John Doherty

Lugging hose is killing me, I do 4-5 new homes a day and lugging and rolling up the hose is killing me! Use 2, one is for fill the other for waste water. Considering 1.5" flat hose, seems easier to deal with, (lighter). Anyone use these? Thinking the fill won't be a problem, houses here put out about 8-10 gpm, wondering about my sump as to the larger inner diameter and moving the water. Going to buy one for the fill and will test it for both, but I'd rather save the time and shipping cost and just order 2. How about hand held reels any info? Any comments are, as always, appreciated. Best Regards, JD

Good points, thanks guys! Didn't even think about the full unroll! I'm going to try one as all the homes are a straight shot from the water to the street usually 60' to 70', will try a 50' and 25'. Thanks Again!!! JD

There is a lot of money out there for this type of work. Reliability and quality are the key words here. The supers deal with so many flakes in so many different trades their stress level of coordinating it all is tremendous! There are 2 types of supers, organized and seat of the pants. The real organized ones are a pleasure to deal with, they have boards up in their trailers listing each home in production and every task to be completed and the date for it. The seat of the pants guys can be a nightmare if you don't 'manage them'. They call on the day of the closing and need the job done that day etc. Not only does this kill your scheduling it creates problems for them as well, soil covering cracks in concrete that aren't seen until you're done adds another item to the punch list. These guys also seem to have other problems that affect you, no water, tons of material in the garage, concrete being replaced where your water will run into etc. Here's what I do with these guys. Call or stop by once a week or two and check in, find out what's 'walking' and when. Call before you get there to confirm, ask if the water is on and if the garage is OK, this isn't for everyone just the guys who burn you 2 or more times. Makes your life and theirs much easier. By far the biggest money maker in new home construction is erosion control. Install of erosion blankets, storm drain inlet maint etc. My biggest builder, and the biggest in the state, is nuts about it, to the point that they have not only the streets done but all the sidewalks and curbs are swept and shoveled! The grading guys do it, one of my supers told me they get $500 per inlet to clean around and maintain the rock bags! Last I heard the guy who owns the company just bought his 3rd plane! Bottom line, money is out there, Always be on time. Never let anyone be waiting on you. Manage the difficult people. If it rains, snows or is 10 degrees out, make the courtesy call, yes they know you won't be there anyway but call. Have jobs on Mon. do them over the weekend, (no other trades around to get in the way) spend Mon. on sales calls. In construction always show up when scheduled, be consistent and you already exceed their expectations. Yes it's obvious but so many don't do it. Sorry for the rant, JD

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Hey Ron I know you probably don't spend a lot of time here any more but I've got a ? I'm considering selling my PW business here in Denver @ the end of this year and moving back to where I grew up in Western Monmouth County. How was the business environment there, types of work, commercial / residential etc. Any info appreciated. Thanks, JD

Thanks for the info Ron! I'm a transplant here in CO although I've been here for 13 years now my old company based me out of here but I traveled constantly so my network is pretty weak. A lot of the guys I grew up with are major contractors from roofing to landscape to home builders (I know at least 4 who do over a million gross) all willing to help me out. I also have a family connection with every supermarket in the state. I've just been away from home too long and the drought and water restrictions have me fed up, I have 4 subdivisions for one of my customers I can't work in, 1 in Denver 3 in Aurora, that's about 600 jobs over a 2 yr period! EPA here is easy to work with as are most of the local water people (except Denver and Aurora), but the State is a joke! Sorry for the rant! Thanks for the info again, JD

I'm having a battle with a local municipality and need some help. We are entering the 6th year of drought here in Colorado and water is a big issue. My problem is that they (the city) will not allow PW of horizontal surfaces, they do allow vertical surface cleaning. So I have 3 subdivisions for one of my builders that I can't do flat work on, they let the brick work be done because there is 'no other practical way to do it'. I don't do any brick work so I'm trying to find out how much water is used to do it. On the flat work side I use approx. 250 gals for a 2 car garage and 300 for a 3 car, this is the rear pad and or deck, front porch / walk, garage floor, driveway and city sidewalk. State it anyway that's convenient, by # of bricks or sqft etc. Thanks in advance, JD

Dale, Good suggestion, unfortunately it doesn't exist with these guys, last year they were ready to throw 10k people out of work in the landscape industry, luckily we got a huge snow storm last April. There were people who couldn't put in a lawn for almost 2 years! JD

Thanks Alan!

Was talking to someone about this today, I've never done it and have a few questions. On a new home would a hot water wash be sufficient, or do you need an acid wash, or do you ever, or always, need an acid wash for prep regardless of age? What products do you like or recommend? Finally price, $1.10 a sqft? Not sure where this came from but it sounds way too high. Any thoughts or advice appreciated, Regards, JD

Woops, just looked at the pics, forget the hammer!!! JD

Generally mortar "pops" off pretty easy with the PW, need to be real careful though. Since the mortar and concrete have been poured and cure at different times/rates the adhesion usually isn't so great. You can try to tap the mortar with a ball peen hammer, that seems to break the adhesion between them. Last case for me is the scraper. Good Luck, JD

Just curios, has anyone ever had to submit a claim for damage they caused? Haven't damaged anything yet (knock on wood) and don't plan on it! Had a real scare last summer at a new home, water was off and the supe told me to turn it on at the street meter. What we didn't know was that someone had stolen the fixtures from one of the upstairs bathrooms!!! Didn't know until 1/2 hr later when water started dripping on my head in the garage!!! Anyway about $10k in damage. John

Hello Folks, I have a quick question. We PW for several large home builders and have been asked to do the pre-walk/close clean up as well. Stayed away from it in the past as we didn't want to get into additional employees. My inlaws are getting a little long of tooth and need to get into something a little less stenuous then laying carpet. Does anyone have a checklist that covers the aspects of what needs to be cleaned? Interior only as they use labor for lot picks etc. Any assistance appreciated. Thanks, JD

Many, many excellent points, we do tons of new home PW, about 1000 this year. Some things to consider on model homes, sales and production usually don't communicate well, so think for them. Models are there to showcase the work and the sales folks get upset if anyone gets turned away, if you're doing a model or spec you must do it on a weekday and as early in the morning as possible. The sales side generally has no budget from the builder so they rely on the production side to schedule etc. When someone from production asks you to work at a model or spec keep the time in mind for them and sched accordingly. As far as the contract goes here's how we break out the rates. Regular wash (all flat work etc), Re-wash at a discount as this is real quick and easy, rare and usally if the landscapers or another trade has made a mess or a contract gets cancelled and the home sits around for a while. Model wash, exterior flat work only no garage, this is maint only and at a lower rate then re-wash as we pass some savings (profit) because there are usually 4 or 5 all in a row. We put them on a schedule of once every 8 weeks. Stain clean, an hourly rate w/a 1 hr minimum, usually some idiot parks on the driveway and leaks, usually takes about 20 mins. Hourly add on for excessive paint spills etc. If say the painters use no drop cloths and cleaning up takes more than an additional 30 mins on the job, builders usually have a charge back mechanism and bill it to the offending trade. If you're going to have an exclusive and the painters are consistantly sloppy, take the time to talk to the paint co boss and let them know about it, and never try to charge this without letting the supe see it first. One charge back and the painters will be more careful, but as I said talk to them first. Tank fee, our agreements are that the builders supply the water, if the house isn't metered and we have to go to another over 200' away we charge for the lost time. (Have never charged this but once the guys in the field knew about it, it wasn't a problem). One tip, NEVER turn water on at the street meter or inside the house, let them do it. Our thought is if it's turned off it's for a reason. (Flood stories for another day). Trip charge, if we're only doing one home and we get cancelled due to another trade scheduled. Again, never charged it but the guys in the field never want this or the tank fee to be charged because it makes them look disorganised to the bosses, if they know it's there they pay closer attention. Some of these are obviously penalty fees, we don't generally charge them but it's important to let them know about them so you don't lose money. Diplomacy goes a long way on these things and I've only met a few guys who didn't understand we work to make money and their or others poor planning or errors cost us money. Good Luck, JD

Thanks for the welcome and the info.