An interesting business

[RPetry 564]

One of the things I love in the exterior wood business is the varied jobs and customers. One week you are working on 2400 sq. ft. of new ipe', in a ritzy neighborhood for a young, nouveau riche customer.

The next week you are stripping 2 layers of semi trans acrylic from an older 300 sq. ft. cedar deck, in a working class neighborhood, for a retired couple in their 80's!

One job has and architect, designer, and a very demanding customer. The next job has very friendly, appreciative customers that love to interact and converse. Keeps the business interesting.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

That's one of the same things we love about this business!

Beth :cup:

[plainpainter 217]

I prefer doing the latter decks.

[TNRoofCleaner 16]

I was doing a deck yesterday and I realized that you have a lot of time to think about many different things. Kind of peaceful.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

... that looks so much like our old deck that it brings back memories of how we used to use it for experimenting on.

Rod!~

[PressurePros 248]

I prefer doing the latter decks.

Same here. Can complete 20 of those per week and actually make money. For some reason I am now "Call PressurePros if you have a ridiculously large complex deck with every difficult variable you can think of and make Ken have to do one hour sales presentations to justify the $5000 charge".

[plainpainter 217]

Same here. Can complete 20 of those per week and actually make money. For some reason I am now "Call PressurePros if you have a ridiculously large complex deck with every difficult variable you can think of and make Ken have to do one hour sales presentations to justify the $5000 charge".

I am seriously considering charging for estimates on decks that are more than $2,500. Not only do I have a big loss rate with decks that size - even when I get them, when something goes wrong - it gets multiplied by the size of the deck. Landing a $5,000 job gives me a false sense of job security. Not to mention - they are attached to 5,500 SF homes with a couple of Lexus' in the driveway - and for some reason these folks are looking to save money. And to a certain amount I think the restoration/maintenance costs for large decks are absurd - and I would never build anything that large to maintain. Give me 14x16 decks all day long - and let my competition get tied up with the big disasters, even when bid right - they're losers, imo.

[RPetry 564]

... Give me 14x16 decks all day long - and let my competition get tied up with the big disasters, even when bid right - they're losers, imo.

Large jobs, especially exotic woods and the right customers, can be very profitable.

Any job, large or small, if priced correctly, is never a "loser".

[Celeste 341]

Large jobs, especially exotic woods and the right customers, can be very profitable.

Any job, large or small, if priced correctly, is never a "loser".

Bingo Rick! And again, loving what you do is a great perk!

[Henry Bockman 14]

I usually refer the painted decks that need to be stripped to the low ballers when they balk at my price. I just say hey, sorry but there's a lot of time and material that's going to be invested in this job.

Then I say if the price is out of your range I hear there's a company doing decks for $99.00 for decks up to 200SF. Just go on Google and type in deck cleaning, then click on the ads at the top of the page.