plainpainter

The steering knuckle - it's like a double ended u-joint just before the steering box. Hopefully I have one for tuesday - the van is almost undriveable, especially in a side wind at highway speeds. I dragged the trailer to a job - and ended up doing the 'S' dance all the way there.

That's what the mechanic said!

fill your signature.

I think they're two opposing chemical reactions - one chem is trying to oxidize and the other is trying to 'change' it's target. I don't think the two work well with each other - but it will be interesting to read others' thoughts on this.

Two things you did right, firstly you introduced who you were and secondly you had the intentions of starting a biz - this guy just wants to make a few bucks.

Oh I just had one of these wee-wees just call me - god, how uneartly annoying. 'I'm just asking how much it would cost...' over and over and over again. 'Oh you mean you can't give a quote over the phone?' Guy lives in apartment building wants to know how much to wash the building - it was so blatantly obvious he wanted to do the job, he even made the verbal mistakes of putting himself in the situation. I don't understand why these douce bags just don't own up to what they're doing - pumping for info. This is my favorite line - 'I don't know, I've never done it before - how much would you charge?' LOL

You know how guys get into posting vids/pics of their 'rigs'. I took my washer out of winter storage a couple of days ago and took off the milk crates and 5 gallon buckets to clean off all the debris from my trailer. And I looked at my equipment - and it's so friggin puny, I had to laugh, everything takes up perhaps 15% of the total foot print of my trailer. I think I am going to do a funny video of my equipment so everyone can have a good laugh. Funny thing is I easily gross well over a 1k a day with it when I am busy.

I'll be honest and say I think efc-38 mixed at 8oz/gallon and applied directly will make short work of that deck.

Lots of new guys here, go over to pressuretek.com and look under the chemicals section for good soaps to clean with.

That's an interesting picture - do all readyseal 'clear' decks grey that nicely?

Downstreaming chems is nice - because if you are 300 feet away from the trailer - adjusting pressure in the line is the difference between applying chems or rinsing. Having pumps is just another factor - and now you have to make a whole lot of chem and a dedicated chem tank. Roof cleaning - pumps and chem tanks are a necessary evil - but if you can get away with out them for stripping - why not?

If you want a linseed based stain to bind to new ipe - you will have to saponify the natural oils out of the wood - and you need NaOH to do that. And follow with a harsh 8-9 oz/gallon straight oxalic to 'burn' the sugars and tannins out. Timberoil which is nearly identical to readyseal, I think, doesn't even want to penetrate new pressure treated from my experience - let alone ipe?

I did the exact same thing on the exact same day. There were two really nice days I could have washed - but overnight temps were an issue - and just needed to clean 'house' - and needed a few days of straight nice weather. Looks like Sunday will be a fabulous day to work - but monday will be gross again. At least the glycol is all flushed and the honda motor still works - and no leaks.

I've used bleach to clean wood for years - it's like any other chem, just make sure you use it correctly.

Ok - yet another clueless homeowner couple - give them a smashing deal to wash their whole house, retention wall, concrete steps, and prep their little wood deck for it to be re-stained - I was under $400. And just as I think she is going to sign on the spot - she says 'we're still waiting on other estimates' - 'And by the way - do you give a warranty on this?' I almost went running out screaming - but I explained trying to warranty her home from getting dirty again from mother nature is a little bit of a tall order. I am about to give up on young couples with 'tots' running around the home looking for a 'deal'. Honestly - getting multiple estimates for a housewash - I have noticed that I hardly ever never get a job from a young couple. Oh well - maybe in ten years when they aren't so young - I'll get their work. But sometimes the lack of common sense - I find disheartening

I had this one job that was worth $600 - and my competitor bid to wash, clean out gutters, and clean the streaks off for half the price - which is like my minimum to do anything. I gave my estimate to the husband and he said it was very reasonable - when I got the wife on the phone - she was very abrupt and rude - and basically cast me off as some highway robbing pond scum. But that's ok - I know the guy doesn't have insurance -I'll be throwing more and more guys under the bus this year as the season progresses.

What makes it worse it's a house I painted 3 years ago - but new homeowners moved in, don't know me from Adam. Welcome to the northeast - where you don't even know your neighbors anymore. My very next door neighbor even threw me under the bus because I was $1,700 more - and I asked if they quoted 2 coats like me - and he said 'I think so' And when they did the job - it was one coat only - and this was my next door neighbor!

I haven't incorporated cretowood into my regular staining yet - but I have been installing lots of pressure stair treads and floor boards. And where homeowners want to go with a 'Porch & Floor' style paint - I pre-treat the boards with this product. I don't like painting exterior wood decking with paint. But at least I know half the battle of water penetrating the paint film and drenching the wood is now over.

I just read this - I did this balls to walls house repaint for a homeowner - and the total job was like 385 man-hours. And since it was like 17+ layers of old lead based paint buildup from over a hundred years of repaints plus perhaps 3 latex jobs on top of it - I sold the guy on a solid oil stain on the siding after prep and oil prime on the bare wood. I knew this home was a disaster and a latex paint job was just going to peel off whatever I wasn't able to scrape off the following year. I finished that job in May of '07 - after I scraped and sanded - I low pressure cleaned the entire home with an extremely strong detergent/bleach solution about 4-5x the strength of my normal house wash. The following spring - a year later - mildew covered all the clapboards under all the eaves and other areas - yet the latex painted trim is clean as new. This could have been a home I washed in '07 - and by '08 it would have been covered in mildew, and I would have been on the hook for a free pressure washing job! And what's worse - it's the house next door that re-infected it! So with warranties you put yourself at risk for doing lots of free work that isn't really our fault.

I watched a neighbor's house get pressure washed last spring - by fall it was covered in mildew again. Now it wasn't a professional low pressure-high gallonage kind of pressure washing job {it was two painters with a ladder scrubbing on bleach and using a 2.5gpm machine} But the mildew was gone as far as I could tell right after the job. I would like to think my work is higher quality and wouldn't have resulted in such fast regrowth - but who knows? I don't put anything onto a home that could abate future growth - not only do I not know of anything that actually works - I assume you would need a pesticide license in case there was even such a product. I've also noticed and perhaps I am wrong on this - the folks that want a warranty and ask if it will go another 7+ years before needing to be re-washed, are almost always the penny pinching price shoppers. Folks that go with my service almost never ask me about warranties and such. I educate folks as to realistic expectations and properties of the outcome that may prevent mildew growth for a time - but I can't warranty against future growth.

More importantly Rick - how does this impact how you will choose products for the upcoming season? You still sticking with readyseal? Going to give the 'acrylic' a try from now on?

I am taking advice from this guy Brian Phillips and Beth Borrego and Ken Fenner and being adamant about meeting folks for a proposal. But I am getting these calls one after another about estimates - and most of them keep asking 'can you just slip the estimate into the mailbox' And I am commited this season to meet with each and every customer as long as they are in my service area, independent of whether or not I think they are a good prospect or not. But I am just so disheartened at what the business relationship is from the outset if folks inquire about 'mailbox' estimates. Seems that there just isn't much respect from the outset - or perhaps just great ignorance? I'll forge ahead

I can honestly say - this year is turning out to be the worst year in my 5 years getting back into the trades. I've been giving estimates for what I feel is half of what they're worth - and folks say 'thanks - but we're still shopping for more estimates' My jaw has smacked the ground at least 6 times this year in disbelievement. What a way to start a business relationship with your neighborhood contractor - I am beginning to think most people don't care anymore. As well I am secretly hoping that there are more and more lowballers, so now the $149 guy gets lowballed by the $99 guy - who in return gets lowballed by the $79 guy. I just hope it all gets flushed down the toilet - and I will be there asking for $349, what other guys are asking for $29-$49 for. That the disparity will be so great as to be grotesque even - and value oriented homeowners will have no choice but to go with me.

People are frightened due to perception. I've given homeowners that had cushy jobs with town hall, with absolutely no risk of being laid off even in the worst of times, and they gave me the whole spiel about how 'rough' the economy is lately. Some people don't get it - we're not all equally at risk from this bad economy. If I was an auto worker - I'd be $hitting bricks right now. If I was the person in town hall with 16 years and doing 3 jobs to take up the slack from former layoffs - then the economy wouldn't affect me. Anyways - I ain't letting this economy scare me - the way I see it, folks can either afford our services or they can't afford - there is no in-between. That's what is all B.S. about the trades the last few years - tradesmen being coerced into accepting a cut in salary in order to do work. These folks either have the money to afford us or they don't - I'd be worried if someone tried to commit me to their 'budget' - that they just wouldn't pay altogether - there is alot of entitlement going on around lately. Entitlement is THE reason folks try to get our services for less - it's because they're entitled. Get it?

If this is indeed what you are doing - then I can understand where you are coming from. Now are you closing the deal before you hang up? Or do you give them a number - and they call you back once they have gotten all their estimates in? I found it hard to communicate a number over the phone and have them be receptive if they got considerably lower quotes. I just find the whole differentiation part hard to do over the phone? Differentiating yourself from your competitors in person seems to be possible - but over the phone - I can't imagine how that works? I could see it perhaps working if you have a history in your area over the years - and have built up an incredible reputation - and the new homeowner has like 3 friends that have so far used you - then selling I think is possible. But just any inquiry - I guess I just don't understand?