Paul B.
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Posts posted by Paul B.
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Anson Northrup - Minneapolis, MN.
Colonel - Galveston, TX.
General Jackson - Nashville, TN.
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Celebration Belle - Illinois and PA Denny - West Virginia
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Majestic from Pittsburgh:
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Every 4 years Tall Stacks comes to the Queen City for 5 days of 19th century dress-up and fan-fare. This year, 19 boats of all sizes and shapes were here along with some of the best entertainment this country has to offer such as CJ Chenier, Creedence Clearwater, Ricky Skaggs, Dilbert McClinton, Emmylou Harris, John Hammond, Los Lobos, Bo Didley, John Mayall, B.B. King and many more.
Here are a few photos I took:
The Belle of Louisville
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There are many good products out there that will take care of your house siding cleaning needs. Here are a few that I know work well:
- AllBrite (www.SunBriteSupply.com)
- Ripper I (www.Hotsy.com)
- Limonene (www.EnviroSpec.com)
- R-109 or DNB-1430 (www.DCS1.com)
- RPC-226 CitraCleen (www.RowlettPressure.com)
You'll have to find what works well for you including overall cost after shipping.
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Has anyone cleaned aggregate with these type of stains?
I think I know what it is and what to use to remove the stains but am interested in input.
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The customers were very happy with the results and were patient thru the ordeal. We are doing a deck in the rear of the house that's also challanging.
The last photo in the series:
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Because of the location of these steps, after 5 days of no rain, the moisture content of the wood was still above 18%.
It took us about 8 weeks from the time we started, till we were able to complete the job because it kept raining after 3-4 days of no rain. We ended up re-washing the steps and brightening again with Citralic. The Citralic was applied without rinsing.
It took 6 dry days for the wood to dry to 15% moisture content.
Here are a couple pics of the finished product.
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This photo shows the masking (typical for washing and staining).
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Another area of trapped water.
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As you can see from these next photos, the step design is poor, not allowing the water to drain.
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What to use to strip the failing finish and how to mask the surface below to keep from stripping the gray finish were a few of the original questions as we started this project.
We tried a boosted percarbonate cleaner that cleaned some areas but did nothing to remove the finish in some of the areas that were protected from failure.
We also tried EFC-38, wetting the surface below (without masking) and quickly found that the mix was starting to strip the gray paint. We switched gears, and quickly masked the areas below the steps. EFC-38 did not remove the stain so we switched to HD-80. HD-80 quickly removed the Behr semi at 8 oz. per gallon. The steps were ready for neutralizing with Citralic. Citralic was applied at 8 oz. per gallon.
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Follow-up on the original post. I'll attach the original photos again as it looks like they were lost in the shuffle. If you are interested, bear with me as this will most likely be fairly long (my typical posts).
This was a major headache restoration even though it looks simple.
- The steps are poorly designed to the point where water stands on the boards, having no place to drain.
- The steps are 100% in the shade and only get a glimpse of sunshine as the wind blows the branches apart for a peek at the sun.
- Very high humidity as this is in the middle of heavy woods.
- The gutters were always overflowing onto the steps.
- Leaves and branches were always on the steps.
The customer cured some of the problems:
- Cut back tree branches.
- Replaced gutters with a covered type system.
- Sweeps steps regularly.
- Selected Genesis as their restoration and maintenance contractor.
- Selected Ready Seal "Dark Brown" as their stain.
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Remember that a 100 psi deviation is 3.3% of the specified rpm.
Also remember that a motor will run slower under load than without a load (as in having a pump attached).
I would check the pulleys first (calculate at pitch diameters) and save the cost of the tach. for the second round.
Check both the engine and pump rpm's.
Check your belt - if it's a v-belt, it could be worn enough to give you a speed difference.
As for increasing the speed for the pump: if it was a CAT, I wouldn't think about it twice, as the safety factor is there. Without knowing the design perimeters of the Italian pump, it's hard to tell, but having spent over 25 years in design engineering, I would guess that you should be OK increasing the rpm.
There are a bunch of things that go into the design perimeters such as:
- Bearing size / speeds
- Heat generated / dissipated
- Seal sizes / materials
- Rod size / shape
- Balancing
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Now this is the way to go!
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With the real X-Jet, cleaning the TALL side of any house should be no problem. But you have to have the original, REAL X-Jet.
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It looks like water seeping thru the concrete and I would suspect rebar to be the causing the corrosion on the surface. Looks like the expansion joint and concrete are failing in one area.
Is the grass wet or muddy on either side of the concrete (in line with the expansion joint)?
Water lines are normally under frost line (in MD that must be at least 2 ft). That doesn't mean it's not leaking, but the customer can usually tell a leak by differences in their water bills. The water company can also check at the meter to see if there is a leak before/after the meter. (If it's before the meter it's the utility co's. $$ to fix, if it's after the meter, it's the homeowners $$$.)
If it's a sprinkler system, the homeowner can turn it off and leave it off.
Newer power lines are normally at least 3ft underground and are not encased in corrosive pipes.
Again, if it's an underground water leak, it should be repaired first. Looks like the concrete should also be repaired and the rebars that are exposed during the repair should be coated before concrete is poured, otherwise the problem will remain.
"The Must For Rust" is a pretty decent corrosive inhibitor and provides a coating. For cleaning the concrete, a phosphoric acid based product is most effective, but there are others out there such as Oxalic acid, White Ox, Prosoco's Ferrous Stain Remover, etc.
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It looks like water seeping thru the concrete and I would suspect rebar to be the causing the corrosion on the surface. Looks like the expansion joint and concrete are failing in one area.
Is the grass wet or muddy on either side of the concrete (in line with the expansion joint)?
Water lines are normally under frost line (in MD that must be at least 2 ft). That doesn't mean it's not leaking, but the customer can usually tell a leak by differences in their water bills. The water company can also check at the meter to see if there is a leak before/after the meter. (If it's before the meter it's the utility co's. $$ to fix, if it's after the meter, it's the homeowners $$$.)
If it's a sprinkler system, the homeowner can turn it off and leave it off.
Newer power lines are normally at least 3ft underground and are not encased in corrosive pipes.
Again, if it's an underground water leak, it should be repaired first. Looks like the concrete should also be repaired and the rebars that are exposed during the repair should be coated before concrete is poured, otherwise the problem will remain.
"The Must For Rust" is a pretty decent corrosive inhibitor and provides a coating. For cleaning the concrete, a phosphoric acid based product is most effective, but there are others out there such as Oxalic acid, White Ox, Prosoco's Ferrous Stain Remover, etc.
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Seeing the drawing would help. Deublin makes a bunch of rotary unions.
You may have to have the bearings pressed off and pressed on.
Make sure they press on the inner race of the bearing when installing it, otherwise the bearing can be damaged.
You may need a mandrel to press the bearings on. Sometimes we used an oven to heat the bearing, then it would slide on but you have to make sure that the specific temperatures are not exceeded. (If the person picks up a hammer instead of a mallet you better take your parts and run!)
I would suggest calling Deublin customer service (847) 689-8600 and talk to a repair tech to review the disassembly and assembly procedures. The process is not complicated but those unions are fairly expensive if you damage the shaft or housing.
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There are a fair number of different designs out there. Most are of a fairly simple design. Maybe able to help if you can post the print/drawing.
Whats in your rebuild kit? Bearing(s), seals, lube, snap ring?
Depending on the design, the bearings COULD be the most difficult to remove.
One of the most important things to remember is to keep contamination / dirt out of the bearings (make sure you have a clean area to work in).
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We use Prosoco 600 Detergent or Vana Trol.
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Personally I have a hard time believing that he averages $150 per hour for every person on his crew. Does he have his bricklayers setting up scaffolding and mixing the mortar? The washing wouldn't have to be by a brick layer. He's either not seeing the potential or he doesn't care. Regardless...
Our goal is to average about 300 sq ft per hour or 2100 full and broken bricks per hour per man. That's visualized as a 10ft high wall 30 feet long by the washers. At $30 per 1000 that's $63 per hour per person. When we get $35/1000 then the hourly goes up to $73.50 and at $40/1000 it shoots to $84/hr. Sometimes it goes faster, other times a bit slower but we try to work toward long term averages.
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If the mason can sub the cleaning out at that rate, how much is he billing for it? I know around here if the masons were getting those rates, they would definitely not sub out the work, but do it themselves. That's over 200% net profit.
A box type 50K brick job like a Walgreens would take about 2 weeks to brick with a crew of 8-9 (under decent conditions). They want the work knocked out fast being on fast schedules. The philosophy is that any day a business is not open, it's money that they can't make or can't recoup. In addition, the longer the job lasts, the more money is spent. There are not a whole lot of extras to make money on these jobs as they have only a couple of doors, about 6-8 windows. It's usually a 2 story box with level terrain. Of course you can lay a lot of brick in a day on a straight, uninterrupted runs.
$1428 per 1000 bricks is an awsome rate for base. Depending on the shape, with EXTRAS, I could see it going that high for commercial. Of course, it doesn't matter what the rate is if there is not much work to be had.
I hope things pick up for you in the masonry cleaning arena.
Around here, residential production masonry starts at $340/1000 plus extras.
Custom starts anywhere but generally about $375/1000 plus extras. The extras can take you to an average of $700-$800/1000.
Commercial starts at about $375/1000 for the simpler work like a Wendys, McDonalds type building and move up to $750/1000 for larger buildings such as schools, auditoriums, churches, etc. Extras woul inflating these numbers.
Construction is still booming around here (for the time being).
Tall Stacks.
in The Club House
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Creole Queen - Louisiana