CLASSICPW

My ads state "revolutionary house washing system" but I should add "low pressure"

Here's some pics from a 2 tone walkway I did for a boy's detention center. It's a silver grey railing and a forest green walkway with a grip additive and we did the handrail green for the hell of it. Wer washed it and used Sherwin Williams Deckscapes solid to match the outbuildings.

TW, It was a private treatment center, not part of the state. Lou, my helper got bored at one point and counted 300 spindles. I sprayed them then cut in the floor with a brush and rolled it. Fun!

Actually the place was weird to work in. We were surrounded by 20 ft tall barbed wire fences and it took forever to get in and out. When we finished up the punks were writing their names in the wet stain.

I'm very much in the same boat as Ken, Sikkens Srd is a very nice product and I absolutely love Sherwin Williams deckscapes. I prefer to use Sikkens in the summer and SW in the spring and fall because the SW is waterborne and flash dries in the heat. The Sikkens is a fine product, but is not contractor friendly as it produces shiny spots if you don't mop up the puddles in time............in the heat at least. I prefer the SW waterborne products because their color are beautiful and the product is a bit thick so it sprays through my airless real nice, but you must clean it up off siding right away, being a waterborne product it will dry on hot-warm siding reallll quick!! Sikkens is the way to go as long as you put in the time and effort into it. I've used Cabot's on cedar and it was incredible, but I've really never used it past that one job.

Hey Lou, I possibly have 2 massive jobs coming up. On the one we could run both washers, kill it in half the time and I'll split it 50/50. The second is the washing and painting of 2 large trailers. If I win the bid I'll need good help and I'll pay you well. Do you pull water? Give me a ring Jamie Goeller Classic Pressure Wash 410-952-7240 By the way you should be getting my ad in The Merchandiser this week, tell me what you think.

I had a job just a few days ago that the guy asked me when I was starting how long would it take. I said 2-3 hrs. The guy looked at me in horror and said the last time he did it himself and it took 2 8hr days. I asked him what he does for a living, he said welding. I explained that it would probably take me 4 hrs to figure out how to weld together 2 I beams and asked him how long it would take for him to do it and he said 5 min. 2 hrs later he was praising my skills because his deck looked phenominal.

I'm pumpingt out a $850/mo magazine ad, $60 a week for 2 areas pennysaver ad, doing mailers from home and getting maybe 1-2 calls a day. I'm losing my mind!! I was so busy April through July that I thought I needed a shrink, making about 10K/mo. Now If I get 1k a week in work it's good. I'm losing it!! Last year I was bringing in at least 3-4K a week right now. Do you think it's the gas price situation that's scaring people? I don't know what the hell to do, but I'm realllll scared!! I've got a family to support and here in Maryland my season ends in December. I have been getting more commercial calls than residential so if anyone has any tips on how to target commercial accounts please help me........I hate to beg, but thanks for the help.

Thanks for the offers folks. I'm going to start contacting paint contractors, construction companies, service companies etc.. I've just always relied on residential as my bread and butter, but they're failing me. I do have 2 main probs w/ my ads. The clipper magazine is where my one ad is. I share a page with my buddy Classic Chimney. They had the balls to place his biggest competitor on the page next to us with cheaper prices. He's not paying them a cent for the ad and I feel that it might have hurt me too. I'm changing advertisers.

I'm not sure what happened here since the post was deleted, but a paint prep is the easiest wash there is as long as the house comes clean and it's properly rinsed. I do these on a daily basis and I LUV EM!!

I have a theory on wood and the environment. Certain climates/areas can preserve the wood better or age it faster. In my area there's a dirty part of town that is built around a sewage treatment plant(Dundalk if you're near me). I have never had a deck turn out well in the area. I've done about 4 decks there and everytime they don't clean up well and the sealers/stains never lay right, every deck has turned out blotchy and looking like crap. I've had to take money off 2 of the jobs to keep people happy. I swear it's the pollution from the crap plant that does something to the wood, even the people there are different. I refuse every call from there now.

If I got caught doing that on the Chesapeake bay it would probably be a $10,000 fine, a month in jail, and 1000 hrs of community service. That's a joking exaggeration, but it would be severe. I wouldn't do it anyway because I respect the environment here. The bay is already beyond repair.

Navy blue and white. Navy for staining and white for washing.

Every boat in my area has bottom paint and tons of barnicles.

My question is why did you pay them? In my area there are so many crap pressure washers doing crap work that I've constantly got jobs repairing their mistakes. It makes it very hard for me to sell jobs because so many people have gotten shafted by the 4000 psi only water guy. If I were you I would rent the sanders buff it out and hire a painter to come stain it. That is if there are no reputable pw companies in your area.

Hey Jeff thanks alot for the info, but I have one question. Alot of boats in my area have a major problem with barnicles. Is there a detergent that can remove them and not leave ghosts?

Ummm, sorry. I just found this part of the site....I never knew it was there! Anyway, this is my area, if you still have their info, let me know, thanks.

If you mean the future of your own business then that would probably get 1000 posts. I hope the future hold lots of mold, mildew and algae. Show me the money!!

I haven't worked for 2 weeks now because I'm doing a ton of work on my house so I've gotten zapped about 3 times so far.......FUN!!, but when I'm working it's constantly on my mind. When I do a house wash I'll shoot the area( if an old house ) with the x-jet around the external electric connection to the house then back off real fast hoping to minimise to possibility of electrocution, but you never know. Another prob is those darn thunderstorms.

Good job bro, that first pic of that behr was brutal!

I tell ya, almost 4 yrs ago when I started this business my primary target was decks and boats, even my first flyer had a big pic of a Grady White and a deck. I never sent that flyer and I never followed up on the whole boat thing. When I advertised for decks I blew up on the whole deck restore and siding wash thing, I forgot all about boats. It makes me wonder if I'm missing out. I know for a fact that nobody in my area advertises on boat washes and I live about 5 miles from the Chesapeake bay. There must be an easy 100,000 boats in a 50 mile vicinity from me. Even my family lives on the water and they have boats. What kind of business do you get off boats and piers? I'd love to know what I'm missing out on. I was going to charge $2 per lin ft boat bottom wash and offer full boat details including subbing out a cleaning biz for interiors........do you offer this?

Cool, I might do the same. Sometimes I get middle group townhouse jobs that are a pia. That setup will work great.

I'm not bashing at all I'm just curious, does it fall over alot? It looks top heavy and seems like it would be impossible to wind up the hose without someone holding the handcart. How did you solve that prob?

I tell ya Scott, your right. When i went on vacation last year I had my buddy detail my truck. It took him 6 hrs and 3 clay bars, but he got all the sealers/stain off my paint. My truck is white and the stains from the sides near the cap and under the tailgate were immense. It looked brand new, I was amazed. As far as the glass right now there's no etching, but my glass( and paint, I'm sure) is coated with overspray. A proffesional can easily remove this, but let's not get off topic............ wind is our enemy!!

I always thought that the housewash chems would hurt vehicles, but it's not true( besides the butyl stuff) My good friend owns a car detail biz and chlorine does not hurt car paint, it just strips off the wax. I should know, my truck feels like sandpaper.