Scott Knott

How do most of you guys bid deck jobs. Clean and seal, Clean and stain, Strip, clean and stain. Do ya bid by the SF or by the job, I have been trying to bid by the amount of time I think it will take to do the job. Also when you bid a deck, when should you bid the deck to be stripped, Do you strip every deck that has a stain on it ? I have been reading all I can about decks and I have read that you can put stain over old stain. Example the customer wants to restain a deck that is getting old and faded ant the stain is wearing off in high traffic areas, and he wants to go with the same semitransparent stain. Should I strip tha old stain or clean the deck and restain?

I love the keys idea, I grew up in Clearwater Fl. Key West has a lottt of people light in the loafers so I think I would try one of the middle keys Like Marathon or Islamarada :cool: But my wife would never let me spend my winter there witout her So I ll just stay in Missouri and keep working on my degree in the winter.

Im thinking of trying my hand at staining a deck with an airless sprayer, I will be trying on a friends fence first , but i may try it on a deck I have to do next week. on the deck the owner wants a behr solid redwood stain, Now this may soud like a dumb questian but do I back brush a solid stain just as I would a semi transparent? I also have a wagner power sprayer that was given to me has anyone ever used one to apply stain?

Thanks you guys Reed I dont have exel at home but you can send it to my wife at work and she can print it for me her e-mail is knottJ@health.missouri.edu

So when bidding, how do you figure rails & spindles Should I mesure every stick of lumber that i will clean and seal and give them a price on the amount of every SF they?

Have any of you used Penatrol, in your stains? I pressure clean and paint all the propaine tanks for a gas Company here in town and use it in all my paint, but I never tryed it in stain.

What about wolmans??

Why stay away from behr that is what I plan on using?? Behr solid natural redwood. At first I was going to stay away from decks but I did one deck for my lanlord that deck has got me 3 calls, now the wheels are turning.

This will be my first try with a solid, I have done 3 decks this year with a semitransparent. and all have looked good,but with a roller and brush. Beth I used the sample of hd-80 you sent it worked real well a lott better than the Flood striper I used. If ya have a smaller amount you can sell I would like to buy some,with the amount of decks I do I dont need to have a lott on hand. Im just getting started and every penny counts right now. when I got into this last deck most all of the solid stain came off real well ,but there were some places that were adheared real well that just would not come off. Will the behr solid cover these places? I plan on doing some lite sanding before I stain to make sure I have no loose flakes of the old stain still on the deck.

I have someone that has a big stain on a deck, racoons knocked over a fryer and spilled penut oil all over the deck. They had the deck power washed and stained last year but the oil has came back to the top. Im thinking that this may never come up is there somthing I can use? The customer is thinking they may want to go with a dark solid stain or just paint the deck anyone ever seen anything like this before?? What would you do? Im kinda leaning to painting the deck but would like some good input before I decide what to suggest to them. Also they dont want anything esle done on the deck just the plattform no stairs, rails ect. Flipping the bords will not work either they look worse on the bottom than on the top.

Beth & Rod I still have the sample of HD- 80 and citralic you sent me. Do ya think I should strip the whole deck or just the bad spot. I dont think the last person that worked on the beck did anything but cleand the deck with bleach and power wash. Im lost at what to charge the people for just the spot as well, if we try to go that route.

I went to clean a house today, this was a very old house that has had vinyl siding put over old partical board type siding.The more i would try to clean this house the more the old sinding would run out leaving yellow streaks down the side of the house.The house would come clean great but after a few min. the yellow streaking would start again the owner took me to a place at the back of the house where he could lift the siding exposing the old stuff the old stuff is so rotten underneath the you could put your finger in it. I tryed just a brush and water hose working from top to bottom and power washing from top to bottom but I can not stop the yellow color stuff from running out. Has anyone ever seen any thing like this?

Moore I used a chem called Power Plus KO and bleach mix my pressure was about 2000psi and 4 gal a min.

Man I see so much talk about the X-Jet is this just to sray chems or can you clean with these things as well I have looked and have not been able to find any real solid info about them,Like a demo video any know where I can get one .

I did just what paul said to do and the home came out nice and the owner is happy.

They dont sell them at the Lowes here in Columbia Mo somthing like that would be great for a rookie like my self. My first try at deck work turned out ok but it could be better good thing this was just a test deck:cool:

How do most of you bid your jobs, do you bid by square foot or do you figure by the hour? For example I was called this week to bid two houses one was 1000sq ft single story just mold and dirt on vinyl siding, and the other is 2000 sq ft two story that i think i can cover with a 10 ft latter and an 8ft wand this house also has just green mold & dirt. I know prices will change from state to state the average around here seems to be $150 for a double wide mobile home. If i were to bid $350-$400 on the 2000sq ft do you guys think i would be in the right price range? Starting out in this, learning how to clean a job seems to be the easier part compaired to learning how to bid a job right.