Rick G

White wheels with spinners! Now your talking. But in my town, my rig would be on blocks soon if I had that. :goodgrief

Im lost.

Dont worry Jon, I have white wheels to! Mabee we can start our own club of 'cool people. :)

This is a good link.. www.ntrma.org Rick G

Very nice!

Alan, will you post picks of your rig? Id like to see it. Im trying to clean mine up before I post picks of mine. Sad huh? Rick G :o

My opinion on creation v. evolution is this. I believe we where created by God. God is not for mankind to define for anyone other than himself or herself. Meaning, my God may not be your God but it is the same God. I believe we have evolved from our point of Creation. Who is to know what form we where created in other than God? What if we were created in the form of some ape/human thing and have evolved from there? I believe that God constructed this, and many other situations to FOSTER faith. The essence of faith is different to everyone, is it not? Does it really have a definition? (not Webster’s) And if it doesn’t really have one specific definition what can be supported by documents and science? Ask theses same scholars to bring scientific evidence backing up faith in- your wife not to cheat, your boat to get you home, your pressure cleaner to start, your teenager to do the right thing, the doctors to cure you or your loved ones illness, the medication to work on the disease. People may not have faith in the Lord but they still have faith. And with faith as a built in mechanism- THEN- when you are laying on the floor after having a heart attack, looking down the barrel of a gun, listing to the silence after the car crash, hearing the bombs drop around you, watching a love one go in for kemo, holding your newborn in your arms - THEN- those who have had faith in everything BUT the Lord, will find that jump to him all the easier. Just my opinion. I am curious how many will find this post offensive? I hope no one. I would certainly not want anyone to be offended by OPINIONS posted here. If you are offended please post and tell us why? The reason I say this is on a landscaping forum I visit they had a tread like this and the moderators where bombarded with complaints. Rick G

Have you given thought to starting small, or part time, or rent the equipment? I tend to think old school when it comes to dept. My personal feeling is that there are business that definitely need large capital to start, a dry cleaners, lube garage, most retail shops etc. I personally don’t feel that someone has to put the cart before the horse to get a pressure cleaning business going. Could someone go drop $20, 30, 40 grand or more to start a cleaning business? Sure, give me the money and Ill have it spent in an hour but does that make me a legit business? No. Think carefully before you leverage yourself. Remember 90% don’t make it but that same 90% still owes the money they borrowed! Be creative. Utilize your friends, family, rentals, put a little aside or on you credit card (Pay that off immediately) make a deal with someone that needs your services to invest in you and you can pay them back in ‘sweat equity’. After being in pressure cleaning now for four years I would NEVER recommend to anyone to take a loan to get into this. Don’t let ego or pride tell you that you must have the biggest and best to go make money. I still loose bids to guys with beat up old trucks with ‘big box’ washers. Others will disagree but that what makes this board great. You can get five different opinions and use them to make your own. Good luck. Let me know if I can help you. P.S. If you don’t already know how, learn to sell before you do anything. Rick G

Thank God, I feel stupid! ;)

Just a heads up. Last night at 9:00pm my truck was stolen in front of my house. I heard it crank up but by the time I hit the door he had a jump on me. I almost caught up to the tailgate before I remembered my 2-month-old and my three-year-old were at home. So I called the police, they came, took report and left. This morning I got a call from an apartment manager that had found my truck with my stuff scattered all over the place. (He found my card) The truck is not ok because they took bleach I had in the back and pored it all over the dash, seats and floors and there is a huge dent in the bumper. The truck will not start. As far as my equipment goes I lost my 20 in surface cleaner, new shop vac, tools, a bin full of all my spare parts and small cleaners (I was getting ready to clean a C-store that night, I don’t leave stuff in the back overnight) TO GET TO THE POINT...The police showed up this morning to take finger prints, there were none b/c of the bleach, and they said that there are an average of 10 cars a night stolen in West Palm Beach and out of those 10....6 are New Dodge Rams. Over half of all stolen cars here in WPB are new dodge rams. The officer said they are by far the easiest trucks to break into. Its the way the door handles on the new trucks are designed. They take a flat head, push it up under the handle and the door pops open. I have and alarm but I guess the kill switch didn’t work? Ill be looking into that. The alarm went off for just a second before he started it. Sorry for the long post and thanks for letting me rant. If you have a new dodge get the club or something even if you have an alarm! These low lifes talk! Rick G

Thanks for responding to my posts and helping on these boards. Good luck and happy holidays. Rick G

Thanks all. Thats a great idea Tony. Im going to try and be back on my feet asap. I can tow my rig with a UHaul rental so I think Ill be ok. Also I have an old 16in SC that I can use for now. This just hit me right after I went Santa shopping. Oh well I will not let these low lifes get me down this time of year. Thanks to all. Rick G

Hi Beth. I would like to add my picture to my avatar and I am having trouble reducing the size of the pic to 200x200. When I try to do this the picture does not get smaller it just cuts out everything but the top right hand corner of the pic. How do I do resize the pic to fit? Thanks allot and again great board. Rick G

Very nice!

I have a 13hp Honda direct drive with a Comet pump that puts out 4.5 @ 3500. I am breaking this unit down and rebuilding the engine and I would like to go with a 3000 psi @ 6gpm or more pump. I will keep the Comet as a back up. Is this possible with 13hp? I know I would be better off with an increase in hp but I must work with what I have. I thought of converting into a belt drive. Realizing I must have the proper ratios for the pulleys I don’t see why this would be to difficult? I have been told it would be. Anyone have tips on converting direct to belt? Brands of pumps? Warnings or cautions? What do you all think the best why to reconfigure this unit to maximize the GPM? Thanks Rick G

Who can afford WC in FL? I called and they will only do a min of three people and it was $8500.00 for the year. I have found the being exempt is ok for most commercial clients but I have had a couple of potential clients say that they will not take exemption and for a fee, deducted out of my check they will temporally add me to there policy for that job. Mike or anyone else have you experienced this? Mike thanks for the heads up on the inc. Rick G

Are there concerns or special products that must be used to clean and seal a dock that is, obviously, over water? I have one to do, this will be my second, and the first one I did was three years ago when I was a newbee. I used low pressure, no chems, allot of sanding and I rolled on the sealer. Also, and I know you all are going to laugh but, I got in the customers inflatable dingy to do the bottom. It took me forever! What is the best why to do docks, clean and seal? Thanks Rick G

Does anyone have any specs or information on, and I belive I have this right, a 53G Alto Vortex Technnlogies made by Delco? thanks Rick G

Thank you. It does help. I am concidering a used one and the price is very good. I will let you know. Thanks again, Rick G

Man, Alan, your on again! Thanks alot. Anyone have any experiance with these units? Good or bad? Thx

Scott, I agree with you, it wasn't until I was educated through these boards that I had considered reclaiming. No governing body in my area is enforcing the CWA as far as pressure cleaners, and no one that I can find offers reclaiming and that is one of the reasons I do. Jon told me early on not to bash the competition that does not reclaim and I don’t. I tell the customer that it is built into the price and because of our ‘advanced equipment’ (sump pumps) ;) we can offer this at prices competitive with traditional cleaners. If you learn to pitch it right it kind of sells itself. Rick G

I moved from doing residential to commercial several months ago and decided to offer reclaiming. I spent a total of $350.00 to start to reclaim (sump pump way). It has been frustrating because I have talked to about 20 people at the DMV, county and city and I still don’t know what the local laws are regarding waste water and pressure cleaning, so I can safely assume that no one here is enforcing the CWA. I tell you based upon my few months offering reclaiming that most do not know what it is or don’t care about it. BUT all the customers that I have pitched to and had proposals from other companies have chosen me because I offer it without making it seem that they are paying more for it. It’s all in the way you sell it. When they feel all is pretty much equal but we reclaim then they will go with me because they think there getting something more. (So far) I was given a boost that made me feel good about my decision to offer reclaiming when a national gas station chain I was pitching to told me that their INSURANCE CARRIER had REQUESTED that they start looking at ‘environmentally sound ways of cleaning’ or LIMIT the amount of exterior cleaning they do. That says to me if they are requesting it now they will demand it later. After talking with this lady, I am very confident it will not be the State or EPA that changes this part of our industry but the insurance giants. When someone buys a property adjacent to a gas station, dry cleaner or garage an environmental impact study is done. If there are chemicals found on that property who do you think they go after to clean the site up? And who gets sued in the process, the insurance co. They will have the greatest impact on this in my mind. Maybe I’m crazy but my whole business model is based on reclaiming because I feel that the larger companies, with all their money, are going to be the ones that care about this. And I want to be ready to take some of that green! Rick G

I have to say I am much prouder of this business because I grew it to where it is now using my brain and hard work, not just throwing money at it, and you cant put a price on that!

I was under the impression that it was bad business to keep large amounts of inventory on the shelf when that money could be directed to other needs or stay in the bank to collect interest. It is bad business to buy $5000 in stain and another $5000 in chems before you need it. Part of being in business is being able to balance these things so you can make your money work for you. I started my business with $5000.00- strait to full time. That was three years ago. I had more money to put in at that time but it was not necessary for my goals. That 5g's included a 4x6 open trailer, cold water 3500psi @4.5, 250 gal tank, surface cleaner, yellow extension wand, two summit hose reels, 200 ft of hose each kind, Briggs generator, roto max, gas can, one box of delcos red truck wash, one box of dbn 1433, one gal of wax concentrate, several gallons of pool chlorine, business license, liability insurance, cards, shirts, yellow book ad, my first direct mailer, and a ton of misc. car detailing items. All of this was new. I was just targeting residential so I did not get hot water. I have grown from that to what I have now so are you saying I was not a “serious business” at that time? Newbees don’t listen to this man regarding this point. Rick G

Dave I was under the impression if you reclaim than a lower gpm is more managable. Do you find that with the increase in gpm that you reclaim alot more? Thanks Rick G- I currently use sump pumps.