PressurePros

You know what? People are silly in the questions they ask. But don't always look at it as a distraction. They may well be considering getting a service done now or in the future. A couple minutes spent on company relations is a great thing. That person will remember you for it. I now keep coupons in the truck. When a person asks questions about a service I hand them a coupon offering a discount, quickly explain the service and let them know very nicely that I better get back to work before the soap dries.

What are you going to use it for? If for home protection I would recommend something that is single action since you have no experience as a shooter. I started with a model 19 S&W. It's a .357 with a small barell (2.5" ?). The sound from this thing alone would scare off an attacker. It definitely has a bark. Load it with .38 ammo for less of a kick. I have a Walther PPK stainless now. It's a .380 If you ever saw the gun carried by James Bond, the one with the round hammer, thats it. It's been reliable, accurate and carryable. I load with "non ricochet" rounds. I doubt there is anyone big enough that it wouldn't knock down. If I were going to buy something strictly for home protection it would be a Para-Ordnance P14.45. Loaded with 14 rounds of .45 ACP a pistol marksman could hold off an assault squad. Make sure you practice with any gun. I go to the range once per month to stay sharp and make sure the pistol is in good working order.

That definitely makes sense. My customer base is very central to my office. I rarely go more than 8 miles away. I guess what made me stop automatically leaving sealer was this.. A customer called me and said there were places on his deck that were very shiny and didn't seem like they were drying. (I guess you can consider this a call back) When I looked at the deck I knew right away what had happened. The wife had been away when I finished the work. When she came home she thought she saw areas that didn't have enough sealer on them. It was sunlight shining through trees. Any way she has the hubby go out and put more and more until they both realize the spot are moving. Ever since then I have ben hesitant to leave sealer. I just make sure the customer is happy either at the end of the job or via a courtesy call that we give. If there is any problem whatsoever I would come right back and remedy it. But again, any job is always within fifteen minutes of where I am.

I honestly have never had a call back on a deck. You miss spots because you do a deck in 1.5 hours. Just playin' with ya' Jarrod. I walk around the deck with my customer when I finish it. If my eyes don't see a missed spot, the customer will. I don't leave sealer with my customers either unless in the case of Wood Tux if it's a custom color.

Mike I use a tractor battery. I keep two of them on the truck and trickle charge them as needed. The tractor batteries are smaller, lighter and easier to handle. The downside of course is the amount of amperage they can hold. I usually get 3 hours of runtime on a charge.

Didn't that guy who blew himself off a roof with an explodong pump up mix sodium hypochlorite into a container previously filled with acid?

For someone that likes knocking on doors and cold calling this would be perfect. It also lends itself to pyramid style selling.

Initially, internet marketing is basically worthless. In our field you should target market. When you say direct mail ads are not cost effective, do you mean they are not in your budget or you didn't see the right type of return on them? They are very cost effective in my area. I can send out 500 postcards for about $350 and get back $7500+ in gross contracts. This also sems to be area dependant but I also got good results from a phone book ad. Something small, using the right wording to catch people's eye works fine. Most phone books will bill you monthly so that's pretty cheap too. For me, the best of all worlds is direct mail with magnets. It's expensive but it's like the gift that never stops givin'. I get cals all season long. Hope this helps.

Matt, don't be so damn sensitive. Intelligent people banter and either agree or disagree. If you're going to add your own negative inflection to someone's posts it is going to make it appear that the world is against you. Having polite debate on a message board is not a pissing contest. You also have to understand that you leave yourself open when you make a post asking flat out for people to tell you what to bid, support it with as many pictures as possible but no measurements, then get a bit testy when someone doesn't come up with the answers you are looking for. It is a bit over inflated on your part to assume that everyone should play the game exactly as you wanted. I'm sorry if my post offended you, but I stand by it because I meant no more than to offer you some advice.

Welcome to the world of either not getting the job because you're bid is ridiculously high or kicking yourself because your profit is non existant. I guess telling you to pass until you have more experience is not an option? Being off even $500 per building could slaughter you. I am not trying to be negative, just know what you are getting into. If you are going to use a product that requires wood moisture to be below 15% you better pray the weather holds for you. Lifts are about $400 per day and you can't use ladders. To me, it looks like a complete strip job. You're gonna liable for a ton of windows and I'm guessing some cars and various plant life. Take that all into consideration. You didn't give a square footage number. Without that you can't a) figure out your material cost and b) expect anyone to be able to give you a bid idea.

Very cool idea. Anything to stay busy in cold months is worth exploring. In my region you are responsible for your own trash cans and even if they are outside they can end up nasty smelling. Now the downside from a business standpoint..It sounds like a pretty expensive rig setup and you have to figure at $20 per month most people could replace their cans every couple of months for less money. I would venture that the cleanings would be closer to $1 per can. Great I would pay a couple dolars per week to keep my cans sanitized. Here is where it gets tricky. How are you going to manage billing expenses? By the time you invoice a first, second and third time (people aren't going to make paying a ten dollar bill to some pressure washing company a high priority every month), amortize the cost of specialty equipment, pay fixed expenses and advertise the service I doubt there would be any profit left.

Hey Tony, not offended at all. I realize we are sharing opinions. Nothing you stated in your post read as mean spirited. I guess my analogies are not coming across with my intended meaning. I am trying to convey that there are many things that are adjacent parts of the property that may require special attention. Any of these left unclean could also be perceived by the neighbors as an incomplete job. Six years ago I had no idea you could hire someone to wash your house. Nor did I have any idea what it entailed. But if I had a cruddy roof and it was left cruddy I would think I hired a hack. Not because I neccessarily expected the guy to clean it but because he should have explained the house wash procedure to me and offered me the option to have it added into the service. This issue may also be due to the areas we all live in. For me, an average house runs 4000+ sf with some of the gutters obscured by dormers, a multi pitched roof or just generally being over 25 feet in the air. A set of gutters like this could add 45 minutes of workman time, require ladders, extension poles and expensive cleaners not too mention offer a hazard to my myself or employees. Incorporating it into my housewash price if I am competeing against a guy that does not brush gutters could leave me holding many proposals and no work. Also consider that in my tiered plans, I am upselling additional service. Hand brushing anything holds value for the customer. I think if one is just giving that service away they diminish that value. Also remember that I am cleaning the gutters and they are coming up 50-75% better with just my basic housewash. If they want "Armor-All" then most people expect that costs more.

Previously posted was a video showing a company using hot water and a surface cleaner to clean a deck.

I am not sure what you mean by system. Are you referring to rigs setup for specific applications, sets of detergents that work synergistically or clean and seal packages?

It's wild how the area you are in will dictate what you can make in certain specialties. Housewashing here is very profitable. I would abandon all other forms of service if I could keep a couple of crews busy 6 days per week doing them. They are fast, they are easy, they have low detergent cost, and the upsell list is endless.

My housewash mix has been refined and refined a few hundred times (it seems) to the point now where it cleans very effectively and even the guttters come up pretty nicely. I would never leave anything unwashed, but if a customer wants their gutter restored to 'like new' and I have to use additional equipment and specialty cleaners I think it is 100% justified to upcharge. The painters I hired to paint the inside of my workshop didn't get windex and clean the windows even though the dirt and dust detracted from their paint job. I wouldn't have expected them too either. It's not really right or worng. Some people prefer all inclusive restaurants where you get soup, salad, bread, and beverage. Since I drink water and don't eat salads I'd rather not have the cost of these things built into the price of my meal. John Wray, I would argue that a carwash is not complete without wax and Armor-All on the tires. I have yet to find a place that includes these services without an extra charge.

Rich, I think you may be, at least in my circumstance, misunderstanding. This post isn't really about methods of prep in my opinion. I think your confusion may be in the terminology. One way to 'do it right' means the customer ends up with a deck that is 1) mold and pollutant free 2) is not tore up 3) has a sealer that will last the life of the manufacturer's warranty. How you get to that finale is subjective. If one's market can bear the added expense of cob blasting, [that is] excellent. In my post I am looking at the wood resto market as a whole and as it currently stands. In my business model I target a culmination of high margins versus diminishing customer count. It is a tedious balance. I also have to take into consideration of what my market will bear. While I would love to walk around and offer a 'GREEN' version of a restoration where no detergents are used and there is so much profit I have a few days to work on a deck, it's just not real world. There is only so much customers are willing to pay to have a deck cleaned when in 12-18 months it may look pretty crappy again. Yes, educate the customer, assess his needs with the right questions..use your skill in the field to make expert suggestions as to product choice. How does this have anything to do with a tiered sytem though, Rich? I try to present opinions that make people think. I may take a devil's advocate approach to achieve that. Take it like this, Rich. There is only one way to tighten a bolt.. in the direction of the threads. But that is not to say you cant use a ratchet, box end, a pair of pliers or your fingers to get it on there.

Extra charge.. My basic housewash gets them clean. If the customer wants to pay the extra I will make them shine. Many guys say it's part of the housewash. I totally disagree. If that is the case then dirty sidewalks, a dirty roof, and anything that can detract from the look of a clean house should be included. Where does it end?

LOL, I had that happen a couple of times and it's very frustrating. I figured that's where you were leaning when you asked about quality. I'm sure it would work and adding in the new two part system of DMC and Wood Tux sealing could even be interesting to some people. It's well worth exploring. In my short sightedness, I still see adding the things you mentioned as part of the "right way" of doing things. Leaving off buffing the fuzzies, sanding handrails where they are dangerous to little hands are not options and are to be figured into the cost of the restoration job. By multiple coat I am assuming you mean the two part system from ES? Again, following the manufacturer's recommendation as to how many coats should be applied is not an option to me. It should be done with th cost of doing so explained to the customer and factored in. In theory, you could add finite additions to service. "Mr Customer, in addition to our usual thorough job, we have a next level of service where the floor of the deck would be sanded down and brought back to like new. To keep the deck from splintering again I also recommend going with a proprietary system JFife Decks offers. We apply a mositurizing conditioner that stays deep in the wood and then we apply a sealer that locks in that conditioning and keeps mositure out. It offers unparalleled protection." That sounds great but what would be your cost to add this? For me on a simplified 20x'20' with rails I'd start at $895 for a straight up restoration and add at least $600+ for option two. Being on the high side to begin with a customer would invariably compare my $1500 to Company B's bid of $575. I'm not saying I couldn't sell it to an educated customer but it would be tough.

I'll answer a couple for you, Richard. You are correct about the use of chemicals doing the lion's share of the cleaning thus the higher flow rate (gpm) is used to rinse. A higher flow rate will make you more efficient. Here is a ridiculous analogy but one that puts things into perspective. Imagine you are washing dishes. You pull a plate from the sudsy water and its time to rinse. Would you be more apt to finish quicker using a spray bottle with pressurized water to rinse or using the lower pressure flow from the faucet? Besides doing flatwork like concrete, I very rarely go above 1000 psi but my machine flows 5.5 gpm and often I wish it was more like 8 gpm. I carry a small reserve water supply in my truck (50 gallons). Some may consider that more of a float tank than a water supply and they would be right. I use customer's water primarily. Municipal supply in my area is fine 99% of the time. For me, I have to test the customer's flow rate from the spigot before I take the job. My feeling is if you aren't going to have a real resererve tank (250 gallons+) at the very least you need a decent float tank with the bypass line on the unloader plumbed into it. The water supply always stays clean. You never add chemicals to it. In fact, get yourself a high quality, see through, filter to install inline on the supply side of the machine. Up- and down- streamers usually have a small flexible tube attached to them. This device can be attached prior to the pump allowing chemicals to get circulated through expensive parts where the chemicals will corrode and cause premature damage. I do not know a single professional that uses an upstreamer setup like this. The other alternative of downstreaming is the one I employ. It is a simliar setup with a short length flexible tube attached to hardware. The major difference being where it is placed in the "assembly line". It is located after all the working parts of your machine plumbed into the output side of things (the high pressure hose). This tubing is placed into a bucket of detergent. Most downstreamers will dilute your detergent so much that you won't have a need to meter. I prefer to adjust the strength of the chemicals in the bucket whether I am using downstreaming or an X-Jet. The final method of chemical injection is the X-Jet. If you consider the progression of where an upstreamer and a downstreamer go in the "assembly line" the X-Jet is the very last in line. It is a piece of stainless steel (don't underestimate it's design or buy a cheaper substitute) that goes onto the end of your lance in place of a regular high pressure nozzle. It also has a tube that gets inserted into a bucket of detergent. The X-Jet is the king of ratio draw. Where with a downstreamer you will be lucky to get one part water to five parts chemical, the X-Jet will draw one to one. There is a metering system that comes with the X-Jet so you can adjust but I think most of us do not mess with the tiny pieces of plastic that adjust venturi size. Again, learn your detergents and adjust dilution in the bucket. The X-Jet is an impresive piece of hardware that will shoot chemicals fairly high into the air. You will hear some exagerated claims of exactly how high, but in my opinion this tool is a 'must have' in the arsenal of a professional. The bigest downfall is carrying a bucket of chemical around with you that limits mobolity and can cause damage to grassy surfaces if it falls over (which can be quite often until you get used to it) PS: Some of these answers are redundant as Roger and I posted at the same time.

The tiered approach has to be viewed from an angle of upselling services not changes in quality of performance. This is why I don't think you can use it in wood restoration. Wood has to be done correctly. Letting a customer choose a "cheaper" route will absolutely backfire on you and make you appear to be a putz. Property cleaning is a whole different story. You add or subtract services as the customer dictates. If they don't want the gutters manually scrubbed or a wax/ polymer added they can save some money. People are used to this type of choice as they see it every time they pull into a carwash.

Happy New Year! Bring on the mumers. My heart goes out to all of you not in Philly.

Interesting. Richard it's not as common as it may appear by the free banter here. In my area, many customers respond to my advertising by letting me know they never knew such a service was available. You are primed to start offering such a service in your market. I know your standards are different due to the age and architecture. Check with your magistrate ad local laws to see if it's something you can pursue. I think it would be very proitable for you.

That is a fairly cold climate. I think it will be in your favor to maybe target market towards your higher end clientele as THE area's woodworking expert and make sure your pricing tiers compensate accordingly. If you can build decks during the colder months or perhaps offer a service that is oriented towards your climate (plowing etc) you may be okay. Your business plan is going to have to be tight. You are smart to spend this time researching.

I am not a seasoned pro by any stretch but I am ready to add my second crew for residential work this coming season. I am also increasing my pay rate, adding benefits and am going to offer a good friend an enticing package to come aboard with me full time as a foreman. I have to admit I am a bit nervous about the whole thing because of the financial commitment I have to make to my employees. Will there be enough work to keep everyone happy and still have enough left over to meet the profit to which I am accustomed ? I sure hope so, but it is also why I think I am leaning towards diversification. The other part of my brain tells me that a specialist is more credible to the public. By finely tuning in on a single service you can become very talented in your chosen field. For the time being I have assumed the path of offering just residential property washing and deck restoration. When I get to know a customer and learn they have additional contracting needs I try to fill them through hiring subs. The reality is, for us in the northeast, our season can start in May and end in September. If I am going to committ to a workforce I need to have other forms of income generated under the PP corporation.