plainpainter

I'd say this is an instance where the homeowner is screwing you over a free staining job. You should have told him that stain would come off from just looking at it - and made him sign off on it. I don't see a bleaching oil - just a solid stain in a grey color?

eye rolling gets you government grants.

Beautiful work - do you do any sanding? I can't seem to leave a deck without a good sanding - only once this season was I able to not sand the balusters - but I still sanded the floorboards and the railings.

Charlie - all my customers this year have been exceptional - I don't like to brag, because I believe in the 'Evil' Eye. I have increased my sales this year along with my marketing skills. It's just that this year was a real late start due to inclement weather, and everyone thought that contractors were willing to '*****' themselves out this year due to all the media attention. I have managed to find good customers - people willing to pay for a 'service' and not view me as some $25/hr cheapo handyman. My problems have been that everyone has jumped into the trades in the last couple of years - and their heads up their you know what when it comes to pricing. Sometimes I am as much as 4x as expensive - and some folks have gotten down right nasty with me - to the point I was literally freaked out. I run into 'mommy' washers now that will pressure wash a home for $220 - and do up to 8 hours of work for that price - of course they are using a 5.5hp pressure washer. And no they won't clean go up a ladder to clean up the gutters, like they promise, only because they are kind of clueless as to what that really means - and think a 'o' tips constitutes that service. I have had my run in with loads of yahoos - and marketing and beefing up my sales skills as been an effective 'weapon' to those ends. I was wishing for a more 'typical' economy. As well - I will be supplementing my income with more commercial work - so as not to depend on the whims of the residential markets.

I think McCain picked her, because he wants to shag her.

Had to strip a backyard deck today, then I cleaned up the front steps. They were greyed out never treated - so I decided to go with the 1oz/gallon stripper formula I have seen for cleaning up untreated greyed wood. And let me tell you that worked fantastic! I still used the citralic to brighten. Typically I would have just used a bleach/TSP solution - or given the efc-38 a try. Any reason one would use efc-38, if all you have to do with HD-80 is dilute it? Is it still dangerous to paint at those low levels?

Rick - it works extremely well! My thoughts are now that efc-38 is like a 'safe' stripper, where I have to worry about adjacent areas/surfaces, like trying to strip mahogany railings with coated metal balusters. But at 1 oz./gallon - that's downstreamable! No F'ing around with efc-38 and delavans - and water tanks - you can mix 5-8ozs/gallon and then downstream greyed out decks - works awesome!

Rick - I just used 1 oz of HD-80 in a gallon of water, I've heard others do the same. I will post results when I am done. I still neutralized.

Beth - he doesn't need to ph balance it - he won't stain it.

But guys don't you think that 'brush' washing is just a reaction to the days of guys using butyl based house washing chems and high pressure on extend-a-wands to clean up a home? Hasn't the simple cherry revolution made brushing obsolete? I believe with brushing - you only need muni-tap pressure in order to clean up a home. You don't need a pressure washer. IF you are going to brush - get one of those brushes window washers use that supplies the chem right to the brush - and use the homeowners hose to rinse. I just think a pressure washer with 200psi of rinsing power along with simple cherry is just so much easier and no brushing. Why not offer both services? Jeff - offer a simple cherry no brush house wash for half the price along with your normal brush washing.

I don't understand the acid application afterwards? the bleach solution by itself will get the wood to look like that.

I guess if you have a $12/hr worker doing the brushing - who cares, right?

Man - would I love to be the only game in town. The wars rage on....same thing in painting - folks read up on the internet that 'sprayed' homes aren't as good as 'brushed' homes for exterior painting. Even if you explain to them that you 'backbrush' - they don't care, they want brushed! Jeff - couldn't you sneak in a few homes downstreaming? And see if you like it? Only game in town, right? What if you leave a property and it's just as clean? But then again that may open the doors to competitors and that lowballing starts a rollin' - man it's tough in business sometimes!

Well - I am getting there, just sent out another 1900 mailers. Then hopefully get some more work and re-send some fliers to folks I sent out in July. And then hopefully get some gutter cleaning as the leaves fall. I may be down total from last years earnings - but my pressure washer earning may actually go up - we'll see.

I have the exact same crap to deal with, Barry. I follow guys that sell the 'hot' water. I've been losing to them for some time until lately - I've gotten mean. Not that I name names - but I am now in hot pursuit of the 'hot' washers. I think guys like that really don't posess selling skills - so they 'roll' off these buzzwords. Now that I have actively been selling cold water and producing literature, I am starting to bury these guys in the dust - and the only way they have been 'selling' their work now is by being a lowballer. But as Napolean said 'All's fair in love and war'

Jeff isn't disputing that downstreaming is worse, it's just that he thinks advertizing 'brushing' gets him more jobs. Personally - if a homeowner asks if I brush - I go on the 'attack' now and dispute brushing as a waste of time, contractors doesn't know their chems properly, and lots of ladder work and possibility for injury on their property, and then I say "you don't want a $1,000 house wash turning into a $100,000 lawsuit?" LOL. I respect Jeff in his way of selling - it's just if someone pulls that crap on my turf - I will go for the jugular(sp?). Public perception is what we contractors make of it - and I can see an argument of the 'brushless' housewash being sold to clients as a better way of cleaning their homes - none of those nasty bristles potentially harming their siding - kind of like the old car washes - now they use felt, but still makes cars equally clean.

I lean a brush up against a home - because sometimes some spots you can apply chems 5-6 times and they still don't budge! Where as 1-2 coats and a little elbow grease gets things going. Jeff - I don't mean to attack you in any of my posts - I just want you to know this.

I am just curious about one thing, Jeff. You have been at this for over a decade, right? Haven't you built up a loyal customer base that seeks your service every 2-3 years? How do you keep up with demand? I totally can see your tactic for selling brushing, heck guys around here sell 'hot' water - why not brushing? But for someone like you - why do you have to 'sell' anymore? I would have thought, that with your loyal customers - that you would have downstreamed their homes by now. Given them equivalent results - they already prize you as a contractor - and you are delivering exactly the same clean product. This would enable you to take on more customers in the same season to keep up with demand. I am really curious about this - because I anticipate customer retention at some point - there is only so much work anyone can do in a season. Personally I think a one-man outfit would have a hard time doing 100 house washes in a 6 month season - downstreaming. And that's only 40-50k at best. I don't think I could do that brushed!

What's the cost of rebuilding a historical city compared to the Iraq War? America in reality is a very very young nation - and we need all the history we can get. Chris, logically speaking - should we keep rebuilding new orleans, no. But as Americans do we need historical areas to latch onto - instead of developers bulldozing everything of antiquity and giving us strip malls and condo complexes instead - I think we can spare the extra cash to keep a little history with us. Let's just get rid of that pesky 50% of our Federal budget that 'trickles' its way into the pentagon. HA! I finally figured 'trickle' down economics - it's really a raging river that flows right into our war budget, and stops right there!

I think brushing along with a good soap will get rid of oxidation on vinyl - where as downstreaming will not. I end up brushing gutters most of the time - downstreaming didn't work there either. But for the most part - I am aiming to get rid of mildew, algae, and some atmospheric pollutants - and downstreaming works fine for that. I can get artillery fungus with 3-4 applications of cleaner and lots of brushing - downstreaming won't do that either. Jeff is trying to be helpful as how to get business, suggesting perhaps that brushing may be the ticket to sell. If you are hard up and don't mind spending 4-5 hours per day working - and getting 15 $400 housewashes a month - which amounts to grossing 6k for 2 work weeks - then why not? Personally I think this is a move back into the owner/operator mentality. And if you have workers - now they'll need more workers' comp - at the exterior painting rate. I spent 4 hours at a home that I only brushed one section for like 5 minutes - a real stubbon section - and I hate to think how long that would have taken brushed?

Downstream a simple cherry house wash mix and brush it - then rinse, you'll be fine Ron. BTW -how's business down where you are?

That doesn't look like white pine - that looks like southern yellow pine, aka pressure treated - without the pressure treating.

Nice job, beautiful Victorian home - looks like it belongs in New England.

This is a stained cedar clapboard and barnboard house with rough side out - this house really kicked me where it hurts, the front of the home was especially the hardest to clean - did the whole job with just a ball valve. But Just Plain Painting made sure to satisfy another customer!

That little cubby area where the trash can was in, man the slime on the barnboard was so thick and disgusting - I think I almost saw it quiver when I first applied chems. Either I am not mixing my chems and getting them properly homogenized sometimes - or this stuff was just real nasty. I think I applied chems in certain spots on this one side of the home at least 10 times. I will say this - a ball valve sure makes a more potent cleaner with less chems, it can foam your chems as you apply it - and you generally use less chems to do the same job. It took me 3 hours of working to empty one 5 gallon container downstreamed! Now there is climbing on the roof time with that - and rerouting hoses and shutting the machine off twice. But that mildew didn't come off any slower than had I used a wand and sucking up a 5'er every 20 minutes.