Henry B.

Hey Carlos, If you don't mind, can you send me a copy of it also? My fax is 301 353 1677

Hey John, there have been a few companies in this area that started out bidding a dollar a foot also.

Start a poll about cookies, I thought you were asking for recipes? Here's one you should enjoy it's fairly easy too. If you need help with any other recipes or polls, let me know Beth, I'd be happy to help. INGREDIENTS: 1 cup butter 1 1/2 cups white sugar 1 1/2 cups brown sugar 4 eggs 4 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 5 cups semisweet chocolate chips 2 cups flaked coconut 2 cups chopped almonds DIRECTIONS: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F Grease cookie sheets. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until well blended. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips, coconut and almonds. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from oven Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool

But what sets us apart from the lowballers? Professionalism? Ethics? Morals? Common sense? The way we progress in business and grow? I think the things you listed above are exactly what set us apart from the rest. I've never seen a lowballing company last more than two years. They either learn from their mistakes or the can't pay their bills and go under. Beth, you mentioned having other companies trying to find out what you charge, your not the only one! I've had many people call up asking how much I would charge for a 200 square foot deck and list more details about the job than the average joe would know. The funny thing is, I have caller ID so once I tell them I have to see the job before I can give them a proper estimate, I give them a call back. I usally pretend that I had another question for them or couldnt find their street in the map but most of the time I don't worry about it. Expecially when they answer the phone as xyz powerwashing can I help you? LOL The funny thing about this is knowing your competitors square foot price won't do you any good. For example, if you measure a deck and it's 11' 6" do you go up to 12' or do you go with the actual measurement. Plus you have to take into consideration any stains on the deck or previous sealers. Lattice, number of steps and also railings and pickets. Some guys price pickets at $1 each some do the actual square footage of each picket. See what I mean? We have basic square footage prices that we use as a base, that's it. Depending on the conditions, time to completion and in some cases the customers attitude the price may be adjusted. Remember that guy I asked you about a few weeks ago that wanted me to look at his wood siding and see if it needed done again? I priced it at my usual rate then quadrupled the price... I don't think I have to worry about him calling anytime soon. If he does, I'll set him up for my next available appointment (if the temperatures hold) on December 6th 2006.

If your planning on getting a cargo van to put this in I'd suggest chevy. The ford brake systems suck pads big time. I change my pads on two of my ford trucks every 10,000 miles. My chevy is doing great and it's a lot more comforable to ride in. If you have water on every site, I'd just put in a small float tank. Why carry 100 gallons of water if you don't have to? It will also save room inside the van. Beth and Rod's pickup setup is pretty nice looking and effeciant but I'd use a bigger sized truck so the brakes and suspension won't get worn out so quickly.

I've got a two gun rig so what I usually do is use one of my high pressure lines for my shurflow pump and cap off the open port on the regulator. I very rarely use my shurflow pump though, even when I'm doing roofs, I just use pool bleach and an x jet. I'm looking forward to getting the new m5 when the season opens. I didn't see much sense in buying one in the winter.

Hey Mathew, If you got together with Ralph sometime you could probably teach him a few tricks and between the two of you, you could raise the bar a bit in your area and that would probably drive the prices up a bit also!

Hey Newheights, I'm sorry about that, now that you mention it I recall you saying you did new construction. Your right, there is a LOT tighter market and pricing in those situations. I've got a buddy of mine that works for a construction company and he told me what they were paying the company they have. I think he charges 100 a house including the garage and all flat surfaces. There's money in it and it's year round so it's not a bad deal if you like it. I just wasn't interested since the development he runs is in Virginia, about 90 minutes away.

I keep very close track of my unit cost to do a job and know exactly where my price points are, my service quality stays very high, and my guys don't want to go with anyone else. If someone comes in and offers say $10 lower per house, the quality and reliability is going to save me, $15 or more lower and they may go for it, but I know I'd be back because there's no way to make any money that low. JD, Are you saying if you lowered your price by $20 or $30 bucks you wouldn't make any money?? I could drop my prices by a $100 and still make a profit after all expenses and overhead. You must live in one tough area man! My chemical, labor and fuel cost for each house is around $50 at most.

Hey Celeste! I'll take half of those if they are too many!

That's what I was trying to say in that 15 page post of mine..lol One of these days I'll get better at putting out what I'm trying to say in print. I can do it fine in person but on a computer I suddenly have a problem!~ Thanks Celeste!

I'm the same as alan, my supply line is 150' long and I carry an extra 150' in each van. Our high pressure lines are 250' for each reel and I we carry an additional 150'. You never know what your going to end up with some days. I've done decks on townhouses that you have to have 300' of hose to reach. Either that or drag a pull around unit with you.

Hey Carlos, your right, having a certificate won't change pricing variations between companies. But, it will show that the person has the training and experiance to do the job properly. That's what counts in the end result. No I would not consider any of them to be lowballers. They are charging what they feel their service is worth considering their overhead. Now, why is the cheapest guy charging less if he has all the same expenses and overhead.. Maybe he thinks that's a fair price? Maybe he thinks why should I charge more just because the customer "might" pay it? I've seen prices like that before in this area, usually in the heavy season then it comes out to what the market will pay. Maybe the lowest guy is booked for 3 weeks of work and the others are booked for 4 weeks. When the jobs start flying in faster than you can do them everyones prices usually go up. Most homeowners won't wait 4 weeks for a housewash so they end up paying more for it than they would in during the slow season. It's all a balancing act really when your in season, do each job the best you can but also as fast as you can and move to the next one. Another thing to consider is do I bid the job fairly so they will become my client in the future everytime they need powerwashing or do I bid it high and let it fly?

I agree with the apprentice thing and also what Celeste said earlier. But, let me approach this from another angle. When I started out my company, I had no business plan, marketing strategies and all the other stuff many of you have mentioned. I started out with under $50 and a ladder that I borrowed from a buddy. I had no idea about running a company the only thing I knew was attention to detail (navy) I just plain busted my butt for the first three years and did everything I could think of for my clients. I did handyman work, plumbing and many other things. Slowly I gained more skills in marketing and being able to read people and used those skills to sell jobs. I used my simple high school education and I never went to college. The only non high school training I had was learning how to blow up things and people. (navy again) I gained my customers respect and loyalty by doing a great job for a fair price. My pricing structure was based on what the market would pay and how good and fast I was at doing things. Was I a low baller? well in some cases I might have been but I did what I had to do in order to survive and pay my bills. It would be nice to be able to sit here and say I never low balled anything but it's not true, you do what you have to just to get by and you learn from your mistakes so it doesn't happen again. I spent quite a few winters getting a part time job or working for peanuts to do that all over again. As you gain knowledge and experience your prices go up and the time it takes you to do the job goes down. When I was busy, my prices went up a bit until the work slowed down to a point that I could handle it. If work is slow because another low baller has started up I can match his prices and beat his quality of work and upsell on other things if I want to. The difference is I'm faster, my quality is much better and I'm a one stop shop. Plus I'm also one hell of a salesman. My clients use us for a variety of services, not just power washing and in today's market and weird climate changes you have to be adaptable. I can compete with the local low baller doing decks for $200 bucks easily if I want to and probably run them out of business. If you think about it the biggest difference between a low baller and a non lowballer is the quality of their sealer when doing decks. The more knowledgable contractor does the job better using chemicals and less pressure or hard work. If you educate the customer on what will happen with the thompsons sealer they are planning to use. Then tell them about your sealers that usually sells the job for you. But, if the customer wants the cheaper sealer it's their choice and their money to maintain it more often. I simply won't use thompsons but there are other low priced sealers out there that clients prefer. Then it just becomes a matter of doing the job better and faster than the lowballer and outperforming by volume. How do you I that? Were twice as fast at what we do and I've gained so much hands on experience from doing such a variety of things. Most of the lowballers don't have the knowledge to get the quality we can and their equipment is substandard so it takes them twice as long. I can make a spray on rinse off house wash agent to do an entire house easily in under 2 hours and still make money if I drop my prices in the lowball range of 150-250 bucks for it. The lowballers are using strait pressure instead of being smart and using the proper chemicals so it takes them almost an entire day. I can do three or four houses in that amount of time and so can almost anyone that has the knowledge. I'd rather have a price fight and make $800 a day working smarter instead of sit on my butt and say how I'm too good to do that. Do I like doing jobs that cheap? Hell no! But, sometimes you just have to do what it takes to keep your guys working. In winter my guys are out there working instead of sitting in the unemployment office looking for another job. They know to keep their eyes open for extra work so they can have work to do and make a commission for the sale. Everything my company does we do faster because we work smarter, not just harder. I don't drop my prices down to meet the lowball and win the job but I know that I can do it and still outlast them all if I have to. To me that's a successful business doing what it has to do in todays market but of course everyone has their own opinion. Some people want to get rich and make millions. Being in business for over 15 years I've made millions, just not all at once.. I prefer to keep my life the way it is, I'm not rich but if I want something, I have the money to buy it. Does that make me a low baller? If so thats fine, I'm a happy low baller and I made over 10 grand in gross sales this week and its winter here! I also know that I took care of my customers and didn't overcharge anyone just because I could. (I'm not saying anyone on this thread does) Most of the lowball I've meet get every dime they can. We may have a different class of lowballers here or perhaps they should just be called scam artists that charge far more than they should for the lousy job they do. Some of them charge more than a legit company would and get it, they just do a lousy job. Most, just lack the knowledge to do it properly and they tend to work harder instead of smarter. I think the DC area is just strange after all, who would vote a crack addict into public office twice? Owning your own company is the American dream after all, but most people don't understand how much work is involved in it!

I charge by the style of the house and if we can safely walk the roof or not.

Hey Mike, They are too difficult to install at all depending on the design of the gutter system that is. I just like them because they are in a price range that normal people can afford and they work really well compared to the hardware store junk and the expensive high end systems. Some of those can run as much as $17 a linear foot.

Hey Vandiesel, Your correct, they are called waterfall gutter guards. They just came out with an improved design also. I personally prefer these to many other brands out there that work through water adhesion. If anyone has any questions about gutter guards you can always ask me. I've been doing gutterwork for over 15 years now and I've tried just about every guard system out there. Mike, the foam ones work just as well as plain old wire mesh screen types that come in rolls, Lousy. But that's just my opinion. Any type of screen that doesn't work on the water adhesion principle will usually hold debris and clog up or hold debris on top so water runs over the debris onto the ground. This can easily flood basements. When temps get cold enough they will hold some moisture and freeze. For more information on gutter guards, check out this page on my site. http://www.henryshousework.com/HHW/gutter_guards.html I don't distribute products, I only sell them and install them for my clients, so my comments are not biased to any particular product.

Hey Shane, I only normally offer one brand of stain mainly because I don't want to deal with having so many brands with all their colors. I don't use store baught stains, I haven't found anything that I like that much. Beth, your right, I don't travel for residential jobs. If I do they have to be a real good sized job or a rental property at the beach. I do a few of those and I also have a client in Atlantic city that I've done a few years. (rental property) We do travel for commercial work though and if it's big enough I'll rent a hotel room for a few days and stay in the area until its completed. The gutter cleaning job i'm doing in Towson will take one day and its for a bit over three thousand. Another plus is there's a company in that area that's been wanting to see how we do gutter cleaning so they can add it to their list of services so they will be meeting me out there to watch. it's 630am now, and time for me to roll.

If I can make it through the next couple of days I'll be fine. I've got a complex in Towson to do tomorrow and another complex in Gaithersburg. Once these are out of the way I'll take the rest of the week off and let my guys finish what they can of the work load. Temps are starting to drop so it's going to make gutter cleaning more difficult but I've got to get these people taken care of regardless of how I feel. My call volume is starting to drop down to a more manageable level finally. We got about 60 calls over the weekend but it beats 100+ a day. How cold is it in Ohio in March? I'm already looking forward to some warmer weather!

Jim, I hope things get better for you and your family. From what I've seen and heard about you, your a hell of a guy and we all miss your input.

I'm feeling pretty lousy right now so honestly talking about oils doesn't sound all that fun..lol I believe it's important to know the basics of the products I'm using in case cleints have questions about them. honestly, my clients trust my judgement and use what I reccomend if they can afford it. I usually choose a sealer by reputation, ease of use and quality versus price. As for what's in the product itself, it doesn't matter that much to me as long as it works well and meets my requirements and expectations. They could add ketchup to if if they wanted and if it met my requirements and expectations it wouldn't matter what they put in it. I am by no means a walking dictionary when it comes to the makeup of the sealers I use. Many of the clients I talk to don't want a breakdown of the product and when I start rambling on about its contents their eyes kinda glaze over. Or worse, they think I'm talking down to them. My clients hire me for the results I can give them, not for my expansive chemical knowledge of my products so as long as it works well, I just keep it simple. I'm an expert on deck restoration and every other type of service my company performs and thats what they call me for, not for product knowledge. If they want to know more about the product than I can tell them, they call, email or browse the web for the manufacturer or distributer. That's only happened once and I got the job, even though I wish I had not, they turned out to be very difficult clients that constantly second guessed everything I did even though I followed the exact procedures on the can. I've found out that there are some people that you just can't make happy no matter what you do and I avoid those types whenever possible.

Okay so you want to know what I believe the most important ingredient in a sealer is. I know what I would like the sealers I use to do but since I'm not a chemist and I don't make sealers it would be a bit difficult to list what ingredients make the best sealer. But, I'll give it a shot by listing some of the ingredients and properties of sealers I've used. semi transparent non linseed oil based sealer (paraffinic oil usually) Non film forming Penetrates deeply into wood. Containing over 75% solids preservative based sealer that exceeds ASTM-D3274 testing for the control of mold growth. Prevents mildew growth for 2 years. Contains Zinc as a mildew preventative. (zinc borate I think) Ease of application, (spray able) won't show lap marks, runs or drips. Can be used on all types of wood not just pressure treated, and cedar. (some brands won't work on some types of exotic hardwoods.) Prevents UV damage for at least 2 years. Does not have to be stripped before it can be reapplied for maintenance coats. 150 square foot minimum coverage per gallon. Unfortunately you get less square footage on the higher penetrating agents but it's worth it in my opinion. Product and finish won't be affected if it rains a couple hours later. High flash point (I smoke..LOL) Very low odor (some products really stink) Comes in a variety of colors and container sizes. Easy cleanup fast drying time History, I want to know how long the product has been on the market and it's results in different climates. I want it to have been in use for at least 5 years. Can be applied in temps as low as 45 degrees.

Quality, price, ease of use and ease of purchase.

We carry two million on everything. Some of the contracts we do require it.

That would be house washing...LOL Unless of course I decide to start selling hose cleaning services to my clients. it would be worth the look i'd get to try it though!