Henry B.

Do you have the standard payment due upon completion of service along with the usual non payment process on your invoices? I've got collection costs, attorneys fees and all kinds of legal stuff on mine that have worked in my favor a couple of times in the past. I've only had I think 8 customers try to avoid payment over the years but I've always won in the end. I can send you a copy of mine but it's only good in Maryland. Here is the legal wording that is on my invoices. My accountant/part time lawyer came up with this and it helps a little bit on the really over due bills. This is for Maryland though and I'm sure each state has different laws. Payment due upon receipt (late fee will be assessed after 30 days) Past Dues, or any part thereof, including prior Service Charges, are subject to a 2% per month (24% per annum) Service Charge. Service Charges are computed on an average daily balance. Collection costs and/or reasonable attorney’s fees are the responsibility of the customer/client. All payments received are applied in the order of: collection costs, attorney’s fees, service charges, and past due amounts. Any remaining funds are then applied to current amounts due. I also have a collection company I can refer you if you need one. They operate much differently from the usual ones. It's normally 5-10% instead of 50% We also make notes of every phone call we make on our copy of the invoice along with times, dates and what was discussed and attach any email or written corrospondence to the invoices. We always make sure our clients are happy with the service we provided before leaving the job and, we always call our clients two weeks after doing a job to "follow up" on the service, it also acts as a reminder for the client to pay us, but we don't actually say that.

I've seen a greenish tinge to pressure treated lumber like this before. Sometimes customers think it's mildew but Rod is right, it's just the pressure treating chemicals leaching back out of the wood. Kinda like sap does with some lumber. I'm not sure if it means they didn't pressure treat the wood properly or if the lumber was too wet to accept the chemicals during the process.

Good point Ryan, Another thing to consider is if your the one out there working and your willing to work hard you can easily make 5,000 in a couple of weeks with a good setup. That's taking into consideration that your new but also that you will have a low overhead at first. I'd be willing to guess if any of us saw a rig like you want for 5,000 we would probably buy it ourselves if we had the cash. Because we know how much extra income it could make for us in just a month. Not to mention solving back log problems.

so I am hoping to find a used rig in the 5 thousand dollar range. If anyone hears of a hot water unit, on a tandem trailer in that price range, that is reasonable driving distance from Maryland, please let me know. Lou, if there was a rig like that in the area for sale someone would have baught it before it was announced. You may have to do some driving to find a rig like you want but if your getting it that cheap it's still worth it.

For all the information you asked about gutter cleaning, check out my gutter page. I've got pics, times to clean them and why and some information on repairs. Beth, I would not suggest using those gutter screws instead of nail and ferruls. When the gutters fill up with ice they can rip right through the gutter. Thats something else I need to address of my gutter page and haven't had the time to do it yet. Same thing with the sky hook gutter mounting system. They really don't work very well in this area. Your better of resetting the gutters into the rafters than using that stuff. http://www.henryshousework.com/HHW/gutters.html

I would be happy to help you out, just give me a call if you have any questions. I've been around for about 15 years now so I'm sure I could give you a few tips and suggestions that would help you out. I tried to send you a message but everytime I tried it timed out. Henry Bockman 310-353-9234 www.henryshousework.com

Hey Rod, The roundtables that you and Beth have run have been fun. The last one was by far the largest and it was great meeting Celeste and a bunch of the others. I chatted with Celeste more since we both smoke..lol I look forward to attending future round tables and I plan on running one myself in the future. I just don't think one person or company should have to do it each time when we could all gain more insight on our local power washers by having us all pitch in. Everyone should try to host one just for the experiance and to take the responsibility for holding them. Besides, with more people running them you could have more variety in the meeting places (hooters) and the attendees. Or, have them at different places (hooters) and even run some kind of theme if you like. We could even hold an outdoor event with a nice barbecue and demo our equipment by cleaning up a local park or something while we do it. We could even hold one at hooters if the ladies didn't mind. <G> man, where did that idea come from??

It's good to see that at least here on this BBS we are allowed to voice an opinion and express it freely without critisizim. He didn't mention moderators at all in his comment. I know I've been bashed a few times on various boards before also, because of some simple misinterpeting of my posts or people trying to read between the lines and finding something that wasn't even stated... It happens on every board and even this one. No matter how hard we all work to avoid misunderstandings it still happens. The best thing to do is to not take any post personally. Or to ask the poster what they meant before responding back.

Mike I'm not sure which BBS your referring to but all the power wash bbs's I know of allow anyone to ask questions and give their opinions. As long as they are done constructivly and don't attack the board or it's members personally. I know Beth would pull a post if she thought it was unacceptable also, these bbs are here for anyone to use as long as they are used for the proper purpose, instead of causing turmoil.

It looks like you all had a good time. We took my kids on a cruise last year just before thanksgiving and they had the time of their lives... Snorkeling was awesome! Where did you guys go and where did you depart from?

Why thanks Beth and Rod, I stand corrected, I guess I've tried it from faucet temperature up to 120 degrees before, maybe I'm just getting old. Or, I just don't see a reason to point out someone elses mistakes. It's nice to know your there, to correct us on every detail. I never said I was perfect. I'm just trying to help out when I can. I also want to point out that I did this experiment on my own property... Just in case someone wants to know.

Hey Carlos, I agree. Celeste is definetly a special asset to her area and power washing in general. It's pretty rare for woman like Celeste and Beth to be so involved in things like this and I think it's great that they care so much.

A trial memberships not a bad idea but think about this for a moment... PWNA membership for less than $20 a month. Is there anyone out there that has not learned a time or cost saving method worth $20 a month? I think the members of PWNA are lucky to have the advantages they have over companies like myself that started out alone in the dark ages..lol No internet, no sharing of info or help in any way. I know I'm not the only guy that started out like that either. Even the three basic tips I give out to anyone starting a company is worth $20. Let alone all the other information from the rest of you. Some of you guys have years of marketing experiance that you just can't buy.

Hey Degraffreed, We all make mistakes, the one thing that sets you apart is that you care and that you want to fix the problem so it won't happen again. A lot of other companies would just say hey, as long as they pay for it so it must be good enough..

Hey Deggra, If you used hot water to clean the deck that alone will cause the problems your having. I have used warm water on my deck for a couple reasons (testing and other) but the hottest I've ever used was 90 degrees and I never had any problems at all. If your going above 100 then you can expect problems. 130 or more and your outright begging for them. What chemicals did you use on the deck including dilution rate and also temperature of water. Lets see if we can find out what caused your situation so it won't happen again in the future. Skip the question about the chemicals, I just re read the post. I haven't used that product so I'm not sure if those are the proper uses or not. If so, I'd have to guess that the wood was pretty dried out to begin with or it was from the hot water. Can you give some more details about that?

I usually just tie off on high steep roofs. It all depends on how much the job is though. I usually try to add in the extra cost of getting a lift on some jobs, it all depends on how I feel about doing the particular job though.

I've always gotten ladder stabalizers from home depot or a roofing center. Now someone mentioned using the plastic tie things to secure the latter to the house. We use bungy cords. In some cases they can be wrapped around the stabalizer, then just use the hook around the nails holding the gutter up. Put one on each side or on in the middle of the ladder. This will stop the wind from shifting the ladder or even worse, you kicking the ladder when you step off. I saw a roofer do that a couple weeks ago with a 40' ladder. He had a guy footing the ladder but it still fell strait backwards on a car across the street. I've had my own share of falls from stupidity also and I agree with Jon, I'm always more worried about my guys than myself. I'm sure we all are in this day and age, that also shows were good managers and care about our people though!

That's definetly something to think about but it would easily work on a lot of the houses around here, except for the big mansions in potomac. Let me know if you test it out sometime and I'll do the same.

Hey Mike, We all started out new and with lots of mistakes. There's a thread on one of the bulletin boards about how we all started. I started out with a small pull around rig and an amc concord. (That's like a pinto station wagon for those that don't remember them) We all like to talk about what we have now expecially when it comes to big rigs the size of cars. (Maybe it's a guy thing) But, we all remember how difficult and painful it was to get to where we are today. Even if it's using the same setup we started with, were still kickin and cleaning. I don't think any of us intentionally mean to put anyone down for having a smaller machine, usually people are just proud of what their companies have built up to after busting their butts for such a long time. Things also don't always come across the same way online as they do in person!

Hey Rod, I'm not sure if you do this with your two gun rig but I've been thinking about running two m5's at once with mine. Then I can have two guys shooting soap on one side at a time and while the chemical is dwelling they can soap down the other side. Then go back and rinse down the first one. Have you tried it this way already? It seems like it would cut the house washing time down to almost a quarter of the other companies in our area.

My Husky (dakota) is now about 16 months old, she loves chasing all the birds and squirrels that come by for the pond..lol As for maintenance, I've got a really good filtration system for the pond so the only maintenance I have to do is clean out the filter and any dying leaves from the plants about once a month. The filter system is outside of the pond so that parts easy. Hey Beth, I've seen the torn wallpaper thing before also, it's pretty cool. My wife wants to decopauge (sp) the kids bathroom with movie quotes or something like that.. She has an interesting design style all to her own. Her ideas sound crazy to me most of the time but they always turn out looking really awesome. I'm also looking for one of the full sized arcade machines for my gameroom that have interchangable disks so you can play as many games on them as you want to pay for. I'll put the money towards my kids college fund and the extra money will go towards a new house. LOL The cool thing about the neighborhood Beth and I live in is the property values here have easily doubled since we got our house here 8 years ago. I had a freind appraise our house about 6 months ago and it came in around 485,000 I was shocked..lol I only payed 179 for it when I got it but I'm not going to complain, I put a lot of work into this house.

Hey Beth, We had that exact same wallpaper in our kitchen when we got the house. We pulled ours out and I've done some major remodeling on my house over the last 8 years. I've installed pergo style wood floors in my kitchen and family room. Built a gameroom, finished my basement, built a deck, new roof, windows, redone my office twice and this summer I built a pond. My next project is to re-design my kids bathroom and some other minor interior painting. Then I'm thinking about ripping out the master bathroom and turning it into a super bath with the 2 person jet tub, seperate shower and other things. Here are some finished pictures. (we also got a siberian husky)

I think the 120 volt systems are better from what I've heard and read. I also love being able to have some extra lighting or power when I need it!

My guys work 40-50 hours a week except for during the winter. Then we back it down to 35-40 hours a week due to the temperatures in the area. I putz around in the office working on my website and various marketing things. I also spend a lot of time meeting and speaking with other contractors, property managers, hoa's and lately some government officials. (I've got a few ideas I'm working on)

Shooting and fishing are my favorite ways to relax.