard of advertizing - hopefully it will get me jobs. It's just alot of forms of advertizing are really off/down from last year. And all my friends in unrelated industries, sign making, boat canvas, marinas, etc are all way way way down this year - which makes boosting morale really tough. Anyways - I am helping my buddy with his website's SEO - and in turn he's helping me with my trailer and advertizing. We can only forge ahead and keep trying new things.

I love modern homes - for some reason builders, architects, & building departments have all conspired together, imo, to rehash the same old 400 year old colonial design house in New England - it's time to let the past go.

I know this site is primarily comprised of purists when it comes to restoring decks with trans and semi-trans type oil based products. But I got done a solid latex stain type restoration of a deck that was previously painted. And I'll be honest - I'd rather do these all day long over oil stain decks. They're so much easier to do - and my customer today was just as happy if not happier than any or my semi-oil type customers. And other than deck boards - there is no fussing with 'fuzz' on spindles or other annoying areas - and thanks to guys like Mathew Johnson - I've got a system down pat for this type of restoring that's awesome! And the latex stain comes so nice off a brush - me and my nephew banged out a deck just brushing - where as with oil stain it's such a pita, you need a sprayer just to speed up the process. I can easily paint two $1,500 type decks a day with a helper - and three if were busting hump - just brushing. And my truck isn't all nasty with oil crap and thinners and stuff. And no worrying about two coating for saturation purposes and all that nonsense - man what a dream job - perhaps latex on decks suck, but it makes for a dream job.

Mike - do yourself a favor and just give it a bleach/dawn wash and reapply the same product. That ipe doesn't need a sealer to protect it - but just take the easy route - knowing that for next season you will dump that product. Penofin is a nightmare for contractors that have customers calling them back 2 months later wanting their deck restored for free. But how long will it take you to give a good rag applicaton of penofin, 30 minutes perhaps? And then let it go - any stain on ipe will need to be redone next year anyways. So plan for a better product next year. Now you have an idea what us contractors have to deal with all the time. But it's so late in the season now - what's the point of going through all the rigamarole of stripping it now? Wash it up and then reapply. And then let mother nature do the work for you to remove the product over the winter - so all you have to do is give it a bleach/TSP clean a little sanding - and then put a better product next spring.

OSHA has their guidelines for safe scaffolding practices - but in the end, if it's a tricky manuever that does not neatly allow normal scaffolding procedures - it's up to the technician to come up with a reasonable way of getting things done. Standing on railings is par for the course sometimes. Although, Ken, if it was me - there would be a nice rough sawn 2x10 spruce plank going between the railing and that little giant ladder.

All you need is a painters' comp rate, right?

Rick TWP 200 is 94% solids and only 30-40g/l VOC - so it's extremely compliant. My deck was only done with transparent/toner stains but tung oil based - and yes there was buildup since the client never paid for stripping - I think 5 coats in all by now. Two years ago - I washed it, coated all the horizontals and even the posts all for $700. Yesterday I finally counted up all the square footage and applied my price - came out to $2,450.

Trust me - I am much too lazy to bother - I trust you are reporting that accurately. And I have no intentions of ever bothering with that product. Rick - you ever try TWP200 series stains? It's suppose to be an all paraffin product like readyseal. I have a customer deck that's so hot - that all my past oil based stains actually peel off the deck like dried up saran wrap. I think this is the one case where a 100% paraffin makes a ton of sense since the wood is bone bone dry in full southern exposure sun all day long. I've never seen oil based stains actually peel up from the wood before?

What I meant to say - is that you are the one that reported this procedure from their website.

I agree that the penofin is a joke - but it did look nice upon application. This guy has already stripped and sanded even - he already has the product. He should just finish this year out by giving that deck a quick wash on a friday afternoon - and stain it Saturday morning - be back to business by Sunday. Perhaps do it a 3rd time in October - and let him think about a product change next spring.

I am confused - you are going to 'stencil' someone's driveway and not expect alot of angry folks?

According to Rick Petry - you are suppose to stain that thing like 3 times in the first year alone according to penofin directions. If I was you - I'd clean that thing this weekend with a bleach/dawn solution and then do another coat of penofin. And then maybe again before winter. And then report back next spring how it looks.

Rick, personal freedoms is one thing. But when we are on the job - it's business - and we have to follow standards and practices. The constitution is about protecting your rights to go home and worship the Medusa Serpent Goddess if you so choose. On the job has nothing to do with personal freedoms. Osha is a safety organization meant to protect the workers - and if you are actually working on some premises - then you too are a worker at that point in time. This has nothing to do with constitionality rights. Rick - I live in ground zero - where the industrial revolution started along the Merrimack River in towns like Lowell, Andover, Lawrence. There were no OSHA protections back then - and work conditions were awful. Lawrence was ground zero for the proletariat rising of workers demanding better pay and better working conditions - the Bread and Roses Textile strike of 1912 - it was a hard life before 1912 - most folks agree there was no middle class back then - just wealthy mill owners and the politicians that did their bidding and the proletariat. Your middle class life is a direct product of this 'revolution' of the worker demanding more rights, better pay, and safer working conditions. When I was youngster back in the 70's I still remember all these old 80-90 year olds - my next door neighbor was my 'adopted' grandmother who was born in 1901. And she had her friends over all the time - women originally from Scotland that emigrated here to work in the mills that powered this country. And one thing I remember is that they were all deaf from the high decibals of working next to textile looms for 30+ years. Before you complain about having to wear safety equipment - remember your 'roots'. We've come a long way the middle class in this country.

Don't worry, Rick, I don't think the Osha 'police' are going to comb through neighborhoods making sure deck restoration contractors are wearing safety glasses.

Well then, in retrospect, you should have cleaned his ass then instead. He had a filthy potty mouth - could have used a little bleach cleanse.

For a guy that's scared of Raccoons - you had big balls with that guy! I afraid of crazy people - but I can deal with the 'coons no problem