plainpainter

A 4.3L V6 would haul that and you wouldn't even notice it.

I pull my 7x12 tandem axle trailer with my equipment with my astrovan 4.3L V6 - and sometimes I don't even notice I am pulling something. I'd think 4.9 is plenty. Why spend 3 grand if you don't absolutely have to?

This is a great example of professionalism that doesn't exist among the lowballers. When asked - 'Why should I pay a higher price?' - this is one reason of many.

I have no experience with TWP - but this is exactly what I have been hearing. I actually very much like ESI's timberoil product - but this is an arguement in favor of the Readyseal camp. I use timberoil for my own deck, as I don't mind giving it a yearly wash and a 'refreshment' of oil. I just feel most of my customers would be dead set against me coming out this often - where as I am sure others would like this service. I am not saying woodtux is a bad stain - it's mostly what I use now - but it was sold to be 4-6 times better than the competitor - and lately it just ain't meeting expectations. I am very confused - I know the past two years has been awful for mildew as the summers are extremely wet - and global warming has had documented fervent growth of plants such as poison ivy in the northeast - that I am sure mildews have benefitted as well. I am not making accusations - the jury is still out - just not really pleased lately. Got some A.C. I will be trying on my front steps - that should be a good test.

So rick - you don't buy the arguement that a mildewcide has no ability to control surface growth of mildew after the stain has finished curing? I remember the old oil based lead painted homes that never had any mildew growth on them - as the paint chaulked - it constantly released lead oxides which didn't allow mold, mildews or algae to grow. I figured the same was true of mildewcides in deck stains. But apparently I have been told the only thing that mildewcide is good for is to not allow a mildew spore to take 'root' while the stain is still wet. But afterwards - any mildew can grow on top of a surface much like it does with mildew. But as Scott says - TWP never turns black - and Jarrod said the same thing - and I believe them. I have used stains in the past that didn't turn black either. Man the good ol' days - one step bleach/tsp cleaning - and off the shelf stains that were far cheaper than what I use now - yet somehow I got better results then!

So Scott - this would dispute the fact that mildew can grown on top of the surface of anything? But I do like the arguement - I know vinyl isn't a source of food for mildew - yet I clean tons of homes with mildew on their vinyl siding. I am perplexed.

But Beth - lots of folks here, including yourself have said remarks about products such as penofin turning black after several months. And I know you always do proper prep. My question is if it's true that a mildewcide has no bearing on mildew growing on top of the surface - then why is certain products have gotten the reputation of turning black and others haven't? Is there something some manufactueres install into their products that get exuded during the life cycle of a stain that prevents mildew growth on top of a surface? I've heard rumours of some stains that include like a copper oxide - that I imagine gets slowly released over time as the stain gets older and deteriorates, much like the olden lead oil paints of yesteryear, which basically unleashes a powerful toxin to this microcopic vegetation. Thus preventing mildew growth from their decks.

But Scott - the arguement is that the mildew isn't really feeding off the coating - mildew doesn't feed off of vinyl - yet it grows rampantly upon vinyl surfaces as an example. Are there oil based coatings that you know of that don't turn black?

James - I too have turned a few customers around, after the fact. It's the homeowners that never end up hiring me that end up never knowing the difference. I too will forge ahead with my good customers and keep them close - eventually I will have a sizeable database - and folks that can attest that I am worth the extra money! My neighbor's home was cleaned back in May - a home I had painted 3 years prior{new homeowners - don't know me} And now it's October and the house is totally recovered in Mildew in the span of 6 months! Now I don't put any additive such as insecticide or fungicide to my mixes that could have a longer staying power. I assume the day after I leave a home - the whole process of infestation starts all over again. But that being said - my homes still look great after 2 years. I feel I do a more thorough and complete job - let the hacks F up folks homes for a few years - I will be poised to swipe them up.

This guy calls me for a house washing estimate - and luckily he gave me his address early on in the conversation: 27 Brookside rd. Topsfield, ma. So I plug away into zillow.com. And I look at the house and figure it's about $425-$475 dollar range - so I let him know that - his response was somewhat positive, but somewhat confusing - almost like he would be happy if I stuck to that range even if I went out there. Then he started to slip in the mildew on the deck - and before I could answer him - he started talking about the moss and mildew problem on the roof facing the road - the north side. So I say look - you have mildew problem on your roof, that's dangerous work - I offer a no pressure solution and a ground guy to keep your vegetation watered - but you have a $525 to $575 roof job. He was like 'oh' - I got another estimate to do the house wash and the roof for a total of $500. And he hangs up the phone! I have a hard time believing that someone that is legitimate could offer all those services for a paltry $500 - but I run into it all the time. I use to hate these homeowners - but really it's contractors that ***** themselves out that present homeowners with the cheaper option - because they never fully understand what's involved. I spent approximately $100 in chems on a roof similar in size! Add to that drive time - employee costs - part of the job I had to invest back into fixing the front end - how do you make money at such pricing? These are $1,000 jobs that guys are whoring themselves out - but what is the catch - is that these annoying homeowners still shop for even cheaper and cheaper pricing - putting even these lowballers out of business. I love it.....

This is a non issue - marriage is a recognized business partnership under the law. That being said - State law accepts marriage ceremonies performed in churches and temples as consumation of this business partnership. This is one of the last 'privileges' folks have - is to consumate their marriage under the law without all the rigamarole of setting up a typical business. You don't have to set up business accounts...liability insurance...set up a J-corp status...yet when you want to 'dissolve' said marriage - you get all the legal perks that is due all businesses in splitting up assets and responsibilities. Not a bad deal! So all that being said - it's as simple as this - if you don't like gays - don't let them get 'married' in your church or temple. Don't let it be recognized under 'your' faith or your God/Gods. But as a legitimately recognized business partnership - who cares if they get married. That's just a matter of them acquiring certain rights such as medical benefits - having spousal recognition in hospitals - and whatever other perks that are delegated to marriages under the law. This is basically the dichotomy of marriage - the Religious marriage vs. the business entity of marriage. Personally don't give a rat's pattooty - I love my gay customers - can you picture the effeminate tastes of a woman with the wallet spending power of a man? Picture that for just a one moment. Man I make so much dang money when I get interior painting projects from gay men. I love it. They know I don't give a hoot's F'ing monkey bowl butt about their sexual preference - just that their money is green. And they spend for the very very very best work. I say let 'em all get married - I would be one happy interior painter with tons of gay clients. I have noticed that the gay women are kinda cheap......haven't figured that yet?

Celeste - please, they'd be up there in capital hill tomorrow if there were no salaries. I don't what exactly all the rules are about accepting gifts or what not - but those politicians aren't getting rich from the salaries we are paying them. They're getting their wallets stuffed left and right. Bottom line - many of you on these forums are typically republican - and for the most part republicans opened up the proverbial floodgates to let the thieves go to town by all their deregulations and laissez faire politics that they have been backing for over a hundred years. They've ripped us off before during the harding administration - ripped us off blind during the 80's with the S&L scandals - and are ripping us off again. Sure democrats have had bleeding hearts in the past with many social programs that cost money with no results - but how soon we forget when we are now spending an additions 10 billion a month on a war that goes nowhere - and bailouts without guarantees of working. I'll take all the 'pork' barrel and social experimentation projects any ol' day over this crap. Not to mention I think at it's core - folks who explode at liberal social programs - are mad for racist reasons. Folks who collect welfare checks inevitably spend their money back into the economy - maybe we're jealous because of their laziness? I don't know - but at it's worst that welfare momma is going to the local grocer and buy food - she's going to buy gas - pay rent - buy her kids shoes and pants. But that lehman brothers jerk - our economy can kiss that 500 million goodbye. We scorn at the 'pennies' of waste and ignore the really big thievery that goes on.

As sad as you may think that sounds - that's a 0.2% callback rate - I've been experiencing less than half of that on my direct mailers. Yahoo - winter is right here -

Rod - I know for a fact that a bunch of contractors aren't doing well and haven't been doing well for quite some time. Yet they come on these forums and talk about how great they're doing. It's utter B/S. There is one contractor here that says their phone is ringing off their hook. Yet when I talked on the phone with another contractor who had spoken to them over the phone - he told me they were constantly excusing themselves for blowing off all their bill collectors that were constantly ringing in on their call-waiting line. This economy sux. And everyone who is doing well - is living off of repeat old customers, and work that was scheduled along while ago from referals. I highly doubt guys are really doing well in the 'new' customer acquisition department.

Credit card, what's that? Haven't had a credit card in over 4-5 years. Took a loan with my credit union and paid off my credit card in 2 years. I had no idea how hard life would be to live without credit. But hey Uncle Sam knew that - and knew if they didn't offer sub-prime mortgages to poorer folks - that eventually everyone would wake up and question their government.

I wake up and listen to my machine today - and I have this one angry customer whose house I painted a year ago this past may. And he is telling me over the phone that it is infested with mildew - that it shouldn't be that way, blah blah blah, what are you going to do about it? blah blah blah - what's a long term solution to this problem? Etc. Now I logged my hours on this home - I spent 125 man-hours scraping, grinding, then sanding - and final pressure washing - before this home saw one drop of primer or caulking - let alone paint. 385 man hours in total - it was a monster job. I pressure washed after all the grinding and sanding - so all sanded exposed wood parts would get a cleaning. I used such a strong TSP/nonylphenol/12% solution - that Bob from Pressuretek would bow and say 'I'm not worthy' And of course - you got it - it's always the painters fault. And I dont' want to hear how this is an excellent time to educate the consumer, blah, blah, blah - such pollyanish comments is enough to push me over the edge and vomit. The sheer volume of cluelessness that came from this customer's mouth while the job was in progress gave me black and blue marks on my lower mandible - from all the times my jaws smacked the ground. No wonder why I gave up on house painting. I wash homes in New England that are vinyl sided with some of the worst mildew problems I have ever seen - how is a plastic surface responsible for mildew growth let alone paint? Why are homeowers so disallusioned to realities of mother nature? And if I see artillery fungus - I will freakin' laugh in the guys face.

Mel - I just don't paint anymore - I don't really have complaints with deck restoration - although I imagine that's coming because of a couple of woodtux {a.k.a woodblack} decks I've seen recently - hopefully the A.C. that's coming in the mail will solve those issues, but now it's off to starting again wth a different stain. BTW - I didn't offer any warranty! Their garage roof is as old as the hills and you can see the mildew growing in the patterns of the brush marks! I'm just glad I used a oil solid stain and not a latex paint on this job - it would have all blown off. I think if I get back into exterior painting, there will be provisos in my contract that homeowner take full responsibility of the condition of their roofs/gutters and any ensuing problems from it. I have another neighbor that got this painter to offer her a 7 year warranty! I looked at the house and said no thanks, it was constantly peeling - and I told them to replace the roof. They didn't, this last spring with all the rain - you could see the remnants of a 'niagra' falls getting behind the clapboards between the gutter - and then 10 feet down - the paint expanded holding a full gallon of water before it burst!!!!!! Whole house was a wreck this spring - but they got that painter back to fix the whole house for free 2 years into his 7 yr. contract. And from what I heard at the paint store - he was dumbfounded as to what happened, that he used quality products, blah, blah, blah, I was laughing my butt off. Again don't offer warranties - I tell clients if there are no issues with their home - then even with the worst prep job, paint will still last forever - so why offer a warrantee?

Scott - we'll see - I have a hard time explaining about roof leaking. I tore off this roof for this lawyer to reroof it once. And what I found was that the bottom 3 feet of the roof decking plywood was soaking wet - and that moisture would migrate down into the soffits and blow out the paint - a house I had just painted. Earlier I had mentioned this to him - even before the roof rip-off and showed him the discolored tannins coming out the crown moulding at the eave. When he was standing there - and I showed him his soggy wet roof decking - he told me that he honestly didn't understand what I was saying at the time - and now understood. And he was a freakin' lawyer!!!!!! If he has a hard time understanding - who can? And this isn't a slant towards people - what is obvious to you and me, because we're in the field isn't obvious even to very intelligent folks who spend their times in their own fields. I don't offer warranties, Scott, for this very reason. Another neighbor further up the road had their home repainted for 12 g's and their roof re-done. The roofer was a legit criminal who F'd up the roof. When he did the valleys - he did a 'cut' valley, but cut so deep - he cut right through the second course of shingles. So again, guess what, the paint gets blown off the soffit below this area from all the water leaks- and the painter is called back the following spring and is yelled at for like 2 hours straight. It wasn't until after the home was scraped and painted - that the homeowner started noticing his inner walls were punky and leaking. Then they call a professional roofer and find the problem. Of course they never apologized to the painter, nor does he even know. These are some of the reasons I just can't do exterior painting anymore - it's just a losing proposition.

I went there and I was calm, Scott. I took a bunch of photos - and found evidence of massive roof leaks into the eave/soffit areas - and eventually exploding out from the back sides of the top rows of clapboards. I wrote a detailed synopsis for him - included a photo with pictures of his home and some close ups detailing what I mean. As well photos from another home taken last winter detailing icicles coming out of soffit vents and from behind the clapboards discolored with tannins - as a better visual of what's going on with his home. And a recomendation that they contact a roofing expert and have their roof replaced along with water proofing membrane installed along the bottom of their roof.

The more and more I think about professionalism - it's about investing your time and capital into understanding your trade, and charging correctly in order for you to 'execute' your business without endangering yourselves, others, or property. The rest is just symbolic - uniforms, vehicles, etc. Jarrod told me once, that when confronted why he was so expensive - he replied ma'am, I don't charge because I am the best - I charge in order to be the best. And the reasons why we hate and accuse lowballers of not being professionals - because the only way they can 'execute' their business and be so cheap - is that they must cut corners, potentially endanger clients with incorrect/harsh chemicals, not have insurances, never able to afford saftey equipment. And when confronted as to why we're so much more expensive - we're confronted with the harsh reality that homeowners think since this guy is cheap - that we're just highway robbers - and have no understanding about the 'true' costs of running a professional outfit - and in order to compete - we'll be forced into the same behaviour of holding back on purchases of newer safer equipment, cancelling insurances, driving the sanford and son truck, bringing back home a salary a cashier would laugh at, etc....

Rick - I heard there are lots of eastern european women in springfield?

How about asking your resident door expert.... http://www.thegrimescene.com/forums/wood-cleaning-restoration-decks-fences-etc/9345-refinished-my-neigbors-front-door.html

just did

How much did you get for that roof, btw?

Ron - you really F'd yourself - none of that stuff is your fault - other than you are blaming yourself for not alerting the homeowner upfront about the possibilities. I am running into guys left and right like that - they want me to somehow clean the same shake siding - without any coating - remove mildew - yet not harm adjacent surfaces. And I tell these folks that I can use a 'house' was - but I don't see it really giving them the results they are looking forward, and a 'restoration' is going to give a tooth or 'profile' to adjacent painted surfaces. And then they are on the fence about getting the shakes coated with a stain. I just chaulk it up to some homeowners are unreasonable or so ignorant - that they can't understand. I've walked away from alot of jobs like that. If I was faced with the job - I would have told the guy - look it's going to wipe off the adjacent coating/browning on the shakes - and a whole side will need to be repainted to look right. And I can guarantee 9 times out of 10 - they are like, well isn't that your fault. At that point, I just walk and let some less experienced guy who is hungry for the money and/or aggravation to take them on.