April 19, 2021: Crystal came by today and picked up 5 buckets (25 gallons) of the Silox Original. When she told me she was going to spray her house by herself, I was a bit floored. It is rare—very rare—for a woman to do such a feat on her own. In fact, in almost 40 years of being involved in adobe repair and preservation and sealing perhaps hundreds of homes myself, I’m not sure if I can recall a woman doing this by herself. She had my instant respect and admiration because I know how difficult this is going to be.
Her story is an interesting one. She and her husband buy and renovate homes, living in them for about two years before selling and buying another one. Also, she had been doing custom faux painting for a few years, but the demand for this speciality eventually faded as customer’s tastes changed.
Crystal is handy with her hands, and since she does painting on her remodel projects, she purchased a Graco Magnum airless paint sprayer which she intends to use to spray the Silox. Early in my career, I used inexpensive Campbell Hausfeld 1/3 HP sprayers to spray all of my customer’s adobe homes. They worked great, and when one would break down and die, I wouldn’t complain and happily purchased another one. They were some of the most profitable pieces of equipment I owned. To my knowledge, they are no longer made.
Knowing that Graco’s are better built machines than my old trusty Campbell Hausfeld sprayers were, I knew Crystal had a great piece of equipment that would easily spray these 25 gallons of the Silox. She told me that she had read most of my website and watched all of my “do-it-yourself” videos to get ideas on how to seal her home. Click here for that informative page.
To be clear, Crystal informed me she was going to do her house by herself…no helpers. As I have shared elsewhere on this website, I’ve sprayed large, custom adobe homes in Tucson by myself more times than I care to remember, and it is not an easy task…especially by yourself. Of course it can be done, but knowing the work, stress, and frustration involved in a complicated job like this entails, my admiration with Crystal’s “gung ho” attitude only increased.
She is planning on breaking up the job into multiple days, doing a little bit at a time so the work is not overwhelming and too complicated—another wise decision on her part. I never have this luxury of “taking my time” when I do a customer’s home: the project has to be completed as soon as possible, for obvious reasons, and this exponentially adds to the stress, especially if you are fighting the weather. But if you own your own home and pace yourself, doing a little bit every day as you are best able to handle it, I can see the beauty of the wisdom behind this plan.
I share Crystal’s story because I want to encourage and inspire my customers to spray their homes themselves. Yes, spraying your own adobe home can be—and often is—a daunting task, but take a cue from Crystal and follow her example. And if you can find yourself a helper, the job will work out even better.
Update: Crystal finished her job. Below are some pictures she sent of herself in action. She did the entire job all by herself…no helpers. She took her time and paced herself:
