plainpainter

Just bringing back an old thread one year after - as it's that time of year again. Has anyone ever devised clever ways of keeping pressure washing through a winter - has anyone ever had any success with melting ice damns and what not? I imagine for the most part - not much, at least making it worth bringing out the ol' trailers.

Personally I have never had a problem with solid oil stain over latex. My folks have converted their house using that method since the early 70's til now - where there is nothing but the solid oil stain on it now. My sisters fence which was a spindly latex mess - I pressure washed it with a turbo nozzle, scraped the bejesus out of it - and then sprayed several coats of cabots ultra white oil solid stain - still looks perfect a year later - eventually more latex will peel - but it would have peeled anyways, and probably more rapidly had I put latex on it - the oil solid stain doesn't 'tax' a surface with stress like latex does, which can apply a tremendous shearing force that rips the older layers of paint straight off the wood!

Man - I am tempted to say that stuff would come off real easy with a hot water pressure washer - or better yet, one that puts out steam instead, along with TSP and Downy fabric softener downstreamed thru @ 200 degrees.

Thank god - the homeowner was able to resolve this issue with their contractor on this one. I think guys like Fenner - as me - were clenching their teeth when they looked at the photos - but at the same time talked about etiquette, hint - not backstabbing a fellow contractor. As I have been on the receiving end of that backstabbing quite a few times. Typically if a client thinks you're doing something wrong - all they have to do is find a backstabbing contractor to come out and look and agree with their thesis - whatever it may be - and they feel validated. I hate that! And I don't talk $hit about any contractor no matter how badly I think of them, because of these experiences. I think that implies levels of professionalism in our community. Doctors don't back stab each other no matter what they think. The only time a Doctor will pass judgement on another Doctor - is when they are a paid consultant to testify in some Court case. Contractors on the whole are so much less professional.

Well California Paints' Storm Stain still makes an exceptional product. Go to this website. STORM STAIN. But it's expensive stuff - their hardwood oil deck finish stain cost me, as a contractor, $36/gallon. But lots of colors - and their natural is dead on what people want.

It honestly sounds to me like you overapplied the product - if it's a VOC reduced version, that it may be thicker, and you aren't spreading it out as far? Well if it's true that you quoted 185 sq. meters - then it sounds like you are getting 475 sq. feet per gallon - which seems on the opposite end of - you are spreading it way beyond what is designed to do. So I don't understand what is going on.

You guys are a bunch of global polluters with your big trucks, LOL. What's it to fill one of those things $100+? Probably has two gas tanks - and you probably never ever really fill 'em so you can convince yourselves it's not really that expensive to run.

Sadly I think Global warming is proportional to amount of people on the planet and the level of industrialization we're at. Unless we find ways to diminish populations - I don't see how we are going to stop this.

I think Jeff LeCours is on the money. My problem with our leaders as well is all the soundbites - they communicate to us through sound bites! I hate that - e.g. 'If we cut and run, we embolden the enemy to come after us' That and everything to date this administration has said was a BOLD FACED LIE! So how do I really know, that they will come after us here more than before? I have no proof! I don't trust what they tell me, because 9 out 10 things they said were a tissue of lies, why would I believe the 10th thing they said? Imagine eating a box of Cracker Jacks - and you put one in your mouth - and it's sour and disgusting. You say to yourself, oh well, $hit happens. Then you pop another Cracker Jacks into your mouth - then perhaps, you start thinking maybe I hit a bad run - after the 3rd bad cracker jacks, that tasted really awful and disgusting in your mouth - you are pretty much ready to make an INFERENCE and say - this box of cracker jacks is BAD! Well how come we haven't done that with this administration? Well I have - they are liars, and everything they say is a lie, our military presence has been a failure over there, not that they ever defined what success meant, and giving birth to a democratic government has been a failure over there as well. Why put more mothers through hardship and pain - bring the boys back home before another dies. As far as I am concerned, this administration is responsible for each soldier death, that makes them murderers - they abused the power of our military for their own goals. And I hope they all rot in Hell, for the pigs of war that they are, and that includes Powell - whom I have learned that everything he said to the UN in that emotional speech was nothing but a bag of BOLD FACED LIES!

I guess that is an instance where reclaim would have been a wise thing?

I know plenty of business owners that vote Democrat - funny I thought you had to be a really big multinational type company before you really started enjoying the fruits of republican politics.

I theorized that I could easily do 3 $350 house washes a day multiply that by 20 working days a month and that's $21,000 per month off of one rig - perhaps that's a wee bit too optimistic? I think the problem is getting that many customers - and again you have to consider the amount of time invested in talking to potential customers. But with weekends - and a strong desire to make money. Why couldn't you work at that rate for 4 months of the year? And retire the rest?

Check out this link for a floor sander - look at what he charges per sq. foot! It's cheaper than what guys will wash a deck for! Hardwood Floor Sanding @.85 cents

Around boston - guys advertize painting rooms for $150. A gallon of ceiling paint is $20, gallon of semigloss is $35, two gallons of wall paint is another $50 - so already you have $105 in materials! But then again - I'd say that customers that go to Craig's list are the epitome of cheap tire kickers. First lesson in marketing - if you want good paying customers, don't advertize in Craigslist!

Doug - the connection, is that dollars being spent in Iraq are being taken away from other services. What happens when schools get less money? Well building fall into disrepair, roofs leak, and the smartest people look elsewhere for jobs. How about the roads? We get lots of government assistance for highways - well now, more tolls go up. We have to pay more and more for services out of pocket - and yet still pay the same amount of taxes. I don't see how you can't see the connection?

Chris - I don't think there is a solution to Iraq - I think any arguements that go along the lines of ....they will know they can beat us.... is just a bunch of hokey. We will never achieve anything in Iraq, there will never be any progress - unless fundamental changes are made to this world, not something that military acthion can achieve! I see only two solutions - kill every man, woman & child, this way they will probably fear us, and leave - or leave now. We have always experienced terrorism - and perhaps fundamental to this, is our support for the Saudi Government - this more than anything pisses these people off. Not to mention this is an impossible situation - we can't be friends and have peace with a people who have a fundamental religious belief that Islam must conver the whole world! We're basically screwed. So at least let's bring home the boys - and then deal with foreign policy, and end our reliance on oil - which brings dollars into that part of the world.

Clorox bleach is 'chlorine'.

Anyone ever notice that customers who are happy to pay 'higher' more professional rates, also tend to be more pleasant? I mean, if stuff doesn't come out perfect, they're always the ones to say stuff like - 'oh, my nephew threw his science project - and we have never cleaned the stain since' And my attitude has always been, don't worry - I will try something else, I am sure we can do something. And you actually feel good about spending extra time to work a stain out - which turns out ok. But then you get to the $99 typical house washing customer - and as your rolling your hoses back onto your rig - they've pulled out the 28foot werner and already inspecting stuff up close 28 feet up - and this is after they haven't had the house washed in 15 years! Who wants to work for those people? I get enough aggravation from the girlfriend - that's enough for me! Not to mention - say you want to gross just 50 grand in sales - not that is your salary, even if you are totally illegal, never declare money, etc, - stuff still costs, like gas, equipment, chems. That being said - you would have to do 500 house washes! And at best you only have 8 months a year to do them. That's like 3 a day, every single day - day in, day out, and you know you can never schedule such a consistent work load with slow downs and all. 15 house washes a week for 8 months - and you gross only 50k in sales, at best make 35 grand, because you are totally illegal - and when you hit 50, will need disability, cause you can't work anymore. Screw that!

Well Chris - until people make the connection that 10 billion is being wasted every month in Iraq - and that's 10 billion dollars each month that is coming out of taxpayers pockets - until they realize that, I am afraid the situation will just worsen. I know so many people behind this war, on so-called moral principles - that I think if you could truly convince them how it affects them financially - they would be against it. Some simple ways I have seen, less money going into schools, so towns are responsible for more and more of the teachers salaries - and of course they all want their raises. I voted against their raises last time - I use to be for teachers - but this economy has hurt me so much - I just felt that they could share in the pain, that we can all share, until we realize that 10 billion is leaving our economy each and every month! Responsible government is what I am looking for. I laugh at people who are republicans - I like their arguements about how much people are sucking off the system for welfare - heck I think welfare is less than 10 billion a year. I'd rather pay all these people welfare full boat ride, even the mexicans and brazilians as long as they didn't get jobs in my field.

I have thought about going after hacks. And I have come up with something - figure out how they 'market' to homeowners, like how a homeowner gets in touch with them - and then flood their 'advertizing' market. Like I am making plans for the next year to flood the painters classified columns - like if there is 15 painters in their or what not - pick a newspaper and insert yourself in there like 5 or 6 times - make the classifieds like one big banner for yourself - and drowning out the rest. Let's think about more creative ways of forcing the 'weak' hands out of this market. Let's face it - if they're lowballing us, then there isn't much room for them to survive. I say let's combat these guys - let's use gorilla marketing strategies - that makes these guys become like 'white' noise, just random background noise - surely there are ways to make people pass over them - heck if there is a column for pressure washing - and you are in there 5 times vs. a total of 8 ads - aren't people going to be attracted to you in droves?

Do you think perhaps this is just a wave? Like economics 101 will catch up to these guys - trucks getting reposessed in the middle of the night - and before you know it, those with staying power - once again have the market to themselves? What's really killing the trades - all those guys doing really cheap pressure washing use to employed by contractors on jobsites - but have now largely been replaced with cheaper working immigrants. These americans have to end up somewhere, or at least resort to crime.

Larry Davis commented that higher octane fuels are less explosive - he is right, lower octane fuels have more chemical potential energy than higher octane fuels. If you put a high octane fuel in an engine with a relatively low compression ratio - you will get carbon deposits. You need a certain amount of heat in a cylinder to burn off deposits. You can see this for yourself - look at your plugs with the lower octane fuels - it should be golden brown at premium burning. If you switch to a higher octane - the spark plug will turn black - this indicates cooler conditions in the chamber. Always run the lowest octane fuel you can before conditions of ping happen. Your engine will give you better performance. Higher compression ratios are supplying the heat - so your fuel doesnt need to be as explosive, a,k,a, higher octane.

No brushing - unless I was going to paint the house, then proper prep would be to brush.

Whenever I added a cup of F-13 to the mix - seems to get rid of all the oxidation just fine.

I loved the Joe Pesci and DeNiro skit on SNL years ago - especially when in the middle of the skit, The real Joe Pesci and DeNiro show up - and explain how they don't like being portrayed as caricatures of their movie roles. And of course in good ol' tough guy spirit - they commenced to beat the living snots out of the SNL guys.....I heard things. LOL.