Thomas

Understood, and while that is a successfull approach...what happens to the market if the "mean" is lowered due to an increase in new inexperienced entities? You take a paycut? How is the market going to grow? I am not suggesting that you start overpricing, or try to single handedly change the market..of course you will slow to a crawl and self destruct. What I am saying is find what the top of the market is and compete with that number. Why rape the market of what it could bear becasue you can turn a decent profit. Thats like walmart sellign all the toys below cost at christmas because they know you will be in there buying toilet paper etc anyway...not good! I run an ad in a local paper that has 7 or 8 pw'ing co's. 6 of em are cut throat 100 dollar for any job you call them on. Example..my wife called 4 of them, all four on the same specs for a roofwash was 100. My price before I even thought of placing an ad inthis publication was 250 for that spec roof. Should I take a paycut? Do I want 100 dollar a job seeking clientel? I haven't and I am getting 250 for those roofs still. (1300 shingle) avg home in area mid scale neighborhoods. And I would bet those folks have raised their prices instead of running around and relying totally on a closing rate. I get maybe half of my estimates. I rely on my sales presentation and my work. I am a newer co and I may be wrong and I appreciate this discussion...

Thats a great way to think about it Kory. And from the sound of it...I can tell what kind of person you are.....you are not competing with the folks with washers in the trunk. Your client list is most likely full of good clients that keep you busy and away from those seeking 100 dollar "trunk jobs". I get like that also sometimes and think I am pricing myself out of the market. I feel the same way as you do..you are paying for my high quality job, if you dont pay for it I will fill my day up with someone that will..:)

So Lance, If you could earna bigger profit would you? OF course you would , you would be foolish to cap your profitability by not educating yourself about what prices the market COULD bear.Thats like a gas station owner selling his gas at .99 when the market can bear 2.00. Shooting yourself in the foot IMO. And capping the market!

I guess after reading your post I see you points and agree somewhat. I dunno..I have a flat rate that I measure to get also..I just see a million+ home as a good qualifier for "premium" price as along as you give "premium" service. It is the same down here in Hillsborough...lean times for sure and that impacts the price. With all do respects...how big does it have to be to make a nice check? This is a monster roof.

Not trying to cause and argument with you ccpc. But the only thing you would be killing in that scenerio is the roof cleaning market qnd your pocket. The last 800 roof I did was 3200 square. It was very steep (we did walk some of it) it was shingle. just my opinion...

300 to 400 overpriced??? back that number out and throw it into an 1500 square. an average house ..that means if it is 300 or 400 over you are doing 1500 square for like 100 dollars. his price is good....as he said it has a 10% discount. I would have been just over 1600.

welp, I posted to fast and noticed it was tile not shingle. I would have been higher. For shingle its a good price but on the low side for tile.

No not too high. For roof only.

nozzles on my washer machine that my wife always yells at me about: zero dgre zero soap 2555 2520 2509 1515 1506 2520 is the best nozzle for wood after a good marinate with a sodium percarbonate for me my machine is 3500@ 5.5, 20 gpm tips are the bomb:lgwave:

550 a month advertising. And my dumb ass missed the phone books so im stil not in them. This year is bad. LEt me say that again This year is baaaaad. we can do 3 nice sized homes a day. If I had the work I could do 3 roofs a day. Did 3 roofs in one day last week. We average around 250 a house exterior without cage drive or roof.

LOL I feel like a storm trooper also. I wear an old big floppy hat with shades and my resperator. Latex gloves if i remember to get em.

Thank you for the info RickG...much appreciated. That seems to be the question JustMe....I must be over watering. I am just scared of killing plants. I still cant believe a hour and a half, almost want to say its not possible but for the arguments sake ill believe 2 hours. According to how much mold and stains are on the roof maybe I apply to much chloro? It takes forever to get all of the chloro off. I dont think my chem mix was to weak. Over 50% but under 60% is what I usually mix it. I have plaenty of experience with low pressure roof cleaning ....maybe I just over chem and over h20? I guess I feel its better to be safe and water too much than get a call after you have busted your butt and polished up a roof and it looks great butt you killed half of the homeowners plants(my nightmare). Tommorow I have a big scary tile roof to do. I have planned for it to be an all dayer.

you dont rinse off the house with your roof cleaning? I have never done a roof and not have to clean up the sides of the house. I also try to leave the area around the house cleaner if not as clean as when i get there. Maybe Im doing too much for just a roof cleaning. I just cant drive away leaving a bigger mess than when i got there. So basically my customer got a low pressure roof cleansing, mud and dirt that splattered on the house in some spots washed off with a good washdown, very good care of plants( i carry a very good survival rate with my plants:]), and no leaves debris left in teh yard. Thats what they get from me for a roof service call. I just can even dream of doing the job I do in a hour and a half. Heck I bet ya I threw h20 on the plants for at least 30 to 45 mins. I always thought you had to saturate the roots before the chloro passed throught the soil so they wont absorb chem. Then i wash of any cchem that may have got on the plants while the wash. Im always a one man army.....sometimes I work with another local company on full services jobs(roof,pool screens,deck,all flatwork around house).

Wow a hour and a half. I must be doing something wrong. I have a diaphragm pump on 180 feet of clear 3/8 food grade tubing. The needle sucks the chemical out of 16 galllon drums I carry on my trailor. I can shoot the chemical about 40 to 50 feet up if I need to with this. Great for pool screens. The wand is made out of pvc pipe with a on/off valve. The tips For roofs I use are 4009 and 25009. A friend that I consider to be one of the very best in the area was nice enough to share this with me. Heres how it went: Get some water going into my tank. Start watering the plants. (sprinkler) Pull out 100 feet off the reel (high pessure hose) Pull off 125 feet of chemical hose (not on reel) Add water to chem mix (it was a little bit stronger than fifty 7chloro, 6h20) and I had a backup 12 gallons of 50/50 Set my ladder up and rinse roof with h20 and get leaves and debris off. By now Id say I am at a solid 45 mins. Have second garden hose on roof and move sprinkler. Put on my resperator and start rinsing roof with chem wash. Plants,plants,plants, water the plants Start rinsing shingles with one garden hose with no nozzle one with. Rinse,rinse, rinse, does this stuff ever come off lol. Hit trouble areas with chloro and rinse away. Make a final walk around and rinse. Jump down and get rdy to wash off any debris from roof clean. Walk around and rinse all of the plants one last good time. This took me 1.5 maybe 2 but no less than 1.5 Used all of first barrel and most of second. Start up motor and clean up the house I have to bleed my chem line so I do it on the driveway and wash it off. I had done the drive a couple of mths prior so it was clean. Reel in the pressure hose. Pull in the chem line. Secure trailor/shut off fuel etc. Knock,knock..give them the bill. 45 mins. Well maybe not as long as I said but I Didnt answer the phone and I work hard. Am I doing it wrong? <not saying this like a smart ass> Thomas

Cool, I will try my next tile roof with a chemical wash and see if my technique needs some polishing. I did a 1700 sq foot home (shingle) yesterday. The roof was 11 years old and had a lot of mold on it. Needless to say I used my flow pump and a garden hose. I got a late start and started at 2pm...I fineshed the roof and begin my ground work clean up/watering at around 6. Roof looks brand new:] Thanks

Awsome site and very informative:] I live in Florida and we get many calls to wash these kinds of roofs. I have tried both ways of washing them. I have an electric flow pump on my trailor and I mix up a 50/50 wash of pool chloro/all purpose and H2O. I can project the wash from a ladder or from the ground and cover the roof from top to the bottom. With this I have to spend lots of time watering and I run regular garden sprinklers in the spots I feel the plants need the most attention. The roof tiles would have to look brittle and loose for me to use this method. I find on the same job this method yields sub par results and takes 2x as long. You fight rinse marks and some spots just dont come clean. If the tiles (which is about 90% of the time) look like they are solid and the roof is safe for pressure washing, I use my surface cleaner. I find this method to be just as safe as I have never had a problem with either methods and extremely faster, yielding an absolute hands down better looking wash. I worked for a roofer when I was in college so I know how to walk and working on the roof comes easy to me. I just washed a four townhome building and it had flat cement sunrise coloerd tiles. I used my surface cleaner and then rinsed it with a light chloro solution. I had one corner tile fall that I told them would possibly fall and I repaired it for them and gave them a replacement tile in case they ever needed it. I wouldnt have even considered chemical washing this and I had zero decolorization on the tiles. The project took me two days by myself and I would say four by chemical wash. Shingle roofs are the only ones I chemical wash. What would some of you all have down with the townhome project? I dont see why using a surface cleaner harms cement or barrel tile roofs. Older beat upt tiles ya...