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Mathew Johnson

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Posts posted by Mathew Johnson

  1. Posted · Edited by Mathew Johnson · Report reply

    just bought my first pressure washing set up off a guy on craigslist and i paid $1200 - sorry this is my first post i been on the board for a couple of months just reading and learning

    sorry about the signature i dont have any info to fill in yet but give me a couple of months...

    Where are u from. Give me a call anytime if you need help or have questions. Always willing to help. My cell is in my signature

    Mathew Johnson

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  7. Posted · Report reply

    Thank you John T and Jim G

    Comment on Snow and ice management.

    Snow and ice management services (which I also provide) has grown exponentially with urbanization,...... the influence of products and techniques of yesteryear have/are being analyzed with respect to efficiency and environmental impact, improvements are being made to reduce negative impact, cities are investigating environmental consequences, monitoring and making changes to products, equipment and operating procedures.

    One of the key drivers of Snow and Ice Management continued service is its importance , .....ie safety, commerce/trade, continued government operations, national security etc

    [ATTACH=CONFIG]19614[/ATTACH]

    here is the link to the photoed epa document above.

    Another EPA Doc: Managing Highway Deicing to prevent Contamination of Drinking Water

    Changes are already being implimented for Snow and Ice operations, ongoing studies are being conducted; manuals are being written and BMP's are being adopted, ...............uncovered/unsecured salt stock piles are becoming a taboo,....... you may or may not have observed newer norms of Snow and Ice mangement today namely .................pre-treatment, pre-wetting and anti icing

    Good info Nigel!

    Mathew Johnson

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  10. Posted · Report reply

    In my opinion your first step to preservation is to bring it back to nature . Pray and meditate and oil with a one inch chineese brush . This will bring you to a place of peace and a understanding of preservation young grasshopper .......

    Jim, all we can get at Walmart are 1/2 inch chineese brushes. If I pray twice and have Mary help me meditate will the 1/2 brush be sufficient?

  12. Posted · Report reply

    I would like to think that I am prepared, if not "the group" is prepared. I am sure that no matter what comes along, there are always unexpected things that will happen and make you feel like you were not completely prepared. I don't wish these tragedy's on anyone, but if they happen, we can be there to help out.

    I agree Mike. You may or may not agree with me, but someone who has the opportunity to do this type of work may be best served by teaming up with a company who has done a lot of it. A sound understanding of Psycometric monitoring and manipulation is needed to assist in eliminating the risk for lawsuit and providing optimum results.

    Vacuuming up water just scratches the surface when it comes to what needs to be done on a flood damage cleanup project. The additional equipment needed for these types of projects will shock you. From external structural drying furnaces, to oxygen / smell binding generators to dessicant dehumdifiers (some cost upwards of 10 to 12 grand), it is a specialty service that requires specialty equipment. With the three of us, Mike, Tom Defrancesco and Myself, We have over 60K in just drying equipment that we use for our projects

    In todays society of "lets sue someone" mentality, Flood Clean-up a very high risk service that you can get sued over in a heartbeat.

    Any folks in that come across the need for this service may want to give Mike or Tom a call. They know their sh, have the equipment and can get it done, done right and done quickly.

  13. Posted · Report reply

    John, you make it sound like it is an easy service to offer (LOL) water damage restoration is complex and a very expensive service to prepare for to offer.

    I won't go into the details, will save that for Albany. But as an example, the testing equipment required can run into the thousands of dollars.

    Learn more About the adventures of Super Storm Sandy.... Join us in Albany

    Mathew Johnson

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  14. Posted · Report reply

    Shane,

    Ahhh... 12%, I can smell it now. It will be another 6 weeks or so before we get decent weather and rolling in wood work here. Matt's just poking fun, but as Jim Foley, BDA charter member, is going to Albany, maybe he can teach Matt a few tricks about wood!

    Never tried the antifreeze trick but have purchased a similar additive from ACR for years. Along with a surfactant additive such as Tergitol NP-9 to keep the mix wet, a custom mixed stripper can work wonders on difficult strips.

    Wood??? What is wood? The last deck I tried to stain was a mess. Then I had my carpenter guy to look at it to help me fix it. Damn, that trex decking sure looked real before I applied the stain. Uugh!

  15. Posted · Report reply

    Matt,

    A secret ingredient used to melt iPhones. More commonly known as lye. Not suitable for human consumption. A terrific chemical.

    Have a great event in Albany. Wish you and Tom had been able to buddy up earlier and schedule a week sooner. Keep Jake and Diamond Jim in line.

    Sorry to hear you wont be their Rick. We didnt know Tom and Barb were canceling their event until Tom contacted us about coming to our event as a sponsor. We are happy to have him.

    Keeping Jake and Diamond Jim in line is not possible, Jack and I dont have enough hours in the day.

    Matt

  17. Posted · Report reply

    WOW Matt I didn't think your full-time nursing still. You have a ton on your plate, distributorship , contractors business and full-time Nurse. Did I miss anything, your a Busy guy. Oh and Instructors and School!!!!

    WOW Ron, you didn't read the post correctly, it said substitute registered nurse for police officer. The word in front of Police is retired. Therefore it would read to say... Retired register nurse. Thanks for posting incorrect information about my life here in a public forum

    Mathew Johnson

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  18. Posted · Report reply

    Honestly I think it makes no difference if you are a part timer, full timer or a weekend warrior. I think either person can contribute to the industry. Just because you are a part timer doesn't mean you do not know what you are doing. I have learned PLENTY from both full and part timers and continue to do so.

    There are many reasons why a company is only part time, maybe they are just starting out, maybe they cannot find the right help so they only take on so much, maybe they already have a full time career and can only do it part time and enjoy doing it. It makes absolutely no difference how many hours a week a person works. Whether they work 10-20 hrs or 30-40 hrs a week, it does not make them any more or less knowledgable then the next company.

    I started out as part time and that's because I already had a full time career that I loved. I accidentally got into this business and decided I loved it as well. So I was part time for five years until I retired from the Police Department. Well being part time had its privileges, I was able to juggle both and therefore able to build up to full time. If I did not retire, then I would STILL be a "Part Timer"

    Point being, maybe people just enjoy having 2 careers.

    IMHO.

    What he said!!!!

    (except substitute Critical Care Registered Nurse for police department)

    Mathew Johnson

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  20. Posted · Edited by Mathew Johnson · Report reply

    Started with a 289 dollar 2.5 gpm pressure washer, a hundred feet of garden hose and kicked in 200 bucks for the deposit on insurance policy ..... $600.00 total. I have to laugh, we had that in for the day by 11 am today. We continue to grow.

    This year we have opened "PWS Commercial Property Services". We now offer parking lot line striping and sealcoating in addition to power washing. It has exploded our schedule with new business. Businesses like being able to call just one place to provide all of thier maintenance services. We also have a painting crew to take care of thier painting needs. It is a blast painting parking lots.... big money, quick to do. We have teamed up with another line striping company for the very large projects like malls and parking garages. The customers are pleased that we can tackle the large jobs quickly and get thier lots open. We have already bid in excess of 40k in line striping for the spring.

    The expert line striper that trained and educated me and the staff is excellent. We are currently completing the curriculum for both the basic line striping school and the advanced line striping school.

    If you really want to add on a service this is a great one, much like pressure washing and wood restoration, this is a repeatable service that you will be providing and even in a lousy economy, everone still gets thier parking lots striped!

  21. Posted · Report reply

    i was wondering if ready seal is better on pretty new wood rather than a 10 yr old deck? i have been using twp for the past 6 yrs and used ready seal today for the first time. it just didnt look right at all to me when i was done. i used medium brown and it looked faded as it was drying. I was excited the local pressure washing store started stocking ready seal and now that i try it im not so sure.

    Mike, What store near you picked up stocking readyseal.

    MAtt

  22. Posted · Report reply

    The History of Pressure Washing Services DBA then to Inc,

    In June of 2003, we had our driveway blacktopped. The first week in August, I bought a "massive" power washer from Tractor Supply, it was the best machine out there (so I thought at the time) (3.5 gpm - 3800 PSI with a briggs engine. My son (13 at the time) and I were washing the driveway, he looked at me as said "I wonder if anyone would pay us to do stuff like that?" I said maybe... decided that we were going into the business. I landed my first job on labor day weekend for a house wash - I hit it big $225.00 for the wash. Our family of four went to do the job, we blew up three pressure washers and it took us a total of 2 days and 12 hours of work. That came out to almost 20 bucks an hour. I took that money and bought insurance. The rest is history.

    I found the grime scene and started doing my research and got hooked up with a guy named Tom Vogel, Started buying the right equipment, using the right chemicals. Went from using a ford ranger with all of the stuff loaded into the back - loaded and unloaded for each job. Decided to buy a trailer with money from the jobs - started with a 5X8 open, then a 14 foot open - then had to get a hot water machine to take up room on the trailer - back to ACR for a bigger machine - hense my first Hydro Tek, Went through a winter, realized that bills came all year long for a seasonal business, dumped more money into the business, next year - ditched the ranger, bought a f 150 and then a 14 foot enclosed. Continue to grow and reinvest, back to Tommy VOgels for deck sprayers and surface cleaners, Over the following years, business grew at about 50 percent over prior years sales every year - bought out two businesses, one local and one in NJ for the equipment only. Grew the fleet to add a 6X12 enclosed trailer rig designed specifically for wood restoration, then a one ton E 350 van with an additional hot water machine - Then the floods came - in the summer of 2006 we started flood cleanup with a sludge sucker and a Lowes shop vac, overnight expressed in a steel eagle recovery surface cleaner and purchased a 40 foot vacuboom system and a Nikro dual head vacuum of which we installed our own pump out. Back to Toms to buy my Hydrotek filtration system to complete our arsenal of reclamation equipment,

    A short time later, we had been helping at ACR's RT and Jack Kramer and I decided to write the curriculum for a combined wood restoration and power washing class (I had been working part time at State University of Delhi as faculty and applied many of the concepts of adult education to the program) Hense the starting of a partnership with Jack, COntractor Education Services, which we still have today provideing individual and group educational classed to contractors starting a business or looking to expand their businesses.

    Over the next couple of years the business continued to grow each year, much attributed to the marketing and branding done through KBK Graphics and Keith Bruce. I took up the hobby of buying used equipment, fixing it up and reselling it. At the same time we were getting calls from local businesses for pressure washing repairs and serviceing, we started to go out and repair them, often picking up cleaning jobs for shop floors and businesses, we started to sell machines to them through local dealers getting a commission off of the sale. The power washing entity continued to grow and in 2009 we though a contractor party - AKA The NorthEast Pressure Washing Seminar - Ended up with a great turnout and event with over 100 people from 28 or 29 states assembling in Albany with a few contractors from albany. 2009 was a great year and we continued to expand, adding an additional hot water setup, and sales to the local businesses, highway departments and school districts continued to increase. We started a distributorship and became a Hydro Tek Dealer, In 2010, my wife left her full time job and took over the majority of the Contract Cleaning Business., We added a fork lift and chemical mixing room.

    2011 - What a year - We had floods again and we did an enormous amount of clean-up, We added a 14 foot Isuzu style (GMC Logo) Box Truck and purchased a mega-vacuum system that we built out in a 16 foot enclosed trailer, We continue to grow, keeping our workforce and labor cost in check, There are many to thank along the way, from the contractors on the Grime Scene, to Beth, Tom V, Bruce S, Henry B., the list goes on and on.

    The moral of this story... pay attention to the contractors and distributors out there, there are a lot of very successful contractors on this BBS and throughout the industry who dont "eat the newbie" and truely want to see you succeed. Enlist their help with big projects, refer it to someone who has helped you, or ask for their help and take on the job, and know when to walk away from the job when necessary. Dont Low Ball the job - we will call you low ballin Rob, Dont cut rates and take a financial hit.... It will disenchant your fellow contractors and only land you in Sh&^!

  24. Posted · Report reply

    Great Question Matt, First off, I echo what Ron said about integrity. But I will also add one more word, and that is "accountability". I am accountable to my fellow BOD members, and I am also accountable to ALL members of the *****. We have 9 people that are going be on this board, everything is going to be out in the open, as Ron has told us (nominees) over and over and will demand it. Everyone is going to hold each other accountable for what we do and say. No one wants to be part of anything negative. Lastly I'll leave you with a saying I heard many years ago, and I don't mean to turn religious on anyone but it goes like this..."If I take care of my CHARACTER, God is gonna take care of my REPUTATION." And I firmly believe this.Doug

    Doug, Thanks for your response. This is an exciting time for the industry and the 9 people who will be charged with moving the org forward. I dont know you personally and I get a sense that you are a straight shooting, no nonsense type guy, as I do with many others on the ballot.

    What are your thoughts on a seated BOD member speaking positively and publicly about a vendor they use or a BBS that they like and so forth. Do you feel that it is appropriate to have the BOD title in the avatar or signature line when doing so? These questions are generated from history of the industry and how it integrates with organizations over the years.

  25. Posted · Report reply

    Just seen your from maine , your close to a distributor that has a networking event close. He also sells Hydrotek , not sure if he offers service yet but he sells the machines and has a seminar.

    I'm sure he will explain how to attend I don't have the link.

    www.contractorevents.com

    www.nationalcleaningexpo.com

    These are some other options for future events.

    Check the new York or pa event out.

    There's a group in nj that have thrown a few from time to time.

    Shout if you have other question I'm always around.

    Ron ********** text me for questions 480-522-5227 Pressure Washing Institute

    Thanks Ron, Brian is coming to the 2012 http://pwseminar.comPressure Washing Seminar

    Also, our distributorship does provide service and repair. We perform warranty work on select brands as well.

    Matt

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