Rfitz

Jim Foley is right about people being the problem, I am currently using 2 products Ready Seal and Wood Defender, both are similar, here is the problem, Application and training, I have found personnally, that brushing far out weighs spraying as far as longevity and appearance, penetration etc.. Although most competetion sprays so you have to price yourself accordingly, because if I brush and roll all my decks it takes me twice as long as the competetion hence more more labor, although better better quality, and when explained in that manner most people drop the price shopping when realizing all the other companies spray 1 light coat and there gone, where as we brush and roll 2 good coats and today I think most people realize you get exactly what you pay for,,,

I have been cleaning blk streaks from gutters for years, and I have never been able to find a chem that you just spray on rinse off, it takes very strong chems like Bob's soap at Pressure-Tek, and alot of Elbow grease

I have recieved estimates on it, but so far I am getting Jacked, I pay monthly and it is REALLY expensive, over $250 a month for each employee, and frankly the customer doesnt look at it as peace of mind because it cost him money, and though it seems today everyone is looking for the cheapest price in town, on everything, Walmart Mentality, not realizing until it is too late you get exactly what you pay for, there is a small % that do expect and will pay for quality and professionalism but a very small %, it all comes down to the bottom line for most, so unfortunately I have to offer their service as well as an option so as to not to lose work, basically splash and dash if that is all they will pay for.. I know it sucks, but I have too eat too..

WOW, at least where I live the weather is more like winter than spring, I guess that is causing a very very slooooow start to kick off the 2006 Season we have over 60 bids out and hardly any customers scheduling, I guess due to the cold weather, they are just putting off outside work, and then as soon as the weather breaks they will all want their stuff done ASAP, although they should know, first come first serve, as always, and even though we always tell our customers we should be able to start their job in 1-2 weeks it actually turns out to be 3-5 weeks, becasue if you tell them that most likely they will go elsewhere, unfortunately in this business you cannot schedule customers 3-4 months out they are impulsive and want it done yesterday, yet if it would be a kitchen or bath remodeling job they would understand and wait 3-6 months no problem, I dont understand why they dont understand our business is the same as any other, we have a schedule and cannot change that schedule just for them...? Hopefully warmer weather will get here soon, so the jobs start lining up...

You are right on Jon, that is why this past year we got into remodeling homes and rehabbing then selling, and it has been awesome, to say the least.. we are now at job sites 4-8 + weeks not making as much hourly but more steady work than pressure washing at least in the 5-6 BAD months (WINTER) and I see a much brighter future especially with remodeling in the OFF months, I still love pressure washing, but I run the biggest ad in the yellow pages and thats is why so many calls and bids, however that just opens the door for bigger longer jobs in the future, I see more and more with each customer they are looking for 1 Guy / Gal to handle all their Home Improvements, and thats where I see my future, Diversification, Power washing opens the doors to so much more opportunity in the long term, People hate hiring 10 companies for 10 different projects,

I almost forgot, to mention so that we are all on the same page, and dealing with apples to apples, we do on average 30-50 bids a week during the season 7-8 months a year and get at least 4-6 decks a week and 5-10 houses a week 2-3 people including myself doing the work, now maybe some can see how coluld I possibly do everything... Maybe If I didnt have to sleep or eat...?

Jon, That sounds very interesting, and I would be more than willing to see someone like that.. If your coach has someone in this area I would enjoy talking with them.. I try and not be too negative, but I tried having a salesman last year, great person, very professional, very articulate and never tried to close anyone, just wrote up the bid and met with them maybe 50% of the time, problem was I didnt see any difference in doing that as opposed to just mailing the bid, although the year before when I was doing the selling, I ususally got 40-60% of bids to sales, but now we are too busy.. I cant do both do all the work, babysit and then go and sell all night,..? that will get someone burnt out, but out of 8-10 employees I have hired in the last few years, I have never been able to just let someone go on their own, I tried and in all cases I usually averaged 60-75% call backs (mistakes) which cost's a company alot of money so it is better in my opinion in this biz to stay small to control quality, with that being said I have to be at every job it is kind of a catch 22 deal, I know maybe in grass cutting or roofing, something very simple you could let your people go on their own, but I have found this trade way too complicated for most laborers to do own their own, which may be a good thing keeps out the competetion.. when they realize how much is really involved with our industry we could easily have a 4-5 year apprenticeship, and that may still not be enough...? Oh well, enough complaining.. Have a Great weekend

Hi Jon, Not being negative, just realistic the weather does play a big part in our business and the spring is a very important time of year for our business and people in general, it sets the tone for the year, and as far as being negative to my customers, no I cant say that I am because I never meet them in person at least until the job is started, unfortunately most Homeowners man and wife both work full time jobs and nobody is usually home when the bid is done, most at least 80-90% are at work, and they usually recieve the estimate / bid 2-4 days after they call by mail, I then according to the price of the bid follow up with a call 2-5 days after they recieve it, I never follow up on jobs less than $500 Just dont have the time, I usually am out working in the field 10-12 hours a day, and do not have the time to meet them at nite when they get home, I would have to work 16 hours a day 7 days a week to do that and that is not going to happen, I have done it both ways meeting them and mailing them and see no advantage in meeting them, unless it is a $5- $10 K job then I will meet with them.. This works for me but maybe not for everyone

This is what we do, on average we wash 1000 sq ft in 30 minutes or less, so a typical 2 story vinyl some brick home that is 2500 sq ft plus add the 2 car garage and we are around $300 House only and another $200 to hand scrub the gutters, House only, at the most 1.5 hour maybe 2 hours if I have a real new helper, add another 45 minutes for gutters and were gone, here is my formula, basically with Fuel cost and labor it cost me almost $75 just to drive to the house and the price of chems, we on average can do 4-6 of these Houses in a 10 hour day if located closely, Our minimum is $250 for anything, and we have a rule, we dont do only 2-3 sides of a house we do it all, they will still be charged for a whole house wash, so why not get your monies worth.? If your not charging at least $100 per hour and you have insurance, equip. employees, advertising you wont be in business long, unless you have very deep pockets, and you dont mind losing tons of money.. .. Keep in mind it is a long winter in most parts of the country.. And Fuel cost keep going sky high Days of the $200 house wash are long gone.. God Bless

I use to run into that same dilemma, price, price, price so many low ballers, what I do is explain they have 2 choices, option A do it very cheap, and redo it every 6 months to a year, or do it right and then only need a maint. job every 2-4 years for 1/2 the original price, when you are selling to educated people they get the picture real quick, and usually opt for a high quality job, keep in mind here the decks average $25K to $75K to build so, with that type of investment do you really want it to look like CRAP..? and they usually say absolutely not, if you present yourself professionally, you will get at least 50-60% of your high dollar deck jobs, at least I do, but I sell on Fear, of what they will be getting for that low price by the low ballers, and what they will get from us, I then I always throw in the FEAR you dont want to, be sued by a low baller that has no insurance, and falls 20 feet off your deck and breaks his neck, and that always gets them worried, but at least I am telling the truth, you have to FEAR your customers into buying from you....Fear of being ripped off, Fear of using $5.00 a gallon stain, Fear of not showing Up, Fear of doing horrible damage to their deck, home, landscaping etc, I use them all and usually get the sale, Keep in mind also 4 out of 6 companies they may call for bids will never show up, Gauranteed so even if you show up and give the bid you are 10 steps ahead from the start, Perfect example of this is I am currently rehabbing a home for a customer we did a deck for last year, basically gutting and starting new, and I am trying to get bids from kitchen and bath specialist, and remember this is a huge Job maybe worth $25K to $35K and out of 10 companies I called I got 1 call back So just showing up sets you miles apart It Works For Us....

Un fortunately, a very educated customer of mine, told me of a really bad experience he had with a PW company that washed and stained his deck in the past, anyway when I gave him my bid to redo his deck, he didnt believe me when I tried telling him all the things we would do that all the other company's (Low Ballers) wont do, he still wouldnt believe me and I said here are references etc.. check them out, he said please do not take this personnally, but you are guilty by association of being in a profession that is not all that legit or honest, so I thought for a moment and realized he was right, so all I can do after those remarks is to do 110% on every job, and present a professional image when bidding, working etc.. and hopefully that alone will grow my business, and with over 50% growth every year it is not hurting, so my prices keep climbing every year but so does the level of quality in my work...

Jim, Im not sure I follow you, but on a typical railing, if you take the height which is usually 4 ft high that includes the header under the railing times the length of the railing that is very close to the sq ft in that railing, header, spindles etc.. so if it is 20 feet long I take 4X20 = 80 X whatever my sq ft is usually $1.50 so that railing costs is $120.00 to my customer in addition to all the other measurements, my average deck over the last 4 years is 1000 sq ft

The way I measure is like this, just to keep it simple, Lets say you have a 2nd story deck which most are, and for example purposes only lets say there are no stairs and it is a simple rectangle deck 20 X 30 Floor Area, simply add 4 feet to each side that has a railing and you have your sq ft lets say it is 20 Wide and 30 Long that deck would measure 24 X 38 which comes out to approx 912 sq ft I then add another 15% on to the sq ft for post and difficulty because of being over 10 ft off the ground, If it is a typical strip, Brighten, Sand, 2 coat Sealer Job, I would charge $1.50 to $1.75 a sq ft that includes all materials labor etc.. The if it is virgin wood, never had any finish applied I would be between $1.15 and $1.25 Now remember, I am offering Sanding and 2 coats of stain/ sealer all by brush and roller, NO Spraying... So almost everything I offer to my customers, no one else in town offers, stripping, brightening, sanding, 2 coats stain brush and roll etc.. Everybody here is almost water only wash, then spray a quick coat of whatever they can find for sale at Home Depot, Lowes etc.. and usually they do all in 1 trip, so needless to say, after explaining the differences to my customers, They like and most will pay for a job well done.. Hope This Helps....

Jon, I can see your point however I am one of the other crews, so yes I am doing half the work if not usually more, maybe like 60-70% but then again I also use some part time college kids on big commercial jobs, my goal is 50-60% if not better but that doesnt seem to be happening lately, especially with the drastic increase in oil / gas prices, I know I can probably get it there, it just means increasing my prices and working more efficiently, especially when it comes to my employees, but they will never work as fast or as good as the owner, but I guess that is life.. anyway I can see doing well over $200K this year and I will hopefully net 40-50% of that, I have hired a consulting firm. and they have pointed out some very easy ways to increase the bottm line, and most of them are through more creative ways of tax filing.. For example becoming a sub chapter s corp, but we shall see... Have Great Day

Mike it doesnt matter what biz your in, these numbers and ratios apply to any biz, service related, now hen I gave overhead prices, that did not include start-up cost, that eventually has to be figured in, I know people that spent in excess of $100K to get started in this biz, Vehicles, equipment, etc.. that too has to be paid back from your take home, of say 50%..? not alot left over, and NO I do not think $50K a year is doing that great, not that great at all.. I have kids college to save for, my retirement, a nice home, nice vehicles, I was making over $50K a year 20 years ago in the printing industry, and it didnt go that far then, and even less today, I guess we all interpret differently what a nice living is..

It has been my experience that if you are running a serious PW Biz, you cant bill less than $150 - $200 K a year and still live in a decent manner, most of us work in a 7-8 month work zone, meaning we are not billing much for 4 or 5 months a year, so that leaves an average of approx. $15 to $20K per month which is not an easy task to achieve, and takes alot of work, we averaged just over $18K a month last year, but that is with expenses well exceeding the 50-60% range, which I think is high and next year I will try and cut that closer to the 40-50% overhead range and grow the biz to excess of $25K per month which is not that difficult with 2 guys and 2 rigs, you just need the work to keep them running...

With the products I now use I apply 2 coats on the Horizontals, and 1 Heavy coat on the verticles, and I average about 75 to 125 sq ft per gallon, how does application and sq ft with Wood Tux Wet compare..? and also is there only Wood Tux Wet or Both Wood Tux and Wood Tux Wet..? THX

I can say I have used the first formulation of Wood Tux, not the wet, and the product has held up well after 3 years, and if you do actually get much more coverage than my 2 mostly used stains, which I cannot mention, I would love to try it out on a few decks, since last year I used well over 1000 gallons of stain and maybe another 500 gallons of Exterior Paints, oh and also, is there any temperature restraints on Wood Tux Or Wood Tux Wet..?

The pics of the deck look great, does anyone know what the moisture content was the day they stained it..? also, how does one justify the cost of almost double my leading sytains I currently use..? I know I would have to pass this on to the customer, but bottom line is I tell my customers at the going price I now charge I tell them they will get on average 1-3 years on the Horizontal surfaces and 2-4 years on the verticles, but this keeps my residual income coming in for years to come, now If I tell my customers it will be say for example an extra .50 to .75 cents a sq ft for a Product like Wood Tux however they will gain an extra year or two on their finish, who in the long run loses..? I think it will be the contractor.. Me...? Unless I am missing something, My most profitable service I offer is maintenace on decks, no going to do the bids, no time trying to sell the job, I use half the soap, and half the stain, no sanding, etc.. but yet I charge on average 70% of the original price, for not even 50% of chemicals and labor on maintenace jobs..? Just thought I would ask..?

As far as the 1 trip method, I think that maybe exaggeration..? I think they actually mean damp, not immediately after washing with puddles of water standing on the wood, I think what the manufacturer means is say on a very warm windy day, you may be able to return 4-8 hours after washing and apply wood Tux to damp wood not soaking puddling decks, this should be clarified, and Jarod I am with you Oil and water do not usually mix, and I do emphasize usually, I have not tried this product, so I cant say for sure..??

I am very confused as well, is this a oil based product or a water based sealer..? is this a latex, acrylic, combo..?

Unfortunately in this biz or any seasonal business, it is tough to survive on 7-8 months of business, I have realized that in order to survive you better have a damn good winter paying job like $75-$100 an hour job, or another biz that makes up for the 4-5 months a down time, not to mention the 2-3 slow months we all experience in the active months, july, august etc.. because some of us actually have insurance, yellow pages bills , etc.. that come every month regardless if you have business or not, so it doesnt suprise me much to learn that most if not all of my competetion, doesnt carry liability insurance, yellow page advertising, automobile insurance, work comp etc.. so when they are out there doing bids against real companies like mine, they dont have to include in their bids the overhead that I carry all year, it is at no suprise why they can undercut my prices by 25-40%, when maybe next year they may be doing roofing, or grass cutting, or landscaping because they dont want to go back and fix 50% of the wood restoration jobs they screwed up the year before, and are getting alll those wonderful call backs, and the customer that rejected your bid and went with the low baller finds out how much more it now is to fix his deck the part timer screwed up, and now blames you and says why should I pay you double what I had it done 6 months ago for..? But now looks like sh$%#@&^%$# Ahhh, the wonderful biz of pressure washing, wood restoration,

X Jets use to high of pressure, and take to long, I use 0040 and 0050 downstreaming and it blows xjets away 3000 sq ft houses in under 45 minutes or less ?

The Original post is great, but then comes reality, and that is you will do all the hard work, and then they go and get 5 competitive bids, abd then you realize you are SOL, WHY BECAUSE, PROPERTY Managers see your point but they will not pay what it really cost's to make it look good, they care, about one thing, lowest price regardless about quality they could care less so you do all the leg work and they end up hiring a painter, janitor etc.. that will do it for 1/4 of what you bid it at, if yoyu arent the lowest bidder you dont have a prayer .. Sorry to bust your bubble, but that is the truth, and at the price most commercial places are willing to pay, you wont make more than maybe 10-15 dollars an hour after expenses.. HARDLY WORTH IY..???

You only need 10% from your downstream injector, in order to remove all mold dirt etc.., as long as you are using 12% or stronger bleach / chlorine, because 1-2% chlorine / bleach will kill all mold if let to dwell 2-5 minutes at or above 50 degrees surface temp. also, dont use cheap soaps, dawn, dove, shampoo etc.. they are junk, get high quality high concentrated soap from places like pressuretek. com, or the like and use 1 gallon soap to 4 gallons of water when down streaming along with 3 gallons of bleach etc.. and with this ratio you will leave the house, building etc.. looking brand new, we wash well over 300-500 homes a year we get about 8-1 ratio with both our machines when downstreaming, if you need to know where I get mine, which are the best on the market email me and I will let you know.. and it always works well for us...:lglolly: