Jeff

Hap[py birthday to you, How young are you Have a great night

Crap!!!!!!!!! we worked from 6am to 9pm last night and after we dropped trailers at the shop one of my employees got in a 3 car wreck with my 2001 Dodge Ram on the way back to my house. One of my main guys Derek was shaken up, but un injured, no injuries at all. All 3 vehicles went on wreckers and derek was cited by SCHP, CRAP!!!! Now we have 3 trailers and only 2 truck, Nothing we cant handle, trying to stay positive, but this sure throws a monkey wrench in our busy schedule. At least Derek is OK CRAP!!!!

Happy Birthday Beth. Hope you have a nice day Rod, hope you got her something nice!

I have a builder that needs an hourly or daily rate for post construction cleanup of several 3 story condo buildings. He only needs the balconies, breezeways aand now dirty sidewalks. There is also several other areas such as dirty new asphalt parking lots, smaller out buildings. They were doing it and just are giving up , they cant keep up I got an hourly rate in my head per man and I told them I use 2 man rigs I want to know how I should write this up. Should I require a 4 hour min per man? or should I require an 5, 6, 7, 8 hour min per man? I need to cover myself. I dont want to schedule a days or even a half a days work and get there and theres painters painting or just something else that makes it impossible to do our work. I dont need a crew with nothing to do HELP PLEASE. I need some exact wording that I can add to proposal/contract to cover me for miniunum hours if we are scheduled ANY OTHER WORDING or things I should be thinking about or adding into a proposal/contract?????????????? Help a guy out PLEASEEEEEEE:lgsideway. I just never have done jobs by hourly rate Does anyone do a daily rate???? Thanks ALL Jeff

Celeste, In your dealings did you have to give them a time estimate? I talked to the super and I told him its strickly on time . We show up the clock starts running. I told him we have 6 & 8 gpm machines and techs that do this kind of work every day and it will probbly go faster than his guys and some 4gpm machines. I dont plan on giving time estimate for any of the projects he wants. We get there do it and pay me for it. If he isnt happy or thinks we take to long (which I dont think will happen) If he's unhappy fire us. Its not a job i really dieing to get, but it seems like it could be done under my terms and could be profitale. Sounds like many have problem with hourly, thanks for letting me know. I'm am writing it up in a contract, they read it and go for it or not. We'll see. Jeff What was cool about getting this call it was from a referall from the Sunbelt Rental saleman. He's told others about us to before. Time for a gift cert for him. Nice guy

Thanks Jon, How you been? Had insurance got $11,500. I'm using bro in laws and looking for a used right now. Dont want another truck payment. I might go for another new one next year. No one hurt at all, Thank God Take care

WHY???? I base things on time & material when I bid work, I see that just doing straight bidding/proposal I might get burnt too. The sidewalks area mess with dirt and I told the it may take a couple washings. Theres just a whole lot of different factors if I don't do it by hourly. There's little things that may need to be done etc etc . I thought it may be to my benifit Like I said WHY? How is it bad for me, just trying to figure it out. Could you explain the pit falls of me doing it hourly???? Im not letting him dictate my rate????? I tell him my rate he either takes it or not???? Thanks

Like the idea of QC's I hope someone chimes in about a Bigger/Better thermostat. As I understand from some old timers, machines used to have bigger or better thermos & pressure/flow switches on them. They just use the cheaper now......more cost effective to build and cheaper sale price.........but more a PITA. I can understand cheaper, I just want to find a BETTER set up and I dont mind paying if it keeps me running longer. I have 8 Pressure Pro hot & cold Machines and this 8gpm is the only PITA one Mel, Do you still have problems now that you switched to a flow switch?

But I can't!!! Alright many probably know I'm a flipping dummy when it comes to computers and a little challenged to say the least when it comes to the office end of business. I want to learn and I'll be having one of my guys that knows some computer stuff learning also about scheduling. I want to go after weekly, monthly, quarterly etc etc accounts. One of my biggest fears about going after this kind of work is not knowing how to schedule it. Pardon my total ignorance, but is there a somewhat simple way/program to keep scheduling easy as to making sure I don't screw up. I need something to show me when the work is to be done. Like my hospital account, I do different things every other month. I can keep track of the work , but if I had several accounts I know I would screw up possibly When I did the banks I would have trouble keeping it all straight 18 properties and we did some every 6 months others annually and some times we just did drive throughs other times we did walks & buildings etc. I kept this basically all on paper and would always figure things out the hard way. Also on monthly accounts how do you do them?? Is it every thirty days or like with my hospital work I do it every 3rd Thursday of the month (which good be 5 weeks apart) I know I'm a computer idiot, but is there a program or easy way to keep scheduling fool proof. Like I said I am going to have help. I can't target this kind of work until i can learn this properly How do you all do it Thanks in advance Jeff

Mel, you know MB well. You can always move back. There's room for you here. A lot more around here then when you lived here. No water restrictions here yet. I do see it slowing a little in August I would imagine people seeing thats theres restirictions wouldnt clean. They either think they cant hire someone because of the restrictions or just dont think they should. I'm sure a lot of people hold off. Time to advertise telling them it can done

Ken, everybody reads the posts I beleive in customer service over just about anything. I can improve and I try to all the time. My biggest part of customer service on the type of work and client I deal with is being on time to start a project and finishing on time. Property managers will ask how long the project will take. I give them an estimate on time and I always add a couple days, just in case. People, PM's, HOA's are lied to often. I can honestly say in the 3+ years I've been doing properties I have never screwed up on the time. Like you rather lose $ on a client Ken than have them have a bad experience. Like this year i got slammed with work (and I love it), I didnt want to hire so many guys, hell i didnt even really want to buy another rig, but to fit in the work load I had I had to hire & buy. I wasnt going to tell a PM "Oh I cant get to your project when I said" I'm not going to do a project that should take 5 days and stretch it out for 2 weeks. A lot of my name has been built on doing good work and doing it when I say. So i bit the bullet hired more guys and bought equipment that will do the work faster. My word is everything in this biz and it should be with every person who serves the public. I can't count how many horror stories I've heard from residential & commercial properties, I jut dont undersatnd how some people can look themselves in the mirror, with the poor service they give. Many can do the job, they know how to, but then they dont show WTF, why are they in business I want every customer to know I care and I am thankful for their business and they way a contractor does that is to do good work and do when you say you will Ken we all listen and read your posts. You are like that old commercial...what was it?..... "When Merrill Lynch speaks....everybody listens" Well Ken maybe not everyone. Was it Merrill Lynch??? How much TSP do you use anyway? Jeff

I've spoke to many and tried to help them. I too get a lot of calls from guys trying to get info. They should just call me and be honest Hey Bruno hows the restaurant going???

You can get away with cold water no problem if just doing residential but if some one callls a commercial job and you can make a couple grand on some dirty concrete you might wish you had hot If I was you I would get a cold or hot but get more GPM 5.5gpm is a big difference and a money maker I have 3 trailers and they have 2 machines each and I like having 2 machine on a trailer. You go out and do a bunch of houses and 2 guys make the day less boring and its faster. The guys make each other go faster i think Just add another machine MORE GPM, you'll never regret MORE GPM Jeff

Looks great, what an improvement

You shouldnt believe everything you read Lowball rates thats funny, Cali & SC are worlds apart

Dont listen to Ken about rates! That building would be about $800- $1000 not counting the cost of a lift. If the balconies are open (not screened in) we would clean them also at a higher rate. If they are screened, no cleaning. 2 guys would do 3 buildings in a 9-10 hour day. Up north Id get double that rate probably $2400-$3000 a day for 2 men. I know Just call me Low Balling Jeff LOL LOL:)

We have been rolling through the condo complexes. Doing 28, 38buildings at a time in 4-5 days, while doing 2-3 projects 5,6, 10 buildings at the same time. Now I'm going to toot my own horn. Today Saturday I got 5 calls from 2 different complexes. All 5 calls were homeowners at the complexes and they all just wanted to tell me what a great job my crew did and how professional they were You know it made me feel great. I get a call every once in a while or people at the job will tell me or my guys that we are doing a great job. But to get 5 calls. One lady said she has lived at the place for over 10 years and no other PW company ever did such a great job I LOVE THIS BIZ

That i did. chinese buffet for 7. hell I think the buffet had dog bone too LOL

I usually tell people come on down........But you i dont know, there may be no business left for me after you hit town. the hell with it, come on down Ken, Ya damn Yankee....Oh I'm a damn yankee too

My niece is getting married June 16th. we are leaving this Sunday to go to the wedding and see a lot of family & Friends I have not seen for years & months. Can't wait, I'll be seeing my grand nephew for the 1st time and and my niece 7 nephew, some of my brothers Friends from Boston, its going to be great Taking Josh and my wife to Disney a couple days. So COOOOOLLLLL for Josh. My Mom is driving down with us and she'll take care of baby Jessica Hell I cant believe my baby girl niece is getting married. I still remember her as my little girl My guys are all set up for work this week, I'm a little nervous leaving but I mapped it out good for them and my 2 foremen are pretty smart. Still nervous thou Here we come Mickey and its free, my bro works for Disney Cooollll See you all in about a week Jeff

WELCOME. Sounds like a nice machine, just remember the more GPM the better. Post some pictures when you get your rig. Enjoy TGS Welcome

Life is GOOD Mike. welcome to TGS, its a real informative place Saw your rigs on PT State, you have a great looking biz I, like you think this is a great biz to be in. I enjoy it 99% of the time, all of it good & bad its all just a fun challenge. Once again WELCOME

I'm VERY SAD:lgtear: They totaled my Dodge, it was real pretty truck when I bought it with the off road package, big tires, I used to be able to smoke them tires, I had some very good times in that truck when I 1st was with my wife and Friends, went on some fun trips too. 4 wheelin was great in it I'm not loyal to any one brand of truck and I'd probably never by a Dodge again, but it sure was pretty cruising the Blvd, with the music blasting and a couple pretty women next to me VERY SAD Now I got to get another truck, what a PITA I'll miss you old friend, boo who. I got to find my old pictures and sleep with them tonight LOL

The regular blue Dawn will give of a pretty strong smell/ odor/vapor and if you used a lot it would be worse. Apple Blossum Dawn doesnt have that problem You can use Simple Cherry, it was designed for use with bleach

I had a call back before for dark spots on vinyl siding. I went there and the dark spots werent there, Then the lady called back and said the spots were back...I told the lady theres nothing we did and then I thought...hummmmmm. Told her to go back out and look right now. They moved again...................................it was the shadowfrom tree branches DUH