plainpainter

Walking on 12/12 pitch roofs - and one guy doing it with snow on it? That's just plain crazy, I have done a few roofs myself - and I don't consider 12 pitch rooves to be walkable. Do what I do, put a hook-over on your ladder, hook it over the ridge and then work from that ladder. then climb to the ridge to move it around. You can't walk a 12 pitch roof, especially if it's wet - no way. -Dan

I have never found that tsp leaves a white residue - on the sides of boxes they commonly tell you to put 1 quart of bleach and 1 cup of tsp to 3 quarts of water. I think that's just plain crazy - I have always just put 1/4 of tsp to one gallon of water then added a quart of bleach for 5 quarts total. That's been my mainstay, and where I start from when I want to tackle something. By adding 1/16 cup of tergitol to that gallon, has allowed me to cut down the bleach to one pint. And so now I have a mixture that I can put a siphon directly into a 6% bleach bottle with my added ingredients through my downstreamer which is 10:1. I was pressure washing a house, and it even knocked off the failing poly coating on the guy's front threshold! But back to your question - never noticed any residue on windows, I don't think the nonylphenol would allow it - and I haven't killed any vegetation, just rinse the vegetation before and after. -Dan

Keth - you can get tergitol much much cheaper than that at thechemistrystore.com. As with how it works, yes it makes the stuff hold much better on the sides of a house - but even on flat sections, it has this amazing ability to remove the need for brushing. If you use it with just bleach, ok - or just use bleach with TSP - again ok. But bleach with tsp and tergitol - man oh man. -Dan

I am a painter, and I have never heard or seen any painter against the use of bleach. The only time I have seen people against bleach is when I first came to this website and people saying bleach was bad to use on wood. As a sidenote - I once mixed in 11 scoops of oxi-clean and 1 cup of tsp into 5 quarts of warm/hot water in a pump up sprayer - and it knocked off all the mildew and dirt off a vinyl sided home. -Dan

I know alot about it - I use a non-ionic surfactant called NP-9 Tergitol {nonylphenol} that purposely is made to work with bleach. I use it along with TSP in the bleach for my housewashes. And only 0.6% makes it onto the home after downstreaming - and it knocks all mildew off like gangbusters! This is in stark contrast to the other guys here who insist on 12% bleach with 1%-2% making it onto the side of a home after downstreaming. -Dan

technically speaking, racism, is the belief that one race is intrinsically better than another - I believe you mean profiling. Everybody profiles - and in this business, it's real easy to profile a crew of illegal immigrants. I think there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have spoken to people who live near the inner city, in my case Boston, and have come to find out that most people are pissed at immigrant labor - apparently in the big cities people have much more experience with illegals and have had several go-arounds with them, that they now insist on people who speak english as a first language. Mind you, these people have been telling me horror stories. It's the people in the suburbs, that are the unsuspecting ones, or at least are still dreaming that illegals offer the same quality for much less money. Reality will hit eventually - it's just a wave. Back in the old days - some agency use to go around to unsuspecting painting companies on the job - and asked painters on the spot to show their Riggers' license. And if they weren't licensed, they were gone! Too bad they don't require painters to have such licensing anymore - I guess the quality of ladders is just so much better than 40 years ago. -Dan

Celeste - I have read many times especially from Beth and Rod, about using diluted mixtures of HD-80 to clean up weathered wood instead of bleach, something like 3 oz. per gallon. James - I am very curious which products you use from ABR and at which point in the restoration process. My paint store was going to give me a gallon of the acid cleaner for free - just so I could try it out. I felt guilty and told him I had no decks scheduled so it would just be sitting on my shelf, so I didn't take it. -Dan

Everyone, listen to Thomas' opinion - because the contrary opinions will eventually lead to a market where you guys are competing with each other at 15.00 bucks an hour. Don't believe me? Try looking at craigslist sometime and what painters are charging. God forbid the mexicans and brazilians get into your profession - you can talk about a professional job and insurance up the wazoo with customers, it won't make a bit of difference when they see how cheap the immigrants will do it. I have to fight tooth and nail to charge customers $40/hour for my painting services. And my neigbor got his two story aluminum sided house, approx 1600 sq. foot home, for $255 from a contractor that does pressure washing only. And this is in a high priced part of the country. -Dan

Sounds like you have a heavily medicated ***** on your hands. I would have lied and said it was a town truck that parked there and leaked something. Honestly - when a pure accident, like one of your workers does something like that - and no less not even on the property - I mean ************* . I would have pulled out a photo of a veteran in a wheelchair and then started drilling into her ' Eh - is this why he lost his legs, so you could cry over spilt spirits??!?!' I've been through this before, where I tried everything in my power to make things right - and I still ended up losing the account, probably got nasty references. Basically I spilt spirits in my front walkway - and it made that area much darker - with time it will lighten out. But nothing soon, and nothing you can really do anything about. The Deck is seperate - it's totally unprofessional for her to not pay you for work rendered - does she have a problem with the deck? She is a total chiseler or a someone who doesn't appreciate the sacrifices many men and women have made to make this country what it is - if she did she would be much more reasonable and would also realize you are a total professional and this was an honest mistake, and if there any damages - your liability policy would cover it - but since your insurance agent would laugh this to Shanghai - I say get tough, and take this ***** to court and show her in a public forum for the whiny ******** she is. I am sick and tired of clients like that. This is totally unacceptable behaviour - and as much as I believe you trap more bees with honey than you do vinegar. I also believe it's better to make people envy you than pity you. And if you go without your money - then you will be pitied. Make a statement take that ********** to court and fight for your ***** honor and dignity. Are you the homeowners ******, whom they can *** ****** for money because of some stupid road stain - or are you a professional that deserves respect for all the hours you put into making a professional business work, employing people, paying taxes, equipment, etc? -Dan

Talk about taking care of woods. I was in Newburyport Mass the other day, and I was walking on the river front boardwalk, that was several years ago with these honkin' 12" by 12" mahogony beams. And there has never been any sealer applied to it - just is greying out, it's starting to buckle and stuff. I wish the town would treat it, at least there is room to try over a 100 different products to see which one can last the longest under the pressure of people walking it and salt spray constantly being splashed on it. -Dan

I use a gallon of household bleach 6%, put in 2 cups of TSP and 1/2 cup of tergitol and downstream it at 10:1. That takes of everything with minimal effort. -Dan

Ken - I understand that we're here to preserve and protect, I don't know the answers, but when I have to get a primer to stick - that's my routine. As to Acetone - true it's 100% VOC, but the EPA has exempted it's use, as it's been shown not to combine with nitrous oxides to form smog - so it no longer is on their hit list. I would be interested to know as to what will stick to Ipe after all is said and done. Personally I wouldn't have bothered to wipe down a deck with Acetone just to get it to last longer, customers can kiss my butt if they think I am going to play with acetone all over their deck - just isn't worth my health to do so. They'll just have to get use to getting their deck treated every year. -Dan

Rod - I have used Lacquer thinner {of which acetone is a major compenent} to prepare woods like teak and mahogony for priming. It's just part and parcel with doing business - the companies don't put out every conceiveable product for every task. With Ipe - although I have no experience with the wood - seems to be a rather dense wood with lots of it's own resins from what I am reading. Someone said it beads water by itself, so just by guessing - it would be rather hard to get something to stick. If you treat a deck - and it beads water, it would be hard to get something to stick to it as well. So if acetone will get a product to stick, why not do it? Acetone from what I recall has been given exemption status from the EPA in regards to voc laws - the only thing holding manufacturers back is the extra cost it would incur to put acetone, toluene, or MEK into their formulations - otherwise I believe they would have a product out there with lots of acetone just for ipe decks. -Dan

In the past When I had to apply an oil primer to hardwoods such as teak and mahogony - I would always wipe 'em down with a steel sponge and lacquer thinner, it removes the natural resins so the primer would go into the pores. I guess in these instances you may believe in a product that sticks vs. penetrates. I have always believed in primers that would penetrate for woods, but the companies do make acrylic house primers that 'stick' to the surface - so for decks stains - I would go with a surface filming product that is meant to stick more than penetrate. Another trick I use is to mix either Wilbond or lacquer thinner {same product imo} into the product I am going to use. I have gotten acrylic house primers to penetrate into wood like they were an oil. I'd mix a batch of your stain with ample amounts of lacquer thinner and then apply - this will work especially well with these lower VOC coatings - since it will make it less viscous. -Dan

What are the stripping agents in EFC-38? -Dan

I am confused with this hot water pressure washing - is it the action of downstreaming chems with hot water that you people are talking about? Or the rinsing? It seems to me that by the time you blast the side of a house with hot water - how much time has it really worked synergistically with the detergents to clean your home? The second you rinse - everything that was applied is now on the ground - where is the interaction time that makes hot water so much better? I can understand if you are talking about downstreaming chems with hot water - that makes sense. But hot water for rinsing? What possible effect can that have? -Dan

The only time I have ever seen millglaze is on mitre cuts with a worn blade. I think myths get propagated and repeated so easily. -Dan

Ken, when you say 'acrylics' you mean semi-transparent and solid latex stain, right? Some ways I can get latex paint off is to just slap on raw linseed oil and come back the next day, I have noticed cleaning my brushes with lacquer thinner on a latex painted railing made the paint come right off. But both are not economical, messy, and potentially hazardous. Heck I sometimes will clean my latex brushes with MEK - and all the dried latex paint caught up deep in the bristles just flow out with a quick spin. But again solvents are kind of gross. Not to mention they evaporate in seconds! But useful knowledge if you have to clean up a little section. I know lots of paint companies market certain types of latex floor paint for industrial uses as they are very resistant to chemicals, acids, etc. So I don't think it will be easy to find a product that strips latex - short of paint stripper. -Dan

Mike, no offense - but why don't you just look up something in the Dictionary when you don't understand a word? Or at the very least pop the word in google or yahoo and do a search - you'll usually get the definition that way. Heck I wonder if I spell a word correctly, so I'll pop that into yahoo. And it will spit back a definition if it's spelled correctly or give me a word that it thinks I should search instead - which is usually the word spelled correctly -Dan

If you really want to get rid of sap use VM&P Naptha! -Dan

I don't know I am just a believer in Tung oil's toughness. I think using caustics may be the wrong way to go with tung oil based products - anyone every think of using acids to strip? I have tried like hell to strip my tung oil based deck stain from Muralo - but did notice my Cat' vomit - took it right off! And you could use Bicarbonate of soda to neutralize. -Dan

A sikkens dealer told me in regards to their Dek and Dek-base products. That you should clean the deck and reapply a coat every year before failure occurs. And that his sister has been doing that for the last 14 years on her deck and it looks great - I guess like marine varnish or something. I know if we come to a new customer's house - and they have this dingy failing finish - we all just want to strip it and start from scratch. But wouldn't it just make you feel bad to re-strip your own decks every time you come back? Wouldn't you rather just sell them on a yearly re-application? I know stain should be applied to bare wood - but it just seems counter productive to strip each time. I am undecided on this. -Dan

Latex products are no match for good ol' paint stripper, a.k.a methylene chloride. -Dan

These are the kinds of jobs you don't want - price 'em high as if you don't want to do 'em. And maybe you'll get lucky and they won't call back. I had to price a house to chemically strip the century old lead paint - and priced the total job close to 20 grand, because I really didn't want the job. And jesus christ - I got the job! Oh the fun of spraying on a slurry of Potassium hydroxide over a whole house - and then pressure washing it off a day later. -Dan

I guess this is a good example why you should never come down on your price. It's one thing to stay professional and put up with the pickiness of customers - but imagine if they had talked you down say 10%-20% your normal price - and then popped on you the pickiness at the end! This has happened to me before. I envision every customer being ultra picky before I write an estimate - and then price it accordingly. -Dan -Dan