need some advice

[powertech 14]

i do mostly pressure washing but have stained a few new decks. i have a customer that stained his deck 2 years ago and wants me to seal over the stain. i have already cleaned the deck and was wondering if sealing over the old stain would stick and an idea of what to charge. its an 18 year old deck and he just wants to keep it as long as he can not to concerned about perfection. the deck totals about 1000 sq ft (deck stairs railings bench and spindles) there is also a bunch of lattice that will have to be sprayed. thanks

[PressurePros 248]

Keeping it as long as he can right away dictates the job neds to be done right. Try not to confuse short cutting a job by doing it incorrectly with meeting the customer's demands for low price. You have to strip the deck. Build into your proposal the cost of what you have already done and include completely stripping, ph balancing and sealing with a high quality, semi transparent, oil/alky based penetraing, contracor grade product like Wood Tux, Wood Rich, TWP, Ready Seal and the like. $1500-$2000 sounds about right.

[powertech 14]

i mentioned to him about stripping but he has insisted on just sealing

[PressurePros 248]

Bill him for the cleaning and walk away. The job you perform will only be as good as whats underneath it. When a sealer fails, its gone..period. What remains will compromise the integrity of your seal job. Read some more about wood restoration on this site using the search function. Try to explain to the customer that what he spends money on today will not last. In six months he will be cursing you because of premature failure. In one year he will be telling all his friends what a lousy job you did. Trust me, I read this book, I know how it ends. If on the other hand the customer would invest in a little money upfront you can use Wood Tux and offer him a two year written guarantee with a maintenance coat that will cost him much less than than you will be charging him today. Over the course of six years he will clean and reseal this deck 6 times. Lets say that cost is $6000. If you set him up on a maintenance schedule, he may spend $1700 today and $1000 dollars two times. You just saved him $2300. Thats money in the bank.

Explain the benefits of getting oil into the wood and how it will defer the cost of rebuilding the deck for a good number of years. Many customers think saving a few dollars today is what they want. They just need to be educated. Its not easy, I grant you that. People can be stuborn. I know the last thing I would want would be my company ame associated with a job like this. I'd hate to see you learn this the hard way.

[Jarrod 22]

Ken is 100% right.

[plainpainter 217]

Just curious - at what year should a maintenance coat of woodtux be applied? I did one woodtux deck and have no idea how long it will last.

I imagine no longer than 2 years from initial application - correct? Could

it go 3 years?