Pro Spa N Decks

[Earl Johnson 14]

Has anybody used Pro Spa N Decks By Flood? Can someone suggest What works best on a very old, never sealed P/T deck. Wood is very dry and weathered. I'm sure it will **** up a bunch of whatever is put on it. Deck is 16x14, 8 steps with 50lf of railing. Clean and strip 250.00. Is that about right? How much Stain? Thanks for any help. Earl

[Aplus 525]

$250 for that job is a little low. You won't make much on that job. I'm not a big fan of Flood products, I guess because CWF is so rotten that I can't look past it. Maye spa&deck is good, I don't know, and I probably never will, because I'm more than happy using other products.

[ron p 500]

i have not used spa n deck,i think it's supposed to be a 2 or 3 part system.

A-PLUS FLOOD did'nt invent spa n deck they just bought the right's to sell it.

The whole "one day deck" is very interesting.

I know Russ is trying to get the new WOOD TUX to the point of advertising it as a "one day deck"

Biggest draw back to most sealers is measuring moisture content.

[Earl Johnson 14]

Doing it all in one day would be great, if its a good finish. what is the top three (in your opinion) sealers? Earl,,,, Aplus, you thinking more like 350.00?

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

I spoke to supposrt at Flood about this product about a month or so ago.

It needs to be applied to wood that is not neutralized, so they urge you to use BLEACH to clean with. Bleach breaks down wood fibers. Now if they are trying to get to the alkaline end of the Ph scale (which is what the tech told me finally) then you can use a stripper or the percarb to get you there too. The think is, is that Spa N Deck is acrylic. The first coat will not be shiny, the second will. They need the chemical reaction between alkaline wood and the sealer to get it to bond well.

Best advice I can give is get litmus paper and test, so you are not too neutral in pH when you go to apply it.

Hope this helps.

Beth

p.s. this is NOT the case for most finishes....

see this article for info. http://www.thegrimescene.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=50

[Howard 50]

You say the deck has never had anything put on it, then say your going to strip and seal?

Assuming you don't have to replace any of the boards and the deck is a ground level I priced out your deck as follows

Clean and strip with one coat of sealer Total Sq ft = 298

(haven't used spa - Pool and deck) but have used Flood products before, their coverage is about 130 Sq Ft per gal. = 3 Gal

Total Price including materials $521.50, Before discount (if any)

I figure total material cost including stripper, brightener and sealer at $123.00

2 hrs to strip, rinse and brighten deck

2 hrs to seal

= $70.62 per hour (+ cost of material)

That

[Earl Johnson 14]

Well I sure bid my first one aweful low, but i learned a good lesson. Howard, First, thank you for your service and sacrifice in the US. NAVY. I meant to say clean and seal, not strip. Thanks for the breakdown. I dont think the market around here will support those prices. But I may be wong. Its hard to find out what the going rate is around here. Cat has everybodys tongue. lol Thanks again Earl

[RAJD 14]

You have 16 x 18 = 288sq. ft of deck

railing 50lf. x 3 = 150 sq. ft. of rail

8 steps @ approx 2 sq. ft. =16sq ft.

total sq. ft. =454

At $250.00 you are around .55 a square foot.

I would try to get at least $1.00 sq. ft. just to clean

Min. $1.25 ~ $1.50 to clean and seal

You will use more sealer if it is very dry, take that into account when you figure your price.

Bob

[Earl Johnson 14]

I made a mistake when I figured this job. The customer and I were running off at the mouth and I misfigured part of the job. I learned this lesson real fast. Double check figures. He's a friend so I didn't want to say anything that would make me look even more like I didn't know what I was doing. It won't happen again! Earl

[Aplus 525]

Earl,

It's hard to estimate without seeing the deck, but based on your numbers, and if there are no strange complications, I would charge a minimum of $400 for that job.

[SDI 14]

About Spa & deck, we tried it for two weeks on 10 decks, it was surppose to help cut time for the contractor, it did not if fact it added more to our production rate.

Our Company for the last 9 years have been using bio-wash natural deck oil. when the weather has not been cooperative or we are backed up, it allows us to wash and stain in the same day and paid the same day. I have seen it hold up well very close to two years. we have two ,two men crew who only wash and stain and average 50 to 60 decks per week. our strip & sand crew can do 3 jobs a day (1200s/f decks avg size). Followed by a refinishing crew when the decks are ready for refinishing.

TIP. for extra income get into doing hot tubs, wash and stain in 45 min. and get $150. per hot tub with bio-wash. if your there doing the deck why not the hot tub and make an extra $900. per week.

WE have hook up with seller of hot tubs for the maint. And were getting a good # of calls, if fact customers are asking if we can also clean the insides and fill up and add the chemicals we have just started just as a let me see what happens and so far we have 11 already booked at $250. a pop.

The Guys From SDI.

SAL, Rich, Kevin, And The Boss ( BOB)

P.S. our boss read the post and we do an aveage of 40 to 50 decks per week, if the weather was always perfect then maybe 50 to 60 decks per week.

Kevin-SDI

:o

[Earl Johnson 14]

I'm still working on my pricing structure and have alot to learn. Nice to have a place to ask questions. I appreicate everyones imput. Earl

[RAJD 14]

Is bio-wash strictly a retail item or can it be purchased

in bulk from a distributer or manufacturer?

THANKS

Bob

[SDI 14]

Here Is The Phone # to Bio-Wash 1-800 858-5011

www.biowash.com

ask them to send you a pack of flyers( biowash The one day deck)

And send them out in your mailings.

If you Need more info, ask our boss Bob Valentino he be more than happy to help you out.

SDI

Doreen

Customer Service

[RAJD 14]

SDI

Thank you, I will call Monday

Bob

[Littlefield 65]

Originally posted by Earl Johnson

I'm still working on my pricing structure and have alot to learn. Nice to have a place to ask questions. I appreicate everyones imput. Earl

Earl, As you already know, you may have went way low on this one. Oh well, you know you are learning a lot the first few anyway. I just wanted to commend you on your good attitude of accepting constructive criticism of your bidding. So many people get bent out of shape when others are trying to help them.

By the way, heres my short diatribe on pricing. The "going" rate, is set by people going out of business. The market can always bear more than you are brave enough to charge. Don't get too tied up on thinking price is what will get you in. I routinely outsell my competition at twice to three times what they charge, and occasionally am outsold at 30 to 50% above my price. (Hate when that happens, ;)

In short, its hard to run a service business if you don't double your labor and materials on each bid. I know that sounds crazy when you'll read books or estimating manuals that talk about a 10% profit, but its true.

If you double your L&M, you may make 10% company profit.....

So the big thing you need to know, is not going rates, price /SQFT etc.. but production rates. IE how many SQFT can you PW of this or that in an hour.... Then figure materials, and double.

By the way, in labor, don't forget to charge for insurance, workers comp, SS, FICA, FUTA, Medicare, employers match on employees, etc.

Hope this helps,

[Earl Johnson 14]

I don't get bent out of shape too often. I do try to learn from my mistakes and this time it was because I wern't paying attention to what I was doing. That won;t happen again. I understand your pricing theroy and agree with you. I first have to figure out how long the job will take to figure the time. In the meantime I'm trying to work from a SF method. Thanks for the encouraging words! Earl