PressurePros
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Posts posted by PressurePros
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Its growing William. Big, strong.. price setting.. taking your business from you.. destroying the industry! Taking souls for the price of a membership. :deal:
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Jon, that is why I recommended a silica hardener versus a stain or sealer. I doubt he will prevent the moisture but he can protect the wood against rot.
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that design looks nice and clean but leave some to be desired for selling content and SEO. I'm not sure I would pay that much. I certainly wouldn't pay $7000 for it. The "Visualizer" is hot though. that's an awesome piece of programming and is what makes the cost more justified I suppose.
Here is another company that I believe offers contractors a leased website deal. They have a much firmer grasp on SEO as well.
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Either the SSS or Bob's new injector will draw through 300' of hose so no need to place one in line. I would go with Bob's only because I noticed E-spec had a uammc logo on their site. Heat breaks down bleach, so if you ds with bleach I would leave the heat off.All of Bob's mailings have a link and a plug for the *****. Bob is a supporting member. You know I had to break your stones a bit.
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Hi Vance, the moment you take payment, you are a professional with liability for the outcome. I know what you are saying but you are kidding yourself and justifying with excuses. An inexperienced person messing with other people's homes with no insurance is a problem waiting to happen. Get the X-Jet, read all you can on here, do your neighbor's homes for free and if you feel this is something you may want to pursue, you go forward setting up your business officially. Any of us would be more than willing to help you with that.
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The alternatives to bleach, which all require the use of some type of pressure on the roof would be the above mentioned chems or a quaternary ammonium.
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The equipment and all that is consequential to the startup. You can start for relatively cheap. Where the expense comes and as its tied into gross sales is in the advertising. A new company can expect to earn back maybe $4 for every $1 spent. You also have to keep in mind that a correctly setup company pays its owner a salary. You don't just keep what's left over. That salary can fall between 20%-30%. You can add another 40% to your salary as a one man show but that will be lowered the moment you add employees (which should be every company owners goal).
So here's the math on realistic first year earnings if you have a $10,000 advertising budget.
Gross Sales: $20,000
Your take: $25,000 minus taxes give or take a couple thousand.
So to answer your question, you had better allot a fair amount of advertising dollars to your budget as well as a cash reserve that will supplement your first year's income unless you have a full time job or a spouse that can pay the bills. I started PressurePros with about $60,000.
Now the much less discouraging part. When I started PP, I had to go the traditional route of advertising (mailers, Yellow Pages, news ads, etc). Today, my website generates a ton of leads and its fairly cheap. You can start with a much lower budget and make a halfway decent living. Don't skimp on your website. Budget to have it professionally designed and SEO'd.
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You won't use more chemical, you'll use less. One five gallon bucket should do a whole house (smallish house). We average ten gallons (six gallons of 12%) on the houses we do.
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Rick, I notice a marked loss in strength of chems using anything over 150' of hose.. even on the 4 gpm machines. I now keep 150' on all my reels. One job out of 20 requires more than that. Another thing that can starve flow is having restriction at the gun. Use a gun rated for at least 12 gpm. Another thing I learned is that undersized downstreamers will draw more. The downside of doing that is you have to pull the downstreamer to rinse or it takes a bit longer. All of these things should help you overcome the downfalls of using store bleach. I agree with Rando above. you may have to go with all bleach and just add your soaps to that.
Good luck. Let us know how you like it!
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That's neat. One product I would recommend treating all of that would with would be:
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Your going to find through your own experience that marketing and sales come down to "six of one a half dozen of the other". There are things that work and don't work based on your style and your market. As you can see we all have opinions as to what works and those are differing fairly dramatically. My average deck price this year is coming in around $1700 which is dramatically different from 6 years ago when I chased $450 decks. In the beginning you do what you need to do to stay busy. I know very successful guys that probably average $450 per deck. They obviously need a much higher volume and would be spinning their wheels meeting with every customer. I am to the point now if a customer calls and they cannot meet with me, I start leaning towards sending them to someone else. If you cannot meet with me to begin establishing what I want to be a lifelong relationship, you may not be the customer I am seeking. Again time in business and YOUR business model is going to determine ultimately what path you take.
As far as employees.. I send the majority of mine through a leasing agency. My lead guy or myself interviews them and determines employment viability. They then go sign up at the leasing agency. Leasing agency covers the WC and all payroll taxes and they finance my payroll for 5 days which helps with cash flow.
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There are more choices than the above I would consider. I prefer a curing oil hands down over pure paraffinic oil stains. A blend of conditioning oils and curing oils seems to be the Nirvana.
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PWS, let me assure you that your closing ratio when performing estimates on the spot will far outweigh and give you greater return than sending out fancy email packages. I've done it both ways. I have to schedule my estimates days in advance during the busy season. This allows me to route estimates together. People have no problem waiting. A side benefit is it lets people have all the other new guys give their estimates first.
Its natural for people to shy away from the sales route as we all hate being pressured. You don't have to pressure anyone but, as a business owner, you will have to overcome your fear/apprehension of asking for the sale.
I have all the professional graphics, brochures, YouTube channels, references etc. I also have enough command of the English language to put sentences together and convey my points along with a long history of selling and properly wording marketing materials. My closing rate when done via email is about 30%. Closing on face to face sales about 50%. This is just food for thought when considering your options.
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Bobby, go to or call PressureTek. For about $500 you can get the pump (5 gpm delevan), gun, 150' of upgraded hose, all your fittings and bulk head in one complete package. Get yourself some 1/2" braided poly hose for an intake, a chem tank and you are ready to rock. When you get into serious roof cleaning you can upgrade to a FatBoy pump (or get it now if budget permits). I'd also recommend a stainless hose reel like the Titan. Bob carries those as well.
As far as the marketing, push the benefits of roof cleaning.. longer roof life, savings for cleaning versus replacement, lower energy costs for homeowner. Depending on your market, this is becoming a more mainstream service. I never got any calls for roof cleaning as I never advertised for it. More recently a franchise moved into my area and has been advertising aggressively. His ads are good but people are starting call me about it.
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So there are no franchises in the southwest like this one?
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Just doing a little research.
Richard I already feel the chill moving in.
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Probably similar to those. Water Ice has a more "infused" flavor. But it may be similar to what you guys call shaved ice or snow cones. Are they popular there?
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Do you folks have water ice and or soft serve ice cream stands in your area? Are they popular?
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Hi Guys,Is there a surefire way to tell what kind of paint is on a deck?
And as far as removing it, does it really matter?
If you literally mean "paint" then no, it doesn't matter. They are all almost impossible to remove. But there are solid stains that vary in removal difficulty and require different chem strengths and techniques. It always wise to do a test spot on decks.
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I give on the spot estimates and ask for the sale. I don't push too hard but my goal is to get them on the schedule and move on. I have way too many estimates to do to email everyone. If the customer hems and haws, I explain that I am not a high pressure person and that I understand they may need to discuss options. What I always do though is let them know I will be following up with them in a few days. I also let them know that at the moment I am talking to them I am booked 6 weeks out. That could be eight weeks by the weekend. (which is true in the spring).
My feeling is, you called me, I am qualified and my price is very fair. While I am here, lets get this thing fixed up for you.
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Pressure Treated Pine would be my guess.
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Depends on what state of sanity you like to reside in.
Nightmare ---> promise the customer a semi transparent and go ahead and strip it. Allot for at least three chemical strips and 4-8 hours of sanding.
Happy Place ---> clean and recoat.
Help! Rain on New Finish...What to do?
in DIY'ers - Ask The Pro's
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If you didn't touch it at all, you probably would have been fine. Don't over react yet. you may still be okay. We have had it happen five minutes after we finished and the deck was fine other than a couple of water drop stains that we touched up.