Craig

I keep getting solicited from a company called "ReportTrack." Apparently they service the PW Industries with tracking information for businesses. Do any of you use them?

Hey PW- Let's see some pics of that rig up close.. Steel Eagle has them too: http://steeleagle.com/pdf/hosereelflyer.pdf

Jeff, A low side budget house out here runs $325K. That would give you about a 1200 square foot fixer. Most houses we do run in the 4-800K, and we have several accounts which have low side houses starting in the 1.5 Million mark. My market is 20% residential and 20% Commercial and 60% New Construction. We do a lot of condos, HOA's etc. for building washing, driveway/garage/entryway cleaning and brick restoration. This month I'm really focusing on getting a night crew put together to run routes for fast food chains and restaurant drive thrus. Like I said in the earlier post, it doesn't take much work. If you make 500 calls you're likely to get about 8K in repeat business (or more). We have several accounts here with new construction and have contracts to do all of their houses. All together they have around 5000 homes going up in the next 4 years. We do the driveways, walk, entry, garages and parts of the house itself. Personally for PW'ing I like to have my guys do house and building washing. Our coating business is almost 100% residential right now. It looks like that's going to change though... I was keeping it a secret from our builders because I needed to catch up with the PW'ing stuff. They caught wind of it booked 3 jobs with more to come. They heard of it last monday. Looks like it's time to get it in gear again!

Jeff, Congratulations on your hard work! Your efforts look like they're paying off. It's miraculous in this business how a little effort can go so far. I've experienced similar results here in the Desert and I'm really happy for your success. Keep up the good work!

Beth and Rod, Thank YOU both for an organized, well run website. You guys are amazing.

I got everthing I needed DURING 2005 and I would have gotten sick if I got any more big presents for Christmas! Lets see... 2 Trucks, 3 trailers, motorcycle, quad, 2 new skids, some great contracts and a partridge in a pear tree. ...and some peanuts.

Thank you. Great to see other's proactive steps to getting business, not to mention I can use this angle where we are too. thanks!

Does anyone have an MSDS for F-18 they could share? thanks Craig Either fax to 760-347-3372 or email: crgharrison344@cs.com

Thanks Celeste.

demographics has a lot to do with it. Our homes we do range in price from $400,000 to 12M. It also seems like many contractors out here know a little about everything and a lot about nothing. Lawsuits are everywhere and you have to be very cautious about what you do. You never know when a customer will try to trap you.

It wasn't set up by me, but basically here's how it works. We have 30 different members representing approximately 30 different trades. We get together once a month on a specified day to talk about the community and what's going on. One member is responsible for hosting the get together and supply breakfast. That same member gets 15 minutes of the hour to talk about their business and what other members can expect from them. It's based on an honor system and many of us pay referral fees. The trick to making something like this work is incentive for other members. We also have only the "Best of the Best" in our network. We know what to expect from one another.

I don't deviate at all anymore either. But I have in the past. If the customer needs something other than the services I offer we have a referral network consisting of approx. 30 people that can take care of it. We are a pretty tight family and a lot of other work comes MY way because of it. Let the professionals do what they are trained to do.

With the Nikro Vacuum hooked up to the recovery surface cleaner it picks up about 90% or more of the water. I don't have to rinse afterwords because there's no dirt or water left. We do around 1200' an hour with the recovery tool, going slowly. If you go on to Steel Eagle's website you can see a video of Jim using the recovery tool www.steeleagle.com

Ours are supposed to handle the freeze/thaw cycles very well.

Jim- Look forward to seeing the afters. My partner has a grinder that we hook up to a vac system to suck up the particles. It looks like that old coating was just waiting to come up. Murphy's law always says different though.. We have a job waiting for approval that will require removal of 1/4" thick material that was improperly installed about 5 years ago. Grinding is kind of a pain but xtra $$. Let's see those pics!

Brent, It's the perfect solution and makes you a well rounded company. A contractor's license may be needed in your area. Here in CA, laws are very stiff and you really need to know your stuff. Like I said above, contact CCI. The school is minimal and you can see first hand what's involved.

Shane- Alan built my first recovery system just like he posted. I've used it for over a year now and for the money, overall performance is excellent. I'd say it's been one of the best investments I've made. Definately buy the Steel Eagle (without Deublin- mine was a headache) and 2" vacuum hose. Sometimes it pulls a little weak in the long runs but for the money, I can afford to spend an extra 15 minutes on the job. You'll also need a generator to run it. I bought a 5000 watt from HD for $700 and have used it a lot. Everything has been completely maintenance free and Alan's filter is the perfect solution for no-hassle filtration. I still think he should patent this thing. PS. I'm going to buy 2 more in the next 30 days for my 2 new units!

Carlos, gotta jump on the bandwagon here. If there's anything I can do in return just let me know. Thanks, Craig. crgharrison344@cs.com ...wait a minute, I just noticed you put them in the above post. Thanks.

Here is ours:

Yes. AC 12 and 22 are both Delco's products.

All I have used is AC 12 and 22. Works great for me. Awnings are not labor intensive and go very quickly. We charge around .60-.75/ft. Use small 8 inch strokes in an up and down motion and go crossways. We use an 8" brush from Lowes to scrub with.. it's the one with very fine bristles at the end and it's really soft.

70% Power washing 80% Restoration services 30% Concrete Coatings

Congrats, Ken. Great work!

I do coatings. Talk to Brandon at Concrete Coatings Inc. www.concretecoatingsinc.com 1-800-443-2871 Your bread and butter will be the modified acrylic cements though for patio, pool deck, driveway, entryways etc. We charge 4/ft (starting) for acrylics and 5/ft (starting) for epoxies. Then you have crack repair, grinding, buildup, general prep charges etc.

If a Contractor's License was required to operate a business I think a lot of problems would be solved. It's just way to easy to get into this business.