CCPC

My fiancé teases me about it as well, but doesn't complain. She knows that this bbs is a huge part of my businesses success thus far, and its future success. Lets face it though, most regulars come here simply because they enjoy my company. :lgwave:

I can get about 30' with my 60/1.8 shurflo as well with a 0010 tip.

Allthough, I wouldn't change a thing. Those hard times are what has made me appreciate what I've got today, and to see how far of come. Love it.

Yep. If the business is doing what is claimed, then the price could maybe be justified. All of us who have been at this for a couple of years know how difficult those first few years can be. Imagine not having to go through that again by purchasing a business where the hard times have allready been worked through.

Good point Ken. It would seem to me that the ball will always be in there court. With these kinds of businesses, I would think its imposible to ensure 100% compliance in regards to OSHA. Good luck with it though.

For me around here: occupational licenses in the cities/towns where business is to be performed, DBA name, and I INC. so as to get a workers comp exemption for myself. In FL, pressure washing is considered a construction trade, therefore, you MUST either have workers comp for yourself and any employee's, or file for an exemption for yourself, which can only be done as an LLC or Inc. business.

Wow!! Is that a house or a hotel? I know what I would do with this one. "Mame, I'm afraid that currently I haven't the schedule availably, or the man power to take on a project of this magnitude. Good luck with it". Then again I'm not a wood guy. You woodies seem to thrive on the impossible.

I always attempt to explain the benefits of cleaning the whole house vs. just cleaning the dirtiest sides, but I will do partial cleanings. I think it's silly to say that under no circumstances will you do a partial house wash. To me, you have to take it case by case. What if they live out in the middle of no where with no neighbors? What if they only wanted one side of their house washed, but also wanted you to clean the roof, deck (clean and seal), driveway, and pool enclosure? you're gonna turn down the all the work just because they don't want the whole house washed? That's just silly. As for the worry of passing neighbors seeing an incomplete house wash, I know a few of you are proponents of listing exterior gutter cleaning as a separate service, wouldn't you feel the same way about a neighbor still seeing dirty gutters on the house you just cleaned? Or, if you're cleaning a roof, they don't know your just cleaning the roof, so they drive by later after you're done and wonder why the house still looks like crap.

I hate painting myself, don't have the patients for it. That's the main reason I don't like wood restoration either. Sometimes I don't mind cleaning or stripping em, but I almost always leave the staining for someone else.

Why do you need 100g of water? With a 4gpm machine, you will very rarely need a back up supply of water to support your gpm, but even to play it safe, the most you would need is small float tank. carrying water serves two purposes; one, to back up a high gpm machine, or two, to allow for cleaning when a water supply isn't available. 100g is right in the middle, not enough to use as a water supply, yet much more than needed as a water supply back up. I can think of a lot of other things you could consider in your equipment search: step ladders, extesion ladders downstream injector as many assorted tips you can get your hands on rags, bags, buckets, lids, pump up sprayers shurflo garden hoses back up high pressure hoses ball valves (high pressure and low pressure) surface cleaner hose reels extension lances gas cans o-rings, spare couplings, plugs, and other assorted fittings tefflon tape, duck tape, electric tape (you can never have to much tape) tool set extension pole, gutters brushes, deck brushs, toliet brush maybe a few siphon pumps for drums I'm getting bored now, but there's much more

My fear of hiring employees is how can you find an intelegent, hard worker and not simply loose them because they learn the trade and start their own gig. It would seem to me that the best case senerio is to find an honest, hard working individual that's smart, but not to smart. Anyone know anybody like that? I guess there are people out their who have plenty of smarts, and common sense, but have no desire to own their own business, just work and collect a pay check.

Here's a link to a past thread on this subject. http://forums.thegrimescene.com/showthread.php?t=5375&highlight=cleaning+trash+cans

Oh yeah, you will find roof cleaning to be one of the most profitable opportunities in this area. Do some searching on this BBS on roof cleaning to learn how most of us FL guys do it, and if you have any questions just ask.

Andrew, There's to many variables to take into consideration to throw out a blanket rate per foot on exterior cleaning, i.e. landscaping, type of exterior, layout, how dirty, rust stains, etc. As you begin to get your feet wet, you'll find that when pricing houses, time guaging is the most accurate and most time efficient way to estimate a house wash. The same goes for driveways. Around here in our area, an average 2000 sqft ranch style home will range between $150-$225 depending on factors described above, average driveways for me run between $65-$85. The Jacksonville market is also littered with with low ballers that will charge half that. Be prepared to compete with these guys. It can be done, you just have to be smarter than them, and practice your sales approach. I've found it very difficult to sell quality wood work in this area, most just assume their deck rot away and then have another one built. I clean wood now and then, but usually will decline the opportunity to stain/seal.

A lot of the wood pro's on here would be more than happy to trade some learning for labor. That will probably be your cheapest option finacially, but will require a bit of your time. I would, but I generally avoid wood care like the plague.

I have a feeling that wood care up North, and out West, is like roof cleaning down here. When I started my business I had a lot of issues with cleaning roofs and really didn't even want to clean them, but I soon found out that to be a successful exterior cleaning contractor in FL you almost have to add roofs to list of services. I tried not offering roof cleaning a couple of years ago, but it seemed like 50% of the customers who called either wanted just their roof cleaned, or wanted their roof, house, drive, etc., and obviously, if I wasn't willing to clean the roof, they're not about to hire me just to clean the exterior and drive. I guess wood care is simply in too high of demand around your neck of the woods to not offer it as part of your services. If I lived in another part of the country, I'd probably have to do it, or find a new line of work.

Excellent!! Another reason to add to my list of why I don't like working on wood. Thanks Jarrod!!

Congrats Philip!! As some of you know, I quit smoking some months back, but what most don't know is A fell off the wagon. Oh well, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

I'm not using on roofs (yet). The keyfob is simply a way to shut off the flow to my injector remotly. The main reason for this was to aid in my downstreaming procedures when cleaning houses (much time savings). My reference to the roof cleaning was because if I were to equip a shurflo in the draw line of my injector I could possibly greatly increase the the chem draw and because of of having the remote valve shut off, I could shut down the flow on the roof which would stop the shurflo from pumping and stop the chem flo from my injector, for easy application and rinsing.

Well Mr. PM man, I'm about to give some of your methods a try. I put together a mailing list and contact info on around 100 PM's in the Jax. area. About 40% are residential PM's and the other 60% are B2B. I'm just trying to figure out how to go about it. Maybe mail to 20 or so at a time? I'm a little afraid of being overwhelmed.

Hate it when that happens. I've ended up with some pretty nasty brews myself because of simple oversights.

Tips for high reach chem application, like Barry said, 0020-0050 Tips for mid range chem application - 0540 and 1540 Tips for short range chem application - chemical tip and 1550 ---------- Tips for long range rinsing - 0010 - 0030 Tips for mid range rinsing - 0515 Tips for short range rinsing - (I like to use) 8010, 9510, 8020, 6515 ----------- I find using a downstreamer one step down than recommended, i.e. if you run a 6gpm machine, go with a 3-5 gpm injector, seems to draw better. I also try to use the largest filter I can on my chem line (I use the same one that comes with an x-jet). I use a 3/8" draw hose instead of the 1/4", not sure whether that makes much difference, but it makes me feel better. equip your draw line with a small ball valve so you can easily shut the chem draw on and off, especially if you plan to rinse with low pressure. I always rinse exteriors with a mild enough pressure that if I don't hit the ball valve, it will continue to pull chem so the ball valve is a must. I use the same 3/8" ball valve that comes with the x-jet for this purpose. To me, it's always a good idea to disconnect the downstreamer when using a surface cleaner (especially if using a smaller orifice injector than recommended), so I would suggest keeping it attached with the QC. Plan your next move. When downstreaming it's a bit more imperative to plan ahead, so as not to waste a second of time while clearing the line, or when waiting for the chem to draw to the end of the hose. The first thing you need to do is find out exactly how long it takes from the time you put a chem tip on until the chem begins to flow out ot the nozzle. If you know this you can make good use of this time. For me, it takes about 10 -12 seconds for the chem to clear the line, so knowing this when I'm coming to the end of an area I'm applying chem to, I shut off the chem flow to finish out the line. Not a drop wasted, no time wasted. You get the idea. most of it is just practice and getting used to a new way of doing things.

I come across these all the time, and on stucco too boot. I haven't found a chemical yet that will emulsify these buggers. The best thing I found for handling them is to wash the house as normal, and know matter how temping to bare down on them, just pass leave them behind. Then when you've finished the house, go back to where you started (by this time it should be somewhat dry) use a toilet brush mounted on an extension pole and just turn it against the cocoons and it will pull them right off. Repeat process around the rest of the house. It sounds like it will take a long time, but it actually goes pretty fast when you get good at. I'm guessing were talking about the same brown cottony/thread like balls that when sprayed with water, tend to just move around and stick to the rough edges of surfaces like stucco or brick.

My rule of thumb is, if they don't have any respect for me, my line of work, of my time, then it's a deal breaker. There's just too much work out there to mess with people like that.

Actually you're right, the box could have been moved down a little, while still allowing enough room to place the bucket underneath. The reason it's so high is because, originally, I had the top half of a 5g bucket mounted on the base so I could slip and secure my chem buckets in and out for mobility, but later decided to scrap it because I couldn't guarantee a liquid tight seal while pulling different buckets. Now I just shut off the valve, disconnect the chem buckets, and move them separately when need be. It turns out to not be a big issue because generally when I'm using this cart, I pull it to a specific location on the property: deck, concrete area, etc, and it stays in one place the whole time I'm using it. As for the pneumatics, I would have opted for them, but every cart I could find locally with pneumatic wheels was just to heavy and bulky compared to this one.