Scott Stone

Afghanistan is not a desert. It is mostly mountains, and very steep mountains and valleys.

I loathe political threads, because anyone that is posting on these boards never knows the complete story.

They showed his van, but I could not make out the name on it. He is a far braver/foolish person than I am.

Which is counter to every car I built with my somes. They were ungly, but boy, were they slow. A tradition fo rour family, if you finish at the bottom, you get teh DQ award. (Dairy Queen)

I think that this question would be better phrased as, do you believe in professional organizations? It would give a better Idea of what is involved.

As a disclaimer, I voted yes on the poll, but, I have never been a member of a pressure washign organization. There are a couple of other organizations that I am a member of, but they bring actual value to my business.

Ditto that, as for the IRS.. Bring it on. Nothing is declared, unless there is a receipt. We love our accountant.

When I am doing concrete, I use muck boots. Well worth every penny. When I am doing fleets, I use Bogs low tops. I am a fashion plate of rubber shoes.

Pricing is a curious thing. I sit here looking at what others are charging and then scratch my head and wonder what it all includes. Just as important as pricing is cost control. If all your revenue stream is going out the door in chemicals, repairs, doo dads and the newest, latest, greatest thing, it does not do you much good. In the interest of full disclosure, I do not do decks. I do not even know where there is a deck in my area. The sun here is so intense it eats them up and they are junk within about 2 years. I do a variety of pressure washing. I figure up what my guys are costing me, and keep that at 25% of revenue. I try to keep my overall margin at 45-50%. I have had other people tell me I am crazy for wanting such a large margin, but, I can get it, and it pays my personal bills. There are a lot of related industries that figure their margins at 10%. At that rate the hassle cost of doing business puts it on the "not worth doing" end of the spectrum. So, what it boils down to is, you need to figure up what your costs are going to be, and adjust your rate accordingly. You do not need to figure out what your rate should be, and then try and work out the costs. BTW, your rate should always be at least 50% higher than what you anticipate at first blush.

I never carry cash. ;) If they ask why, I tell them it is because I do not like having homeless people asking for money. I have been known to give money on occasion. One time I was cleaning something, and a bum was sleeping behind it, but his bottle was in front. As part of the service I threw the bottle away. It was something that I always do. That woke him up and he was complaining that I tossed his bottle. I was in a particularly good mood, and so I gave him $5. You would have thought he won the lottery. He could not get to the store fast enough.

Barrett gets 10 % over the top bid. They do not really pay any substantial rentals for Westworld, which is their venue. They are very profitable. I grew up around the corner from Russ Jackson, before he was incredibly wealthy, and retired. He started with a carwash and collected old '50's era cadillacs. He also had a detuned indy car that he used to drive around the block. It was really cool to a ten year old. Probably be cool to a 46 year old, too. The funny thing is the front of his house always seemed to be a mess. Landscaping in disarray, and overgrown. Just an interesting sidelight, now, back to your regular thread...

Wash guys is out of business. Seems that they had some FTC fraud problems. The owner of them was a piece of work, as well. They did build nice trucks, though, and I think that they have no more than one or two franchisees that are still operating. There are a lot of other stories that go with them, but it no longer matters. Sparklewash, They used to have a franchisee in my area, but it went under about 7 or 8 years ago. The owner tried to go it without the franchise, but ended up folding that business and landed in the adult entertainment industry owning his own strip joint. I do not know how that is working out for him, but my guess is that he is getting the rewards he was looking for.

I wasn't looking at that. They do look kind of ugly. However, if the plungers or pistons are cracked, when you remove the nuts, you will know for sure. They usually crack all the way through.

What Paul said. Stick your pinky down the hole to pull on the brass piece. It imght take a bit of work, but it should come out. If it is real bad, and hard to get out (warning: This is not the official recommended tool, or method. Do it at your own risk) You can use a Pipe nipple remover. The inside of the brass is not a pressure fitting. You will want to be very careful because you do not want to damage the inside of the brass ring. It does make it easier to get out, though. There is also a tool you can buy to remove packing. I used to have one, but, it got tossed by someone that did not know what it was... Once you have the packing out, you will want to keep at least one of them in the order the pieces came out, so you will know how to put them back together. When you are putting them back together, there is one section that will be a pressure fit into the brass ring. Make sure that this part is seated fully. There are usually brown and black rings. The black rings help the brown rings keep their shape when the pressure is on. I usually put a black ring down the hole and then install the first brown ring. You will need to work this ring in to make it fit. It is a very tight fit, and almost will look and act like it is too big for the hole. If you put it in so that one side is in the hole, and gently work it in, it will go. (Same Warning as above) You can sometimes use a small screwdriver, with the flat edge against the edge of the seal or ring, to help work it in. You really really really have to be careful if you do this so you do not damage the ring. After this first ring is installed, go ahead and reinstall the brass pieces into the hole in the same order that they came out. The last brass piece will also be a tight fit, but it will go in. Make sure it is fully seated, as well. When you put the head back on, it might have a hard time going on. This is because of the seal. You do need to work it on slowly and evenly to avoid problems. Make sure that all the bolts are tightened down properly. I also go ahead and change the valves under the caps and especially the orings that the valves sit on. Tighten everything up, hold the trigger gun open as you start the machine and reset the Unloader. Piece of cake.

My experience with comet pumps is that the packings are exactly the same as the general pumps, to the point of being interchangeable. SO you would od it the same way. As for parts, you should be able to get them from all the usual suspects.

You have gotta read "the millionaire next door". It outlines this perfectly. So often the guy that has all the toys doesn't have any money, but does have a lot of debt. Those things need to be taken into account. As for this thread, that has nothing to do with it. When it comes to training in this industry or any industry, you will always need to take multiple classes in order to develop your own personal technique. No two people or companies are going to have the same routine. So, in order to be most effective, you are going to need to learn from as amny different peple as you possibly can. Even a brand new guy might come up with a good idea, but I would not bank on following his routine to the letter.

And this is amazing, in the time to type my last post, there were four more posts. You created a bit of excitement Tony.

And then there are the contractors that have been in business that are self proclaimed industry leaders that I would not give two cents for their company or any work they perform and there are others that have far less time in the industry that I think truly have the knowledge that I would want to tap.Sometimes they have a specialized knowledge that I can find no where else. For what it is worth, my opinion is well known on the PWNA. I feel that their original goals, and intentions have been so subverted and misdirected that they are more about training classes and making money for the organization that "bid" on the training programs that they are a shell of the former organization, and since I am being so blasted open and honest, I think that the organization no longer cares about the whole industry but it only cares about wood care. In my neck of the woods, that would be a waste of time. We don't even have wood fences.

The best thing you can do is your own research and figure out where you want to be. With the federal governement, you need to figure out a way to establish the contact with the purchasing agents because many of the prime contracts are never bid out, because they fall below the value that needs to be bid. If you want the large contracts, you need to go to Federal Business Opportunity and do a search. There is also a notifier that you can sign up for to have projects that might fall under your SIC codes emailed to you. Getting with the Feds is a long process, but once you are in, and perform, they are pretty good about taking care of you. There are a lot of flakey contractors that often get these bids.

Since I do nto consider myself in any one particular field, and since I do use my sons to help me in my business, and I do not run a huge fleet of trucks, I might not be qualified to post an opinion here. I do have a few pet peeves with the bulletin boards. 1. There are a few new guys on all of the boards that are just buying their equipment, that just a few short weeks later are complaining about low ballers and hacks. Some of them, do not have a leg to stand on. I love watching some of the internet guru's self destruct, as they copying and pasting the answers others that might, or might not, have the experience to give an educated and proven response. 2. Often people will just come to the boards to get advice, adn not to be part of the community. Many times, I will not respond to someone that I am not familiar with. Call it a personal bias. I would prefer to help someone that I might know, even if they are being covered by the anomynity of the internet. 3. I get so tired of people assuming that since that is the way it is done in Florida, that is the way it must be done in Arizona. We don't have mildew. In the life of my business I have encountered only a minor mildew problem one time. That was last week. Because of this, I can seldom get 10 cents a foot for anything, and I certainly cannot get it for a 750,000 sq. ft. parking garage. But I also can often get in and out of a parking garage of this size in less than a week with one rig, so, am I really low balling? 4. Just because you cannot accomplish something does not mean someone else cannot do a project of the same size at a much higher rate of productivity. Most of my work is under contract for at least a 5 year period. I have plenty of time to try and figure out how to make it work, and since I have this long a period under contract, I am very willing to spend what I need to in order to make a job both much quicker, and more profitable. 5. There are a lot of people offering training. Some are doing it for profit, some are not. I have been approached many times with offers to let me train people. So far, I have not found one that is appealing to me. I do not have a problem teaching people how to do things, and I do believe in training, but a lot of what is needed to be successful in this business is what I consider to be common sense. Of course then, common sense is not so common anymore. 6. Everyone seems to want to get into this business is intent on hanging out in the office, doing estimates and letting employees do the work. I guess in many areas of this industry, that is possible. All of my customers are industrial and governmental, and so that is not in the cards. My customers love it when I am on the job, and am able to answer any questions. There is nothing better than to have a customer that I do other work for come up at a job I have just taken over and to be told how happy he is to see my truck on the job. 7. I spend an inordinate amount of time on this site and others. I have seen a lot of people that have supposed expertise, simply due to the volume of posts. I have nothing against someone making themselves known. It seems though, that new guys are more than willing to listen to an internet presence more than true experience. I guess this is similar to above. My rant is done. I guess that is why I am reluctant to talk about anything on these boards. There are two many electron cowboys that want to run me through the mud because they do not agree with me.

Oh, that makes sense then. I was beginning to wonder what you do to that poor machine...

Isn't this your second pump you have had? Kind of curious. I wonder what you are doing different? I haven't ever had a pump do that, yet.

I use 100 foot lengths. The joint is a pain, but at least if one hose blows, we can keep working in most instances.

I work. Of course, there is not much of a chance of cabin fever. I usually always have fifteen things hanging over my head.

Curious, I have ahd a minimum of 450 gallons on each of my rigs for about 10 years now. I have never once broken an axle, or had the trailer become disconnected. I do have pay attention to the spring hanagrs, because they will wear over time, and when I ran 7000 lb trailers I broke a spring or two, but never an axle.