anthony szabo

Be caucuses John, You have a good nature Hart and you want to help out people. Business is Business. This happens to us all the time but just in a more of a larger area because we are in a more rural area form State to State. I have helped some guys in my area and next thing they are cut throating my prices and doing botched up work. Let these guys learn the hard way, and most of the time they will be gone in a season or so. Don't give them the fork and spoon to take food off your plate, make them use their hands and they will give up. The Hardee's people don't help out the McDonnalds people across the street from each other. Just from experience, Tony

Running with: 10gpm hot water unit 8gpm hot water unit and 8gpm cold water unit The best thing they all can be split to run two wands at once.

Lenny Call Psc Cleaning Solutions aka Prosoco PROSOCO, Inc.

The bbs's are a great resource for finding information and getting information from experience people, but you need more than that to have your business's grow. Getting out to meet these INDUSTRY LEADERS, SUPPLIERS, MANAFUCTURES, its much more important than behind the computer screen. This is just my opinion and some may disagree, but I encourage you to do both. Hands on "if you will" but in a business informational type of way. Can we all get together with John T. and have a huge PARTY and spend his $50,000 doing so? Call it a "RT-POJT" "Round Table Party On John T" ?????????

The PWNA has done so much for myself and my business in the past by just attending the conventions alone. There are several people on these bbs that are so anti Pwna, which may have there reasons and I was too before I ever went to a convention. Once I went to a full blown out Pwna convention it changed my outlook and our business has grown to sales of between $40,000 up to $100,000 in a month. Being that said we only work nine months in a year and have been taking winters off for about the last 10years now. We also have expenses that eats up the gross sales also. Don't let the numbers impress you too much! Becoming a Pwna BOD under Doc's term and also with John T on the board, I wanted to give back to the industry. So I wanted to create a class to help the new guy in the pressure washing profession. This is why I offered the idea of PRESSURE WASHING 101 to the BOD. (Everett came up with the name) When I started in 1991 I had no help and knew of nobody alike in the industry where I could go for help. This is why I wanted to give back to help the newbie and a chance to give back to the industry and the Pwna. Because of Pwna we are now a National company offering pressure washing services in 10 States that surround Illinois plus. Sorry to bore you with my Bio. But to all reading this post will now understand mine and John T's relationship. Just take off the blinders off to see your options with this org. once and put the blinders back on if you wish. I took my blinders off and it helped us grow. John and I are both off the BOD position now, because its time for new blood to do what we did for our terms.

John is excited here and something has got his underwear on fire! Do what you do best here, John. You are to strong willed to fail at anything. He will make the right decision because of the passion he has for our industry. I know of his excitement and I admire to be around people like him and others he has mentioned. Pull up your skirt and show us what you got Buddy!

JJ Some of administrative and operational docs are things that need to be safe guarded. These documents are what have been created by education and experience and are the back bone of a company's strength. Some of this comes with years of experience and growth, and can not be taught. This business and many other types of business takes years to become profitable and it will not happen over night. In the pressure washing profession the first five years will be a learning curve and this is why so many pressure washing guys give up. How far would you get if you were in the soda pop industry and called Pepsi and asked them the same question. Or asked what is in the formula in Pepsi? We are all here to help as much as possible and to guide the new guy. If a cut and paste type information is what you are wanting it can set yourself up for disaster. There is no get rich business that will happen asap. If there is you may be getting chased by the law or people looking to hunt you down for bad business ethics. Send me a e-mail and I will help you with my proposal forms, but there is a World of difference between my services in Illinois vs. Cayman Islands. You have sandy beaches and Palm trees we have corn and snow!

If a guy was to set up a all day free wood demo that offers the following would you attend. The cleaning of wood decks by use of products and application process of the cleaning / stripping products. Understanding why and why not to do certain cleaning application with the correct tools. The staining process of how to, and all the tricks of the trade of the staing process. Just thinking of having a company rep. of a staining company show off their products at my home. This will be a project from start to finish on cedar wood. Hotel is close if over night is required. I will spoil you with food and drinks and also good shop talk. Our location Is Morrison, Illinois I'm not trying to sell anything here, but trying to help keep our industry on the same page so we all are doing the correct process on wood for wood.

Ray, I would hate to see you come from Lakeville, MA just to see these type of washing demo's. Maybe this type of hands on Demo can be a new way of putting together a RT. Instead of our normal RT's we should have live demo's on the job site events besides these RT's. If we all come together I would think a great leader in your neck of the woods will put a event on like I'm trying to do so here. But you are more than welcome to come and I will make sure you have great accommodation choice and a learning experience you will never forget.

The Idea came from just having Ron Balwin and Nate McMillan of the Flood company coming to do product demo's for us. I thought to have a bigger audience in front of them I would extend the invite to anyone. I have decided to take it a step bigger to offer what ever services you would like to see and use our friends and neighbors to receive free services from us and have hands on demo's for the day. I have only recived two people who may attend. We really need to see at least 10 contractors to come in order to put this all together.

LIVE demo of cleaning and preping a cedar deck that is five years old. LIVE demo of staining a cedar deck using Flood Supreme Performance. Supreme Performance is a water-borne product. It will soak into the hardwoods such as IPE, MAHOGANY, PAU LOPE, IRONWOOD, AND TEAK. Just think if it works on those woods that it will soak in PRESSURE TREATED PINE, and CEDAR woods with no issues. If enough contractors attend I will not only have my deck as a demo I will also have other jobs going on. We will use my gator to go back and forth to area neighbors and giving free services to them for the demo reasons. What do you guys want to see? I must know in order kick off this Rodeo! DECK DEMO CLEAN AND STAIN IS ALREADY PLANNED HOUSE WASH? PAINT PREP.? CONCRETE CLEAN AND SEAL? ROOF CLEANING? LIME STONE RESTORATION COMMERICAL? VAPOR STEAM CLEANING? BIDDING RESIDENTIAL WORK AND ADD-ONS? If I can get answers of what you may like to see, I kinda need to know ahead of time to get the projects lined up. No date is set in stone yet, but the middle of May is a tentative date we are looking at. Will need at least 10 contractors or more to make everything work out. You may send me a e-mail at midwestmobilewashers@frontiernet.net to ask any questions and what services you would like to see proformed. Lets stay in touch, Tony

Russell, I already have the Flood company that is coming out. Sorry, I have been talking with them about this since the first of the year.

Chris, I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM AND GRNERAL SAYS THEY NEVER HEARD OF THAT ISSUE BEFORE????????????? I HAVE REPLACED MY DIPSTICK THREE TIMES.

If anyone has some advice on the stripping and removal of Seal Maxx I would like to know how things worked for you. I getting several calls to remove their product. I'm guessing a strip and neautralize is the answer. But if anyone has experience with this type of situation I would appreciate any help . Thanks Tony

Jarrod I understand and I to may post and it gets taken the wrong sometimes. I have nothing against your methods and hope it keeps working for years to come. If you do not mind I would like to visit sometime this summer at your location? Have a great season!

I sat in at the St.Louis Rt and listen to Jarrod speak about his methods of doing wood. It may work well for him but maybe not someone else. Hats off to him for finding his personal nitch. The title to his thread is a bit of a ego thing and I may have posted to defend my methods and years of experience. We get up to $3.00 per square foot sometimes and do extremly large decks at times, but I will not post "why in the heck don't you charge $2.75 per square feet you fool". Because it all depends on just a boat load of factors. I have posted in the past and it may come off in a negative way to some. Aways have a open mind to learn, that is what needs to be done here, not "if you don't do it my way you will fail, type of attitude" Kinda what I got out of his post.

This is something I was just going to line up for my business and thought that anyone else that would like to see the entire deck cleaning and staing process done by manfactures would be a good experience. If I know that contractors will show up and what their demands are of what they want to see besides deck process I will also set other demo jobs up. (for ex. house wash) Please keep in mind I will not be pushing a certain process or products and keep everything on neautral terms. If we get enough people to attend I'm sure vendors may want to send door prizes and goodies of their products. But for now I do need to know of if anyone who would like to attend. The date is now open and I will also let you guys pick a date and time that best fits you scheduals. So if you do show interest just say yes and we will work on confirmation and dates as needed. Don't forget the location is Morrison, IL

Rob, Charlie is right. We do about 165,000sq/ft up to 225,000 sq/ft in a season. Just in wood! Thanks Charlie!

Jarrod, Not to be the rebbel here, but understand this one. One company may do 3 to 5 small deck cleanings in a day and will need to if they are charging $1.50 or less per sq ft. On the other hand if you do 1 or 2 larger decks(800 sqft) in a day an get $2.25 to $3.00 per sq. ft. This makes issues easier to manage work loads. Kinda like the Car Dealership thing. You can clean 700+ cars a day with a two/three man crew and get a industry average of a $1 buck a car. It will take 14 hours and after all expenses (at several locations) are paid you clear $200 to $275 a day. Not a big profit but a profit. Or go clean Two to Three homes in six hours and make clear $650 for the day. How profitiable are you? Low profit margin or high profit margin. Lots of gray area here.

Jarrod, Sorry to say but we do at least 20 2,000 sq ft decks in a season and about 5 or so can be larger, in a year. Yes, something that large of square footage is a PITA but it pays well. Please do recall the area you are in and where other contractors are will vary. We work in several States and this is true just working Midwestern States. But lets here what you want to state. I have no problem to look at other ideas that WORK. We have been doing decks for 17 years plus and I'm still learning. Lift up your skirt and show us what you got.

How about a automatic deck wash system. set it on and leave??????? Just reaching!

We all work in different areas of the United States. What works well for a business in one area will fail in another. Income is different, housing is different, life styles are different, work ethics are different, weather is different, employees are different, marketing is different, and so on. Texas is a good example: residential owners mainly have wood fences and concrete patio's and wood decks are of very few of. We run our businesses of what works to show a profit. I would never send out one man to a job site for many of the reasons posted above and more that relate to my area and my customers neeeds. We are not the blow and go guys and to see how many decks we can get done in a day. Its all quality and craftmanship not quanity for our business. We are here for the long haul and speed is not the way for us. If it works for one guy it does not always work for someone else. Some business may need to do six or more deck cleanings in a day when you do 200 to 600 square foot decks. How many decks can be cleaned when they are 800 to 2,000 square feet in a day? I know its not six or more with a one man crew. If it is you will not keep employees. It makes more logic to do larger decks at $2.50 a square foot instead of chasing around six smaller decks at $2.50 a square feet. I would rather do two 1500 sq ft decks in a day vs. six 500 sq ft decks any day. But some areas may only have a 500 sq ft as the average deck size. less travel expense (gas) less head aches less chemical and stain usage less liability BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE less running around chasing things less stress on employees, less pressure from the boss easier to stay focused on quality work Again, it all depends on your area that you are in of what works for your business.

Hey guys, This might be off subject from Ken's post, but I have a question. Since you are talking about diesel and the computer chips let me ask for some advice. I have a 2006 Dodge Mega Cab with the turbo diesel engine. The truck now has about 15,000 miles on it and I get a shi**y 12mpg to 15mpg on the highway. Would a computer chip make a difference? I don't need more power or speed just better mpg. I was told that after a certain break in mileage the mpg will get better. Is this true and if so at what type of mileage does it get better. My last Dodge had the Hemi and it got 20mpg to 24mpg on the hwy. I always thought the diesel did good for hwy travel??????????? Thanks for advice

Ken, I have what you want ! You have seen my trucks ??? and my machines are exactly what you said. Just buy me out with my customer base. I will even sell you our home 5Broom 4Bath w/hot tub and pool all on 5arc wooded and 1,000 feet of golf course frontage hole #12 of CC. Lots of deer and turkey and shop on property. I'm out of here. Its all yours baby! Oh, Wife and kids not included, but dogs and cats are!

Using the proper composite deck cleaners instead of the "home brews" makes life more simple. There is a reason why these maufactures spend 10's of thousands of dollars to research and make new products. The Maufactures also have awnsers to help you instead of guessing why something is not working like it should. Find a composite cleaner you like and stick with it. Its still costing you only pennies on the dollar for the proper cleaner.