anthony szabo

Just having a lot of time on my hands this time of year. You see year after year people breaking into the Pressure Washing profession and using the Net for sound advise, and boom they are in business. Can we put something together with a proven strong helpful people to guide these new people in the right direction? Help save the name of "Pressure Washing " as a painted picture of all of us?

Be 101% professional. Get educated and do not wash until you are comfortable with what you are washing. Practice on you friends and family's house. You have a great situation of having plenty of work in the winter months and you are looking for summer time work. In general that is where we all have the pitfalls of our pressure washing business, no or limited work in the winter months. Do not believe everything you read on these bb's, because you may be getting advice from someone that has been around for a very short time. Becareful!

We to tend to be using a lot of Olympic maxx cedar tone. Its kinda nice to control your inventory and buy it after you know the jobs are booked and on the schedule. We kinda do the same as John with the maintenance and stripping but use the "remove" product from Sunbrite Supply of Atlanta. My customers are seeing two years plus before total recoats. Appling the product by hand and little spraying at all. Hope this helps! Tony

My wife and I are going to sometime soon buy personnel real estate single family home dwelling in mid State Florida. I'm not sure of our ideas at this point, but like to find 5 to 10 aces with a potential to build or a existing property with a pool home. Looking for privacy in a small town atmosphere type setting. Not to worry I will not be doing any pressure washing at all, just R&R. We are spending enough time in Florida with vacations so we are kinda looking for a second residents. (investment reasons to find expenses) Any help of property or a great real estate agent would be helpful if you guys know anyone. Thank you for the help! Tony

This is great information guys.

Thank You Don this is the kinda refferals I was looking for. Tony

This is what we do for our mailing list over the years. During slow times and or after a job I write down the street name and start driving super slow past every home in the neighborhood and write down each house number. Then we send out mailers to each of them like so Current Postal Customer 4567 Rockingham Dr. any town, USA xxxxx etc. This way I can 101% target the homes my mailers are sent to with sometimes making a special note about the home if needed. We have compiled about 6,000 plus addresses this way. It does not take much time at all to do this. You can have several 100's of addresses in less than 1/2 hour of doing the drive by method. Not that I don't trust mailing houses for their list but I can see the type of homes that we are sending our mailers too! We send out mailers and literature about two or three times a year, and can receive about $5,000 to $40,000 of sales in that year, not including the referrals from these new customers. One key note is to make sure you send out your pieces in mid-to late Fall to you can bid then but put the customer on your Spring List to do the work!

This is one reason why limit my INTERNET presents and do little posting anymore. I guess I'm a bit to open and honest about to much personnel information about my businesses. I should not be spending my time defending myself of a remark that someone does not believe what I post. Or call me out on the amount of decks we do in a season. This starts all the drama on the bbs's and I'm here for good solid information from true professionals. I don't need the drama I have three little girls in my life and that is enough drama. LOL I have learned to step back a bit, because when some of us here on the BBS help out it sometimes comes back and bites you back in the future. I will pop in and check postings for industry information and that is going to be it for this guy any more. Focus my time on Family and Business. This is the only BBS I visit at all I don't have the Time to visit all other BBSes, one is enough ! The pressure washing business has been great in the last yrs as we grow and learn each and every year. I want to help this industry but to many things that destroy your efforts and time donated of what can help the industry earns to much negativity of positive and proven facts.

Jamie, I hate to break it to you but we are small cakes in this industry. There are pressure washing companies that are making $millions$. Most of those type of guys don't even know of BBS like this at all. I have met pressure washing business owners of million dollar companies that has never heard of our industry trade associations related to this industry (which blows me away). Their focus is to manage and run their business with out getting caught up in the industry politics. There are an estimate of 40,000 pressure washing companies in the U.S. alone and that number is probally low since I heard that stat about two years ago. Feel free to come and visit any time after April (thats when we start back up) I will help any way I can to help you see the vision I do. I'll pay for you hotel stay too! Good Luck!

That is awsome Mike and Ron, People helping people is what we need in our World and there is just not enough of it! We just went Thur Hell to get back home from a vacation because of bad (last night 12-23-07 5:30am) storms in the Midwest States. We came across some grateful air line employees and a personal bus charter guy(he drove in white out conditions) to get ten of my Family members all home safely, we were grateful to be home for Christmas because it was not looking good for us to be home for Christmas Eve. People helping People +big tips to help them! Giving to less fortunate Family's and Kid's during the holiday season is extremely rewarding. My wife and I like getting a list from our local school system of Family's and Children that are not going to have such of a nice Christmas or Holiday Season because of Loss of a Job, Bad Health Issues or some type of unfortunate events in their life. People helping People makes the World a better place! Merry Christmas to All, Tony

Hey Carlos, It was nice meeting you in Pa. at the round table. I'm also headed to Vegas December 17th thru 22nd. Its a present from my wife for the big 40 birthday bash. We decided to take all three of our girls to play. We also invited the in-laws as well as my two nephews that work for us. The plans are set in renting two Hummer's H2 for the week to go off roading in the Land of Land burro Management trails marked by the government, hiking in Red Rock canyon and Fire canyon. Dune buggying north of the strip by the race track sand dunes, Hoover Dam, driving down to Oatman AZ to see the Donkey's that run free in the town, catching a few night time show for the entire Family that are "G" rated. Carlos, I can set a night aside for dinner if you would like, because we have the in-laws along to watch our girls at night if we need them to. Send me a PM if you like so we can make contact. If this does not work out for you that's ok. We are headed to Mexico in January and February, so we can meet there also if needed. (Cancun, MX) Maybe Rod can chime in here for other entertainment in Vegas since he lived out there at one time. Please keep in mind Rod, I have our girls with us that the oldest is nine. Ideas would greatly be appreciated. Tony Oh, my advise for this thread is work hard during your prime season and Play harder in the off season.

All of these resources are only a Tool, as if a "spinner nozzle" is a Tool in your tool boxes. It depends on how you use your tool's if you are going to damage something or do something great with your tool's. Oh, boy It's winter time and I guess I became a ''''Philosopher''''! I need a job or hit the vacation sceen.

Barry You are correct back in the late 80's early 90's things were much different and we did have little to no competition. I don't recall gas prices but back then it was not a issue like it is today. It can be hard for the newer companies in this industry to date. Its a inexpensive business to start up so every one try's it. Now at least the industry has some type of Network to help find the answers and get educated and general help. It's difficult now to offer the same services back in the day to make good profit. I find ourselves needing to do different add on service for the Home owners to help raise the bottom line up. For example, we need to offer more services like the following to our customers to stay ahead of the competition. *house wash *decks *roof cleanings *concrete clean/seal *garage floor coatings *front stoop coatings *gutter cleaning *vinyl restoration *some painting are all things I bid when ask to bid for a general House Wash and let the customer choose what services they would like. But some of these services we now offer is because of the Networking that is taking place with in our industry now. Back in the beginning I would only offer one or two of the services I listed above, because I knew nothing of anything else back then or where to find it and get educated on it. This is where the new guys can benefit today! Stay abreast of new services to offer your customers makes the difference of building your business. If you just wash houses and decks only it hard to survive if you have employees.

All of the new guys or the ones that have been in business for less than five years or so are extremely lucky. You all have some type of net work base to help out and give great advice or help in all aspects of this business. I bet sometimes this will determine the decision if a person will enter into the Pressure Washing Profession or not. Books BBS's Round tables Conventions Vendors Education classes offered (and more sources......) were not around when us old timers started our Business. All I can say is use these tools to help you make the correct decisions to save yourself TIME and MONEY of the pitfalls that I have done in the beginning years of my Pressure Washing Profession. There was nothing around or if it was it was hard to find the correct guidance of this industry trade. Good luck to all!

Jim, We have done a estimate of 250/300 composite decks with in the last five years or so. Prosoco does have two sealers that they make for the Trex company. One is called AfterKlean and the other is called Composite Protector. The wording on the containers and instruction lables are extremely limited to not using the words "sealer". Because the big deal when composites came out is that you were not needed to "seal" the boards. Well, now since the mositure is getting into the composite boards and attacking the wood fibers this is why the mildew spots are occuring. So now there needs to be a sealer to be applied to the composite to try to keep out the moisture from getting the wood fibers wet. The products made to be used to seal the composite decks use words to hide the phrase "Sealer" because it was advertised at first no maintanence decking which ment no sealing.

Jon Looks good, Does the customer know it needs to be cleaned yearly or sometimes less? That could be a great customer. I would send a Thanks You note to Trex B. Fairbanks.

Great stuff! I bought up about 25 gallons from all the local paint stores. We use it all the time on shutters. Add's some to the final bill. Tony

Rod With all of the composite deck work orders we have received from T**** I would say about all of them had Mildew as the issue to clean them stated on the work orders. We have done only about a total of five to seven in total with tannin bleed from the estimate of 300 decks in so many years that we completed in general. There was a different procedure for the tannin bleed decks, and it was a product with oxalic acid we were instructed to use. From some in-depth research several years back if I recall correctly, there is two composite deck producing plants one is in the Pacific Northwest and one in the Southeast States. The Plant in the Southeast area has produced more problems after the boards are manufactured with mildew issues because of the type of trees used in the production of the wood bi products? (Something of that sort from what I recall). More mildew issues in the Midwest and Eastern US than the Western half of the US?? I did this research a few years ago when we were heavy in the composite deck cleanings.

Ken All these areas are in our back yard. We cover the entire State of Illinois and surrounding States as well. Tony

Where do I start? We have been cleaning composite decks for the last five years or better in eleven States in the Midwest. In all, about 300 decks give or take. Composite decks are made of bi-products from plastic and sawdust. The sawdust is of different types of woods?? Now here seems to be the problems. When the decking boards get "wet" the water does penatrate into the boards and those wood fibers "sawdust" gets wet and the water has a hard time to dry out or can not dry out. Over time mildew starts to grow in the wood and then the Mildew leaches out showing black spots all over the decking. This is why the Composite Decking Companies instructions are having the cleaning done with bleach and their other cleaners to help neutralize the bleach to make it user "friendly". After the cleaning is done they now want you to use a sealer to be applied to the composite boards to help stop or show down the moisture soaking back in the composite boards. Over time the sealers will break down and the problem starts all over again! Sometimes the mildew will come back as soon as a few months or it may stay away for a years or so. It just depends on the moisture getting into the composite boards. The Test: Look at a composite deck and where the soft area of a house hangs over the decking and you will notice the boards next to the house wall have no mildew issues, because the boards receive little to no water on them. Or Look where a umbrella stan sits or other things on the decking that shed the water from getting to the decking. You will find its mildew Free. There is a huge market out there to clean and maintain these decks. We are no longer involved with the Composite Deck Manufactures because they manipulate and deceive the home owners of this issue. Our name and reputation is much more important than a fast buck. We have made several $100,000's of dollars in the last several years and I elect not to deal with unethical people. But we will service residential customers on a one on one basis to help them with their long term maintenance issues of composite decks.

Dave, Valspar is a bit dominate in our area because they have a plant close to us. We do use some valspar paints about 4 to 5 times a year when we paint Barns for customers. I have also did some deck stripping to remove their products , and their products can be a bit hard to remove. Never stripped a fence, but make sure you bit the job using extra strong stripper or you may need to strip it twice?? Good luck Tony Szabo

John If you don't go, I'm not going See what you started. I was going because I thought you were going to be there. I'm flying in because of you greatness! Tony

All of our services offered are so weather dependent. We do massive direct mails in the spring summer months to promote our services. Its real hard to keep that flow going in the winter months. Lets face it, my customers only think of me when the seasons allow them to be outside enjoying their yards and such, most of them hibernate in the winter seasons. Its too much effort and too much money spent in the winter months to keep a pressure washing business moving in the winter set States. Unless you focus on inside work of some kind, so because of this we just shut our business down from the first long cold snap until spring just like Dan stated in the above post. Keeping in mind to find some type of work to support the family or make sure your nest egg has plenty of cash in it to float you thru the cold winter season.

Good help! If you have employees that are 110% trustworthy and you do not need to tell them what to do, but just direct them. Then you must make certain to keep them long term. If your business can run itself smoothly with you being absent for a few days then you know you have good help. You may have a high payroll, but the trade off is over-turn of training and re training of employees all the time. Its nice to know when all your employees come to work and you give them the work orders for the day and a GPS unit then they are good. I do have a lead employee go back and over see the quality and craftsman of the work they did. With this type of great employees it gives me the chance to build my business and expand on other new investments to grow and start another business.

We are members I was one of about three (if that) at the last convention. Had some long talks with Hindlighters, but the hands on at the shop in Ft.Worth was excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!