Pressure Washing

[picframer]

Do you guys offer pressure washing? Mainly homes with vinyl siding, I have this thing whereby if I have 3 clients in a three week period ask for a service I do not currently offer, I buy the equipment. We have a lot of soft and hardwoods here in Halifax and as such vinyl siding and decks are prone to moss & mold. Over the past few weeks I have been spraying an Organic Moss killer which works perfect however some customers wanted us to come back when the moss was dead (48 hours +/-) and pressure wash. so I bought a commercial John Deere unit, 4,000 psi, 8 hp Honda engine, may this thing is amazing, came with a 50 and 100 foot hose, has 6 attachments for the head. Although they are a bit on the $$$ side (IMHO at $1,290.00) I did enough homes this afternoon and evening to pay for it and have a few jobs yet to do, the thing must run on fumes as I ran it for 8 hours and it's still half full. One client gave me $100.00 to strip the paint of their deck floor so he could paint, there is one tip that is pretty extreme and it peeled the paint off in min's, I think it took me 40 min to do a 16 X 24 deck. Anyhow, we will start advertising this service, Simple Green makes four products for these, it's environmentally friendly, bio degradable and will not hurt grass or plants, fairly cheap too at $12.00 gallon, this may be a service you want to consider. Andy

[swstout]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by picframer Do you guys offer pressure washing? Mainly homes with vinyl siding, I have this thing whereby if I have 3 clients in a three week period ask for a service I do not currently offer, I buy the equipment. We have a lot of soft and hardwoods here in Halifax and as such vinyl siding and decks are prone to moss & mold. Over the past few weeks I have been spraying an Organic Moss killer which works perfect however some customers wanted us to come back when the moss was dead (48 hours +/-) and pressure wash. so I bought a commercial John Deere unit, 4,000 psi, 8 hp Honda engine, may this thing is amazing, came with a 50 and 100 foot hose, has 6 attachments for the head. Although they are a bit on the $$$ side (IMHO at $1,290.00) I did enough homes this afternoon and evening to pay for it and have a few jobs yet to do, the thing must run on fumes as I ran it for 8 hours and it's still half full. One client gave me $100.00 to strip the paint of their deck floor so he could paint, there is one tip that is pretty extreme and it peeled the paint off in min's, I think it took me 40 min to do a 16 X 24 deck. Anyhow, we will start advertising this service, Simple Green makes four products for these, it's environmentally friendly, bio degradable and will not hurt grass or plants, fairly cheap too at $12.00 gallon, this may be a service you want to consider. Andy Hi Andy, I have not had any requests yet for moss removal, but I noticed my house has moss on the roof where the trees overhang. If I have it, others do also, so another market to open. Tell me more about Simple Green. Is it available in the US? Do you use it with the pressure washer or do you have to spray it before pressure washing? Steve

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[picframer]

Originally Posted by swstout

Hi Andy,

I have not had any requests yet for moss removal, but I noticed my house has moss on the roof where the trees overhang. If I have it, others do also, so another market to open. Tell me more about Simple Green. Is it available in the US? Do you use it with the pressure washer or do you have to spray it before pressure washing?

Steve

Actually Simple Green is made in the USA, Home Depot sells it, I learned of it years ago writing an article for WOOD Magazine. It is 100% safe for the washer, pets, humans etc. it really works well, I use one to clean pitch from the chain saw bar.

The moss killer works excellent however it's desperate expensive and this pressure washer thing is faster and a fraction of the cost yet I am charging the same. I have 6 more jobs to do next week, I wanted to do it myself today to find out what it was like, did I price it right, what to do and what not to do, will tell the staff Monday when we have our staff meeting and explain the process and to inform current clients should they see a need while at their home.

I have an advertisement in the paper coming out in two weeks, I will add this service and see what happens, I suspect like some of these other add on services it will take off, tilling is a major revenue generator here also, I had two tractors tilling from 7 this morning until 8 this evening, still a bunch to do,

Not sure what to do with the lawn mowing contracts, we have around 20 and to be honest I would just assume give them away as I don't see any money in them compared to the many other things we offer BUT we have to cater to the clients and I do other things for all 20 so I am kind of stuck doing it, just ties up a vehicle that could be elsewhere.

Look into it bud, do like I do, offer the service and if you get the interest, buy the equipment to do it assuming it will pay for itself in a reasonable time. It's super simple work and doesn't break the back.

If we have to bring staging to do a second floor I will double the rate, I have the staging from when I built homes, it wouldn't be safe on a ladder, it takes to hands to control the unit I bought.

I have two more new service offerings on the burner, I don't want to roll them out yet as we are having issues keeping up, calls for rain tomorrow and Monday so everyone will be spraying as we are pretty far behind in that area also.

Andy

[swstout]

Hi again,

How do the shingles hold up to the pressure washing? On an older roof, could I end up with a repaor bill?

Steve

[picframer]

Originally Posted by swstout

Hi again,

How do the shingles hold up to the pressure washing? On an older roof, could I end up with a repaor bill?

Steve

The unit I has has adjustable pressure and several nozzles, I would use a 25 degree nozzle at 2,000 PSI, no damage and you could make it look new again, here is a sample from a deck. Personally I would stay clear of the big box store units and yes I do have one, it's good enough to clean the mowers, mower decks, ATV, cars etc however for the commercial side, buy a commercial unit.

[majoe7]

Andy,
That's great that you have added a new service to your already expanding business. Soon you are going to big like the Big Dogs. I have been doing pressure cleaning for years and it is a great money maker and easy to do. I have steady cliental who what me to pressure wash just about everything to do with their house and property. My prices vary depending on the job but mainly I do whole houses. For a house from 1k - 2k sq. ft. I charge $150 -200, 2k-3k $200-300. I also have request while I'm there to do driveways and sidewalks. Charge 150-250 due to the fact that it takes more time, believe it of not.
I use Simple Green also and it works great. Plus I have a small 1 gallon sprayer with me to catch missed spots. I buy pool chlorine 2.5 gal. containers and dilute it with water to do pool enclosure that are white $100-200 per time. Once I give the enclosure a detailed cleaning I offer a quarterly service $75 - 125 to come back and maintained it so it stays looking good.

Stout- I haven't dealt with moss yet but we get a lot of algae and mold on house and it comes off real easy. Sometimes a little elbow grease is needed.

John

[swstout]

Originally Posted by picframer

DI bought a commercial John Deere unit, 4,000 psi, 8 hp Honda engine, may this thing is amazing, came with a 50 and 100 foot hose, has 6 attachments for the head.

Although they are a bit on the $$$ side (IMHO at $1,290.00) I did enough homes this afternoon and evening to pay for it and have a few jobs yet to do, the thing must run on fumes as I ran it for 8 hours and it's still half full.

Andy

You recovered your $1,300.00 investment in 1 day! It's sounding more interesting all the time. Is it on a trailer? How many jobs did it take to pay for itself? (I'm trying to get a feel for pricing)

I would like to have enough interest or sales before I purchase. I get 50% deposit so if I have enough jobs I could possibly pay for it with the deposits.

Steve

[majoe7]

Andy

I just saw the picture with the deck (before and after) and noticed the lawn. It looks great too. I that one of the lawns you maintain?

[swstout]

Hi again,

I went to the John Deere site. They have commercial prices of $1,095.00 for a 2,500 psi unit to $1,795.00 for a 3,500 psi unit. It looks like the hoses and wands are all extra. The closest dealer to me is about 40 miles. What should I ask about when I go?

Steve

[Steve W]

Pressure Washing is good money. I have been doing it since 1991 and John your right on the $ amount I charge too.
I do a lot of moble homes and driveways.