We Wash Concrete
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Posts posted by We Wash Concrete
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Got real busy the other day. The bed of the truck doesn't usually look like this, but after a long days work I was ready to be home, so I just started tossing stuff. The next morning I cracked up laughing at it and decided to take a picture for this post.
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By stateing he drove a nice clean truck I was trying to implying that I did not feel he was a "fly by night - blow and go" kinda guy. He's been in business for some time. Assuming he does clean 2300 houses a year at 75 to 100 each I couldn't figure out how he's been in business for so long charging those prices. But as everyone has indicated, he must be charging more per a house and cleaning less houses.
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Theres a local house washer that just ran an ad in the paper, full page color insert, that he does every year. On the ad he's got a summer special; vinyl siding houses $75 to $125. I've talked to him a little, seems to be a real nice guy. Drives a nice new Ford dually but seems like all he uses is a small Northstar pressure washer that never leaves his truck. His truck stays perfectly clean as well. He told me he cleaned 2,300 houses last year between himself and his helper. Not discrediting the mans work - I don't like to speak negatively, and he's obviously doing something right - But I couldn't roll the hose off my rig for a $75 (or even $125) house wash. Is it possible to clean 40 houses a week (2300 a year) for a solid year? I guess if you could, you could afford to charge an average 100 dollars per job, because that would bring in 230,000 a year. I'm glad I clean concrete, and don't particuarly view him as compitition.
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My tank is a "mixed bed resin" tank, so it contains both cation and anion resin. This tank last me a good little bit, but our water seems to be in good condition here. I beleive when the two tanks are divided it does last longer, which you may have to have if the water is at a heavy TDS from the spigot. I do have a carbon pre-filter placed before the DI tank, but those are cheap ($50 for the casing and like $10 to replace the actual filter) and they are much smaller, kind of looks like a coffee maker. I would find a place to get a DI tank (a mixed bed like mine) and see how it last you before you get into carrying all that other stuff around.
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Looks really nice, did you have to get into the water, or just hang over the side?
What happend to the boat? lol
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In the back of my head I remember reading a post not too long ago about Bob at PressureTek having a good ball valve. I've searched but I can't find it, was I dreaming? I see he has a 3/8 zinc plated, which I have, but I thought there was a different one. Mine broke unexpectedly and MAN does that water sting. Came right off the surface cleaner and hit my side, and yes the burner was running, so it'll probably scar. I'm just glad nobody was around to see it, or much worse, get hurt from it.
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I would imagine in Jacksonville you could get a Deionization tank for a cheap rental fee. I pay 150 dollars to exchange a tank (I can keep it for as long as I want) that last me several thousand dollars worth of cleaning, so the cost is well worth it. In an area where the WFP and DI is popular, like California, you can rent the tanks for about 20 dollars. The tank is about 50 pounds or so when empty of water. It's common to mount this tank (It's actually more like a fiberglass welders gas tank) to a handtruck. The waterhose attaches to one end and your water fed pole to the other. You'll need a TDS (Total Desolved Solids, about $25) meter to make sure you're still getting water that won't spot. You want to keep the water that comes out below 20PPM. At 30PPM you start to see water spots. When first new, the tank will give you a TDS meter of 0PPM. This is a great way to clean windows, and the cost of a DI tank rental shouldn't scare because you recover that money quickly. I don't know a lot about Reverse Osmosis systems, I know they can last longer, but cost more. The Carbon filter is put before the RO system to make it last even longer - I believe it mainly removes the chlorine and larger solids.
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I've got an Aaladin machine. Works perfectly, no problems so far. I like how the machine is layed out, it's spaced out where it's easy to work on if needed. But I have not had to do anything other then regular maintance so far.
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Sounds like you got it all figured out Doug.
What kind of surface cleaner are you using? I just got a 27' Hydrotek. I was amazed at how close I can get to the edge. On drives I don't have to cut in anymore and don't have to worry about tearing up grass or blowing mulch all over the place. The Hydrotek cleans right to the edge. I would think that cutting in, if needed, should be done afterwards. Once you rinse the drives off after cleaning them with the surface cleaner you will probably get the garage door dirty again. I would do all the cutting in, door cleaning, and rinsing last.
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Im not a wood guy, but why would you stain that? If it were mine I would want just a clear sealer to protect it. Very nice.
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Stripper Cream from EaCo would do the trick I believe. Roll it on thick and let it sit overnight. Stripper Cream will eat through several layers of paint so I would think it's your best bet.
| EaCo Chem Inc. | Restoration Detergent | Sabrestore |
Look at their portfolio for some good before and after pictures. I would do a test spot on the back of the house before you give the customer an estimate so you know what your getting yourself into and they know what to expect. I would think this would be a high dollar deal, mainly because of the cost in chemicals.
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That doesn't sound too bad of a price. Make sure the hour meter acutally works on the unit, if there's only 141 hours on a 2 year old machine it hasn't been used much. Use the machine for a little bit to make sure there are no leaks. Check the air filter and oil to see how they look. If everything looked good I would think 7k would be a decent price. My hot water unit was 5,550 and I'm about to upgrade to a 16 foot dual axle trailer for 1,800. Once you add hose reels, hose, surface cleaner, water tank, wands, tips it starts to add up quick.
Another thing to consider, make sure you have a vehicle that can pull that rig, it's going to be pretty heavy, esp. loaded with water.
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What was your dwell time? How "fresh" was your 10%? Did you mix your 10%, borax, and tsp with water before you x-Jetted? If so that may be your problem. If you x-jetting you need straight chemical, no water. And if your x-jet is matched to your machine, you would fly through two gallons.
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I'm constantly cleaning out the bed of my pickup truck. I probably clean it out every other day. My trailer is open, so it's just easier to toss something in the bed of the truck then having to strap it down on the trailer. My Nissan's got the short bed too, so it doesn't hold much. It's about time for a new bigger truck and a bigger trailer. But even if I had a 24 foot enclosed trailer, I bet I'd still have stuff in the trucks bed.
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I don't do much staining or sealing, not that im opposed to it or don't want to learn, I've just stayed busy enough with cleaning concrete. So some of the other guys may be more helpful in that area. As far as cleaning the concrete, is the concrete very dirty? I would imagine that a pool around a country club would not have much gum and would be fairly clean. (I don't really consider mold or algea to be terribly hard to remove, so I don't really consider that to be the same as gum or oil stains) I would suspect regular surface dirt and mold/algea are the main concern in this case? IF so, and theres 14,000 sq ft of it, .08 would be a little high around here. I would charge a few cents less, like 0.06. Do you mean you plan on charging them 3.00 per square foot to clean/stain/seal? That's $42,000 dollars. Maybe I need to start staining and sealing.
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You'll run into low GPM when you lease expect it. And if you don't check the water supply before you connect at every spigot you can damage your pump. Having a buffer tank save you a lot of problems. I got a new 275 gallon tote tank for 125 dollars so it's well worth the cost. If you don't have the room for one however you will just need to check your gpm at each house, and the best time to do this is while giving your estimate. I would imagine like Len said most houses will supply a 4 or 5 gpm just fine, just be extra careful with the well water and older homes.
Len it's good to meet a pressure washer close by that's on the board. I actually live in Anderson as well. How is the business going for you? Business is good for me, but I stay primarily in the flatwork cleaning, and I travel a good bit too.
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You don't want to dip below 4 gpm for housewashing and most any other kind of washing. If the house is only putting out 3 gpm you will need a water tank to at least serve as a buffer. If you live in an area where a lot of your customers will have a well, a 300 or larger water tank would be a good investment. You don't want to let the customer's water supply dictate how fast you can go because you can change there gpm by adding some of your own water and greatly increase your speed. By the way, welcome to the forum!
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I have both a 30 foot window cleaning pole for my squeegee and strip washer - and I also have a DI water fed pole that will reach. The wfp is the way to go but there is an initial investment. If theres only a few windows a 30 foot window pole with a squeegee and strip washer will work fine. If this is a one time deal and there is a lot of windows you may be better off renting a boom lift. Just make sure you know how to operate it safely.
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There's a ton of variables that decide what a fair price may be for the routh. Off the top of my head I would think some of the important ones would be how long he's been in business, what was the business income for the last 5 years, what kind of work does he do, what kind of clients does this consist of; regular maintance or one time cleanings, does any equipment come with the deal, and there's many more.
I bought a window cleaning route a few years ago. The price for these are usualy around 3 months gross to 12 months gross income. I'm happily paying 12 months gross because I know the accounts are very solid accounts because they were well maintained and many of them were over 20 years old. However, if the window route was poorly managed, and the accounts where only 5 years old, the route may not even be worth the 3 months gross.
If I were going to buy a route I would have a contract that allowed you and maybe your cpa to review everything -- under the agreement that you would not use that information to gather the accounts on your own or against him in any other way if you decided not to buy it.
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Keeping before and after pictures of that job will go a long way in future sells - make sure you take some good ones. I know how irritating it can be to see work done wrong - it makes it so tough to get the account and do it right once people have been burned like that.
Also, I never knew Texas had grass. I guess I need to travel more.
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Must be some pretty simple large paned glass. If I could see a picture I could be more helpful in pricing. Around here the hospitals are getting very "modern" with their designs which means TONS of windows and big PITA factors.
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My 18 and 22 inch Unger Ergotech and 24 inch Sorbo stay in a 5 gallon bucket with my 22 inch strip washer. This bucket also holds my water for cleaning windows, so it doesn't tip over in the bed of my pickup. I have a black plastic "trunk" from walmart that cost about 42 dollars, it's built really well, that I keep all my blades, scrapers, and extra stuff in that I hardly use. This doesn't get organized though. I always have to dig. When I used to wear a hip bucket I would just keep that on the back seat of my truck (4 door) along with my towels in a laundry basket. I got tired of the hip bucket though. I only do commercial stuff like strip-malls and restruants and it's easier to just carry the 5 gallon bucket with about 3 gallons of water. I've found that I stay dryer and more comfortable without a tool belt. Back to the subject though, I did cut 3 of 4 peices of pvc pipe to about a foot in length. I then mounted these to the top rail along the inside of the bed on the drivers side. I can put other squeegee's and strip washers in the pvc pipes so they're easy to get to but out of the way. Would not suggest this though if you believe they may get stolen, but it's worked for me.
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Giving an estimate based on square footage of the glass really only works on store-front type glass. With this you take your height and length for each side and get your measurement which would only take a few minutes. Every hospital I've seen would be very labor intensive to measure the square footage of glass. I would bid this kind of job per pane. And by pane I mean each glass window surrounded by a frame. I would imagine this will be an outside only cleaning, so in my area you would be looking at 1.00 to 1.75 per pane no matter it's size. This price can jump much higher if there is any construction clean-up, scraping, or restoration to do. I price strip-washer and squeegee cleanings the same as water fed pole cleanings. The water fed pole may be the better route if these windows are between 3-5 storys but theres a learning curve with WFP if you've never use one before.
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I once had glossy on both sides and had the same problems with writing on them. A fine tip sharpie writes on them good but I never had one when I needed one. I'll have only one side glossy from now on.
What's Your Favorite Gutter Brush
in Residential Pressure Washing
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I've seen several guys use the "stack" brushs used to clean the stack/mufflers on big rigs. These are C shaped and will attach to a pole. Never used one though so I don't know how well they work.