Greg R

Practice masking and it doesn't take long to run tape and mask. 5 minutes and I can usually have the back masked. I run a continuous 2" strip along the base of the house while rolling back the top edge. Then using painters plastic (400' rolls - 9' high) you stick the leading edge. When it's all stuck then you upright it into the place and secure. Then when your done it all pulls down in one continous pull. Never tried the easy mask..... interesting about the static cling though. the thin plastic .5 mil works the best as the tape sticks to it real well and it clings to the house good. 400' rolls are about $17 retail but we get them for 12 bucks at Menards or MAB and you can do quite a bit of work off $20 in tape and plastic.

:) ...and the thought at one time was composite would put us out of business.... We have 7 on the schedule to clean and seal:lgmoneyey

I just closed a large barn style home with decks similar to that but it only had one level of deck. For a wash and recoat and the house (semi-solid oil) plus a 1200 sq ft elevated (10') deck that wraps half of the home we came in at just under $12K. Keep in mind this is a housewash mix on the home and a percarb and brighten on the deck..... no strip work. I would venture to say on the one in the picture you provided I would price it in the low $20's to strip and brighten. Best thing to do for reassuring bids is to guestimate your time and material involved and work it both ways. Sq Ft pricing works well but not on everything. For the one we just closed we'll have it all prep'd in one day and finished in about 4 days. It's not all that big of a house but it's 32' to the peak and board and batten so the need for scaffold will slow things.

Ahem... which starbucks is that Jim???? I gotta craving for a mocha frappa cappa - chino :)

Both are important IMO but as Rick said on average 2 years is about it. We see alot of customers on the 3rd year for maintenance so I tend to weight the side of ease of maintenance/application since longevity seems to be about equal.

I just put down 10" wideplank pine flooring in my house this past winter and I obtained several bids to finish it. They were from $2.50 to $5 a sq ft. I ended up sealing them myself :) as there was about 2000 sq ft of flooring total.

I do the same as Ken.. If they ask further I just state everyjob is unique in its needs and that we'll have a better feel when we get started as to how long it will take.

Sorry Dan -- somehow I managed to mess up your last post! I was replying to your post and must not of had enough coffee this morning. My response to your $240 housewash vs the $99 guys was with regard to setting yourself apart from the competition. You have to sell yourself and explain WHY your service is worth $240. There's a reason guys can offer $99 housewashes and if you let them shop on price alone you'll almost always lose.

We provide a 25% discount (used to be 30 but fuel and everything) on maintenance work IF DONE PER THE PRESCRIBED MAINTENANCE PLAN. They have to have it completed by the third season to receive the discount or we charge full rate again.

Professionalism to me is the mannor in which you choose to conduct yourself and your business. To look professional and BE professional are two different worlds entirely. I tend to agree that the financial end of things really plays a little part outside of being able to afford the basic tools and transportation. The small guy with working out of his pickup can certainly put forth more professionalism than the company with 30 trucks in their fleet and vice versa. I guess with that I would say it's more about the individual(s) too. I'm all about trying to put forth a huge systematic "franchised" look in our business but if you can't match that with "above the bar" results and quality courteous people it's really not worth squat.

You could code the cards. All I would do is note on the card the invoice number in some way or form. If done in a discrete way nobody would know the card was destined for a specific job. Even if they fail to fill out the "customer info" all you would do is associate the "code" with the invoice.

Man you guys should all be rich by now :lgmoneyey Our close ratio is probably running in the 35% to 37% range. If we closed 80% of the bids we've completed already (and we haven't even started the year yet!) we would be 8 crews deep already. For kicks I just counted things up and out of 142 bids this year so far we've closed 52 jobs. The one difference I'm certain that plays a part is we dont always meet with the customer though. We try too but with fuel costs and time it's not always economical to make appointments for the bulk of them so if they are there great... if not we leave it or mail it and make a call to follow up. At that time we setup a time to meet if requested. 80% is alot!

It's definately a mess. The homeowner seriously asked if it was salvagable. We're putting together a bid to rebuild the whole deck currently. I've been toying with some different deck design software lately :)

:irritated Kenny built this deck....... Whats wrong with this picture? :) These pics were taken at a estimate I had today. Lets just say thank god I only weigh 175 lbs cause I've never seen 2x6's flex so much.

Actually started pressure washing when I was 18 part time washing trucks. Started GCR PowerClean I guess around 20 in 1994 as extra money and went full time in 96'. Kicked it over to TIMBERSEAL around 99' when I was pretty much doing nothing but wood at the time and been that way since for the most part. I'm turning 34 in August and my memory already is going to pot :)

Email me for the details if you service this area. Its over 2 hours from me and not really worth the drive. timberseal@comcast.net Greg

Man I like that... it comes with a dump bed! We added a 2004 GMC Savana 3500 box truck beginning of last year. We'll see how the GM performs. It already soaked me for $600 due to a faulty O2 sensor that nobody could figure out was bad. Has a shimmy in the front end now too... should have stayed in the Fords it appears.

Here's another..... this guy actually have SEVEN garage doors. 4 on one garage and 3 on the other.

They can certainly be restored. We've done quite a few garage doors over the years. Follow Beth and Rods advice with a good paint stripper and you'll need tools for getting into the crevices. They can eat up alot of time but look awesome when finished. I use a product called Restoration Paint remover and spray it on with an airless nice and thick. Then we scrape the bulk of it off by hand and pressure wash/tool the areas as needed. Sikkens Cetol 1 with 3 coats of TGL Gloss or you can use the 23 system on them and they'll look like a piece of high end furniture. They will eat up alot of time so make sure your solid on your numbers. Minimum a $1000 in the mildest case. These ran around $3500 to restore

Trailers worked well back when it was just me but as we added employees the trailer thing wasn't going over well. Started with a 16' landscape trailer - then went to an enclosed 16' and narrowed that to a cargo van pulling the trailer. Since we went all cold water (wood care and resi services) everything is now contained in the vehicle and we pull hoses only. Our E250 is a one man setup while the GMC3500 Box and E350 Box are both two man trucks. This year I'm hoping to get a "pressure washing" truck together for commercial work and some residential houses and concrete. I still pull the 16' enclosed on occasion for scaffolding, materials or haul out debris but thats about it. I had a guy take the trailer through a McD's drive through and wipe out the intercoms and that was the end of that.

Another example and this is the dead-on truth too.... My wife was shipping out some product the other day via UPS. She pulled the quote together and told me the cost - then informed me they would be charging a $7 fee for the pickup. I told her forget the pickup and that I would just run them to Staples. :lgjump: I can GUARANTEE you had that fee been included in the shipping costs I would have had them just pick the packages up. But instead being the cheap a$$ that I am I loaded them in the box truck and spent 20 minutes running them to staples. The funny thing is... I JUST REALIZED I DID THAT FOR $7 FREAKING DOLLARS! I'm a victim of my own ignorance :)

I think its more psychological than anything else. Company A wants to charge me $650 to refinish my deck all expenses included. Company B wants to charge me $620 and wants me to pay their fuel costs of $30. Maybe it's just me but I'm more inclined to feel that the money is going toward the work involved as a sum of the charge rather than it being a seperate charge. "I" as a consumer (consumer mindset that is) already pay a fortune in fuel costs to get to work everyday why would I want to pay for theirs. Obviousely nothing more than my opinion based on how we lay out the bids and the reactions we seem to get.

We're pumping more advertising dollars into a tighter service area for sure. Diesel here is pennys under $4 right now. We started "including" a fuel charge on every bid. Included IN the bid it doesn't mean anything. As a seperate charge on the bid it seems to take on a different meaning with customers. I'm afraid charging for your estimates would yield more harm than the gas prices :)

Man I going to have to check that out next year. Good reason to take a vacation :) Being thompsons I expected something much larger and over the top honestly :)

2 Million with a 1 Million umbrella policy (required for where we keep shop). It's crazy IMO to operate with anything less than a million these days. If something goes to an attorney things get expensive fast.