Greg R

In indiana we have to seperate the sealer from the invoice or we're required to collect sales tax on the whole ticket. By itemizing it we only have to collect it on the sealer. I like it listed seperate anyway.

The economy definately lowered the closing ratio last year - we haggled price a bit on some jobs to get the work but in one part it's to keep the crews busy too. I wont give away a job no matter what but if I can keep my numbers in check +/- 10% and close the deal I usually do it. I have to keep 6 to 7 employees busy April 1st through October 1st so the work has to be there but it also has to be profitable and worthwhile. Everyone has to have a breaking point. 2010 is taking off with a bang though. Unfortunately everybody has the right now mindset!

In our case we actually make the reduced cost a benefit of doing business with us during our sales presentation. Initially alot of our customers are dishing out a pretty big chunk of change for the prep the decks need. Not sure what that would do to rentention numbers but I would sure like the moola :) It would be interesting to see what everyone would bid a identical deck at using the various pricing methods we all use. That naturally would directly effect any possibility of a discount as well.

Yup :) I have 2004 - bought it with 80 something on it a 3 years ago - now its at 120K i think. Been a real good truck overall but there were two that I could choose from and one was knocking big time. The one I bought ran nice and smoot but needed tires. I think I paid around $7800 for it back in 07'. I was looking at buying either another penske this year but opted for a F series pickup instead since we need another plow truck in the winter months. I don't mind the color but you could always have it wrapped $$$$$$$$$$$$$ Edit: Ours is actually 15' inside on a dually cutaway chassis.

no 13 would be strong straight.... test a spot with 8. You might find you dont even need that strong of a mix.

The floor is probably shot..... the bench to me is what appears to maybe have a grey stain on it. Hard to say for 100% though from pictures. Should be pretty easy still. I would try 13oz per gallon and downstream it.

That should be a cake walk. Although in looking at the pics it appears to be a grey semi transparant almost - not just weathered. Kind of has the whitewashed look.

Oxalic works although just spraying it on has not always. At time we have to agitate/brush the surface areas.

Busy here..... have a real nice chunk of work closed in both residential AND commercial which is nice. Booked out about 2 months already taking everything into account. Doing interviews this week :)

Here's some shakes! This house had 3/4 hand split shakes on the entire side and back and board and batton on the front. Trying to dig up the other pics of it - it's from 2006.

yes indeed..... didn't catch the 04' part at first though so I though Ken lost his marbles :)

Hey buddy - I wasn't trying to pick on you or start anything. We can all learn things from one another and to me thats what the forums are all about. Perhaps it was just that picture for that matter. We've had decks that were not not prepped to par and had to go back and reprep..... it happens. Especially when your business is growing and you don't have a hand in everything that happens daily. Stick around - Im sure you can learn some things as well as teach us alot in return. My comment on the deck prep wasn't to call you out... it was to offer help but perhaps that job was something a little different. Ken's a great guy that also knows his stuff and you seem to have some trust built with him so ask his opinion on the deck prep. On a positive note - great looking website and I like the business name. Stick around........ I'll shut my trap :)

I say this out of nothing more than to perhaps help you in the long run but I wouldn't let my guys stain the deck if it looked like that after the prep. Honestly to me it looks like your staining right over the weathered surface and the resulting color where it's already been applied is showing that. The prep work is 90% of the final appearance you get with any semi trans finish. Again I mean no disrespect - just wondering if there's something your perhaps not doing to get the results we see. Could you explain your process perhaps?

Are you kidding me Rick? :) The old stuff absolutely wreaked compared to the new formula.

Deckscapes here as well when we HAVE too - we always try to talk a customer into stripping horizontals but we'll do verticles in a solid acrylic (2tone). I haven't 'painted' a deck floor in years though :) We've used Woodscapes on sided homes on several occassions though.

Hey Lyle - crushed glass has worked better than cob. It also depends on how heavy the coating is though. If its really caked on there we're more likely to chem strip it. If it just a layer or two and peeling the glass works great. In tends to want to profile out the verticles so you usually have to sand those areas. If the rails are painted we try to convince the homeowner to go two tone though.

We end up media blasting alot of painted decks and it works well - some need a light sanding thereafter but often they are ready to stain once we're done. Pressure treated pine holds up to it nicely to blasting - cedar you have to be real carefull on. We've also chemically stripped many down to sand out as well but I dont think I would ever try to sand it all off unless its a real thin layer.

Heck the repeats are the best part about being in this business! I look at as a lifetime of residual income to a certain degree.

Outside of Plowing and Deicing we're establishing the home shows, printing off some new literature and getting all the ducks in a row. First show is Feb 20th... I always felt that to be a little early as people are not in the Spring is here mindset but it something to do to kickstart 2010 :)

5 years late to respond to this but..... hey what the heck :) Yes we lost two. The first was an employee that was trying to be "neat" by folding up a used wet tarp into a plastic container. Burst into flames in my driveway on a 90 degree and humid day. It was Menwood - which that stuff appearantly had a very low flash point. The second van went from a squiral that decided to nest behind the exhaust manifold. Caught the van on fire driving down the road.

Burn out happens .... sometimes you just have to step back and re-evaluate things. Burn out got me a few years back and I ended up starting another business and took a 2 yr hiatus. At that time I was deciding as to whether I wanted to sell the business or not and move onto something new but after awhile I just missed it. Glad Im back on track now but I did make alot of changes in the way we do things. To be honest I even miss owning/running deckguide and the forums at times but there's only so much time in a day so you have to prioritize.

Our Chlorine if ordered in 5's actually comes in the square totes. Might check with your supplier :)

Business always drops off around July around here with regard to woodcare. I've never really pinned down what causes it but I think when the kids get out for summer break the attention goes to vacations and such more so than home improvement projects. We put most of the the marketing effort into March through June - slow in July and August and pick it back up late August through October. Last year we were definately down in sales overall from 07' and 08' - our close ratio was certainly tighter as people were hanging onto thier money. The steel mills did alot of laying off and alot of union trades had alot of layoffs. It was still a "good" year overall as you just adapt to the situation. 2010 seems optimistic... hearing of more people getting back to work and such so we'll see. :) Home shows start up end of next month.

I wasn't insinuating you would - Im sure Beth wasn't either. I guess my response was more for those who wouldn't know any different. I've done the same with regard to experiments believe me :) In all reality even that wood could be prepared and stained to look "ok" in appearance. Unfortunately structurally speaking it wasn't worth saving appearantly.

Ditto on that :) The underlying color of the substrate (with regard to stains) plays a large role in what the end color will be.