plainpainter

I always like drenching wood with as much water as humanly possible before the wood won't accept anymore moisture. This I feel keeps the chemical on the top and not get sucked into the pores of the wood and cause lower damage. And you don't have to mist as much to keep it from drying.

Who's responsible for that silly avatar? I don't want to educate, motivate, and integrate! I'm more of a beavis and butthead kind of guy. Any hopefuls, Beth? I did a deck a year ago with a California product - haven't been back to look. I have no clue what works anymore -- seems like some guys are holding onto an aging TWP formula, but where are they going to be when that one is pulled? This industry is so frustrating.

least....mosquitos. Best....the feeling I am not waisting my life away indoors to some corporate giant.

This is absolutely hilarious, only Jarrod.

I am backing Jarrod on this one. One of the biggest reasons I left the painting trades - was after 5 years I woke up and realized that painting can never be made into a 'business'. It requires craftsmanship to do a quality paint job. The only way to make painting a business is to do high volume low quality work. On the other hand Pressure washing can be made into a business - you can start the business yourself work up to well over 100k in sales off your own back - and then start training a helper to replace you after you have systemized your operations. And then further marketing and sales to find more work. Rick et al. Restoring a painted deck like that pictured above leads you away from a business and back to being a craftsman - which is noble - but I am all done being a craftsman - nobody gave me rewards or adulation for being a craftsman - I want to be able to afford a house now.

I know foxborough - way too far for me.

I'm in MA - but have no idea where Franklin is.

you've never owned a car?

newbies.....

Funny - I emailed this woman, and she never responded back? I thought she was in a hurry?

I washed a ton of composite yesterday, that stuff sucks so bad to wash.

Well if it's a solid behr acrylic/alkyd stain like that is sold at home depot - It's gonna cost her a pretty money to strip! And a boat load of help to figure out how to do it without having to resort to paint strippers.

And guess which box store is smack in the middle of Methuen? The Home Depot - anyone care to guess which product probably it is? LOL!

The way the housing market is around here, maybe a home on Mars would be a more affordable choice.

I just emailed her, we'll see what happens - sounds like a solid?

I am in the next town over, do I qualify Beth?

oh the saga continues....folks, in the end it's just stain - chill - wait a while - a year whatever and try again with a different product.

I used to use that outdoor bleach exclusively when I prepping homes for painting - it was good stuff - but pricey. I think one cup of that stuff per gallon and a squirt of palmolive is all you would really need for a maintenance wash. Some people.....

Ken has his own washing and staining business that is going like mad for him - from what I have heard and what he has told me - he has had a lot on his plate this year. As well, he and his supplier could no longer do business with each other. From what I know about Ken - he will eventually get all his products back online - but he will make darn sure that there will be an absolute and unequivocal level of service and quality when he does, and will not start back until he has a 110% guarantee of that. If you want my opinion, his supplier wanted to be on the 'retailer' end of the action as well. I and many others believe this to be an insane train of thought. And this desire to be also selling on the retail end of things brings about, in my opinion, a certain conflict of interests which can never end well. I believe Ken will not bring back his product line, until he has suppliers that want nothing to do with anything but being 'suppliers'. No more drama, no more headaches, no more personality issues - just honest to goodness business folks.

Funny, Beth, how a local paint company in the north east where the limit is 350g/liter of VOC's manufactures a product that emits 600g/liter - and does it legally! All those VOC laws are a just a ruse to make smaller companies suffer. If anyone is worried about VOC laws - don't be, I don't care if it's 2009, 2019 - there will always be oil based VOC emitting products that you can buy in one form or another. Perfect example - companies rename their 'primers' to 'sealers' - and their products have become 100% exempt from these up an coming VOC laws - or they pay levies that smaller companies can't afford. Krikes - I can even get lead based oil paint if I really wanted too. You just have to know where to look.

This thread is such a **** tease. Out with the info already! Nevermind - I won't bother upselling at $20-$30/hr. I remember using Bob's f-13 in a downstreaming mix seemed to make the dried out artillery fungus supple enought where it easily came off with a quick pinch of a finger nail. I can imagine it might work downstreamed 'straight' from the bottle using hot water. And some brushing probably would top it off. Heck Use the saferestore like they say - 2 consecutive applications with good dwell - and then 2nd step a downstreamed F-13 from Bob - using hot water. Now that would probably clean everything off!~

Trisodium phosphate and bleach with lots of scrubbing, along with a surfactant will get rid of artillery fungus - but the solution is so strong that it etches paint, so it's only good as a pre-prep for house painting.

That deck really came out nice - those photos would be perfect for any ad campaign you do for the future. The only reason I use lambswool, Charlie, for the hardwoods - is when I have oversaturated the wood with woodtux and an airless - I pass over the boards with the lambswool to soak up/redistribute the excess.

I bought one recently only for pre-paint prep, where you want to use pressure to knock off as much loose paint as possible - and I thought it might allow me to do this with less ladder work. As well - when customers want their gutters cleaned out and go with the cheaper option of just pressure washing all the crap out {they clean up the mess} Then I want to use it for that purpose so I don't have to get on a ladder for that as well.

I was talking to another contractor and then reading a thread about vehicle choice here - and the same thing pops up, people are sensitive to mileage. Then it got me thinking - should we really care about mileage or the costs of gas? If we are professionals - shouldn't we just factor in the extra cost of gas and pass it on to the homeowner? More than ever, guys running around with $99 house washes are the ones that will truly suffer. If I charge $350 for a minimum house wash last year - what do I really need to mark that up to take into account extra gas costs? $360 or $370? Is the cost of gas the only thing between success and abject failure? I ran a pressure washer for like 3 or so hours on one gallon of gas - so instead of a buck it's 4 bucks - on a $2,400 deck resto - who cares?