Henry B.

If there are no overhead costs you would make about $135 in profit. The question is, how long would it take you to do it? Judging by your information one of my crews could do that job in under an hour easily. But your equipment and experiance will make a huge difference. I've got a two gun 8 gallon per minute rig on the job with two guys to operate it and your not paying anyone but yourself and it may take you a few hours if you don't have the right tools. There are so many variables in this I wish I could give you a better idea than that. I would be happy to explain the fastest process for doing it also and so will many others on the boards. Do a search on house washing to learn the techniques, or give me a call if you like I'm sure I can give you quite a few tips.

It all depends on your overhead costs.. insurance and licenses vary everywhere. One guy could make a profit of 40 an hour another could make 135 an hour.

It's hard to participate in something when you don't know what your talking about.. I'll check back in for the general announcement when ya make it.

Sorry if this is a business thing I'd thought you would just say it. I thought you all were just drinkin a bit and being silly and messing with our minds...After all, what would any normal guy think when two ladies post something like this..lol It should be in the mind in the gutter thread..LOL I had fun at the roundtable though.

I'll guess! LOL I'm guessing two more pages before you tell us that you and celeste are running off together..LOL Just kidding.

Sure rush on out there and buy the equipment... BUT. Do you have any idea what to do once you get it? Do you have insurance in case someone sues you for everything you own? Do you have a license and is it required? What are you going to clean? Do you have any experiance? Do you know what to charge? I could add another 50 similiar questions but these are pretty important. If you like give me a call and I'd be happy to go over each item with you and much more.

Hey Duane, Test you? I think your regular day job may be shining through a bit..lol I'd send you a spread sheet on pricing but we generally price a job by the job so it wouldn't mean anything you to. Plus pricing could be completly different even 30 miles from where I live.

Hey John, There was one guy that did want to delete any mention of his name and his posts.. I didn't mean everyone felt that way. I completly understand how you feel though, I was hoping they would just start enforcing the bbs rules more than they had. Or change it so all moderators could pull a post if necessary. Who knows, maybe they will give things a bit of time to cool down then open it up agan, I really don't know. I wonder how everyone would react if they did that though, would people hold onto a grudge or would they put it in the past and just forget about it?

Why are you asking me Ron? You and Beth are the ones that mentioned some big thing..So what's the deal your talking about? I just thought it was interesting!

Vinyl siding is Vinyl siding and grease on a hood is just as fating here as it is there. I'm not sure if I would be so quick to agree with this. Each area has it's own problems due to climates and the type of soil. Some areas also have acid rain and pollution problems so the chemicals if not the process will very depending on where you operate. The PWNA isn't going to have some sudden dramatic death, they may lose a few members over this but there are some interesting things in the future that may cause everyone to think twice about the PWNA. I'm not trying to start an argument here but it sounds like some may think the only decent content for the bbs came from the public. Sorry, I have to disagree. Did the public give a lot of content, experiance and information? Hell yeh but at the same time we all willingly posted on the bbs knowing that what we posted became part of the BBS. For those of you that may want to remove all the posts you made on the BBS because of a policy change, I just think that's silly, what have you personally lost? Am I happy the BBS was closed to the public? No, but I wasn't really happy with all the comments and attacks from people. I've seen people who acted like they were being taken for a ride when the fact of the matter is, they didn't pay for the ride in the first place like some of us have. Would it be a smart move for people to cancel their membership because the bbs closed? What would it solve but to make a statement or turn yourself into some kind of martyr. Sorry, I don't see how doing that would be a smart business move. Personally since I paid to be a member, I plan on enjoying the ride as long as I can and using what I've learned on the BBS and from other PWNA members to take my business where I want it to go. Does that make me better than everyone else or a bad guy? I don't think so I just think it makes me a smart businessman, after all the money is already spent and so far I've gotten much more from my membership than I spent to join. So, why leave if it's working for me?

Hey Carlos, I was on the USS America working with an f-14 squadron as an aviation ordinanceman, I got out in 89.

I never said having a license made someone better at what they do, it's just the law in some states. Your either legal or your not legal but it doesn't have anything to do with actually knowing how to do the job. Just if your legally supposed to be doing it or not.

As long as it doesn't reach the sewers or the natural bodies of water in the US your in compliance. Unless your area has different rules added on to that. In my area I am compliant and I'm sure the rest of the guys that do residential work here are. In many cases you can also do commercial depending on where the water is running off too. But you do have a point, people still break laws but at least having some requirements are better than having none at all right? Or would you prefer anyone can join even if they are fly by nighters that trash property every day?

Hey Howard, I'd mentioned licenses because here in Maryland were we live it's the law if your sealing decks, you have to have an MHIC license. I also think if an org is trying to raise the bar of the industry, it's members should have the bare basics for running a legal business. Sorry, I still feel that way to protect us and our clients, it's just the right thing to do even if it's not popular.

Hey Carlos, I'm expanding into commercial work. Next week I'm doing a shopping center thats interested in a maintenance contract. I'd give you a call but I don't have your number. If you like, email it to me at henry@henryshousework.com or just give me a call on my cell. 240 274 0300

Hey Carlos... How about shooting one my way while your at it? LOL Your going to get a lot of requests for this. I made a post a while back offering some stuff and 6 months later I'm still getting requests for it. If you have it in email format it will save you hours of long distance faxing charges... My email is henryshousework@comcast.net My fax is 301-353-1677 Thanks!

Hey Ryan, If your interested in selling it, let me know. I've been planning on getting a new one myself. How would yours compare to the bad boy 30" model?

Okay how about this... dollar for dollar, what is the best surface cleaner out there? What's better the standard 2 bar or multiple bar units?

Carlos, The oil has to be changed in them? lol My first pull around washer I had for 14 years and I only changed the oil in the pump once. The engine oil, probably 3 times. The thing still runs great too but I gave it to a buddy of mine last year. He's constantly changing the oil on the thing so it will probably die from shock..lol

Hey Lou, I stopped by and took a look at the rig today, he's a nice guy that's got a good reason for selling out. It has nothing to do with business or bad equipment. Give me a call tomorrow if you like and I'll answer any questions you have. Since your only about an hour away I'd suggest taking a look at it yourself if your seriously thinking about buying it.

Hey Cujo, There's nothing to be sorry about, I knew what you meant so don't worry about it.. Even if I didn't agree it wouldn't bother me but, don't think I'm not interested just because of my comments. There is always another way to do things and in some cases the Deckster and hurricane brush would be much better than what were using now. I'm always interested in hearing what works for other people and there's always something new coming out that I may not hear about... Post away and share your knowledge and experiance!

The sprayers we use now will do about the same on fences if not a tiny bit faster. But they do have advantages and disadvantages. They hold a lot of sealer, you don't need power to use them and they put out a high volume of spray with very little air or pressure. But, sometimes they can leak if you don't check them first and you will have ready seal on your clothes..lol They can also get heavy too! Decksters are battery powered or are they run with cords? Either way, what if you don't have power or your battery dies? That's always been my biggest concern, not everyone has an outdoor outlet and running it from my truck with a converter could be done but it's one more prep step. I created a type of spray flag we use for railings and fences and it's excellent at stopping overspray and it blocks the wind also so you don't have to worry about that either.

If you need help let me know, I'd also chat with Beth if I were you, I'm sure she's done more sites than I have. I just like doing it, but she probably keeps up to date on more of the changes than I do. Websites don't have to be expensive or use a lot of flash and fancy stuff to use them the way were all talking about. So don't let one of those online expensive designers talk you into spending a thousand dollars on it. If you work at it, anyone can create the same site, I know I could and for half the price.

John and Mathew your right and that's exactly what I was saying earlier, websites are something you should promote on all your marketing stuff. Expecting people to find you in a web search then hire you is unlikely. Even if you do get top rankings in the search engines someone else will always come along and do better. If that doesn't happen the search engines will just change their algorithems or something and then you have to work with them all over again. I've found a few ways to get my rankings up there but my placements change every few days. I don't care, as I said before, that's not why I have it anyway.

Ken does have a point but most service based companies don't use or need a website that costs that much. You can make your own if you like there are a lot of programs out there that make it easy. BUT, you also have to know how to set them up for search engines and local ranking. If your providing numerous services like I do it's more complicated than just working with one like deck cleaning. The more services you want to highlight the more information you have to have and the proper layout for each service gets more difficult. I'm not a high paid website designer by any means but I've had to learn a lot over the years and it seems the more you learn you realize how little you really know...