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What I saw.. did a double take.

Tony Shelton

Environmental Consultant / Past Director
I don't know anything about wood. I've never so much as painted a fence. I'm asking because I'd like to know the science behind it. Why would you not use heat/steam on wood?
 

The Cleaning Doctor

Contributing Member
steam is used to bend wood. Makes it soft and pliable. New to wood but that is what I know. To bend a piece of wood you place it in a steam box and the wood becomes bendable.

I assume this would cause warping of the deck boards and can cause crowning or cuping. Besides you can't see what you are doing because of the steam and may be causing more damage that you will not see until after you remove the wand.
 

Ken Fenner

Active member
That's a good synapsis, Pat. It softens lignin and raises grain moreso than cold water as well. Jim mentioned using it on ipe which is inherently so dense with sugars and extractives that no much affects its stability. I still don't know WHY he did it, but I'm sure there was some logic to it.
 

Ryan Freidline

New member
That looked like it was probably a nice deck too.....I feel bad for the customer. Well, Ken you've got some great ammo for your potential clients....We had a customer last week who was waiting for an estimate from a company that was coming later that day, that particular contractor we had gone in after to fix their work before on another customer's deck. That was a week and hallf ago and we haven't heard from the customer, we must have been asking for too much $$. Sometimes even poor workmanship will not deter a customer from savin a little $$!:headshakesmile-fast
 

Ken Fenner

Active member
Ryan, one thing I have learned is that being the bringer of bad news never works out right for me. The HOA president of this complex and I hit it off pretty well. I thought about telling him about the damage/poor workmanship. I decided not to because people have a tendency to shoot the messenger. Sure enough there is a message on my voicemail telling me to add 9 more units because another company has not returned to fulfill their contract. I haven't called back yet but I can almost guarantee its these guys.
 

RMedbery

New member
Guess it depends on the circumstance. I point out shoddy work, neglected, skipped systems because I need to justify the substantial extra cost for cleaning it up. After cleaning it up the price drops to a regular maintenance charge. I recently picked up a large multi-location account, after doing several I told them it will be an extra 50% (almost) for the first time cleaning.............they balked. I showed them the pictures of what they were getting from their previous cleaner. They said OK, they are ****ed (at what they were getting). The CEO of the company is calling in the owner of the previous company to "discuss" the matter.
 

Chris Tharpe

New member
Guess it depends on the circumstance. I point out shoddy work, neglected, skipped systems because I need to justify the substantial extra cost for cleaning it up. After cleaning it up the price drops to a regular maintenance charge. I recently picked up a large multi-location account, after doing several I told them it will be an extra 50% (almost) for the first time cleaning.............they balked. I showed them the pictures of what they were getting from their previous cleaner. They said OK, they are ****ed (at what they were getting). The CEO of the company is calling in the owner of the previous company to "discuss" the matter.

Glad it worked out in your favor Roger, seems to be a 50/50 when it comes to this at least in my area. I have not had such good luck with this type of approach, even got cussed out by an older lady saying "she didn;t fall off the turnip truck yesterday and she has had her properties cleaned for the last 20 years. There is no damage on this property!"

Still looking for the perfect way to present this type of problem to a person that does not know it exists
 

RMedbery

New member
Lke I said, I only specifically point it out to them when I need to charge more. They will always see what kind of work they were getting because I take before pics. This particular place said they relegiously get their systems cleaned every quarter, they were happy with the cleanings. The reason they were wanting to try someone else is because equipment seemed to often break down after the cleaners did their thing. For some reason the first place we did was cleaned 5 weeks prior, this is a sample of what we found.

SANY0001.JPG


Heres a pic of the bottom of a fryer fan, very easy to get to. This tells me all they did was wipe down the hood and slap a sticker on it. Maybe flatwork is different but this is criminal. Not only did they not get what they paid for but its a huge fire hazard.

SANY0009.JPG


If I wasnt going to charge more all they would have got are the pictures.
 

Douglas Hicks

New member
That's a good synapsis, Pat. It softens lignin and raises grain moreso than cold water as well. Jim mentioned using it on ipe which is inherently so dense with sugars and extractives that no much affects its stability. I still don't know WHY he did it, but I'm sure there was some logic to it.

He did it becasue he is not a professional. Any other silly questions. Hacks, gotta love 'em. They are so profitable.
 
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