How do you guys do it???

[One Tough Pressure 580]

Sometimes on Residential work, I have to park in the driveway. Not my first choice, but it does happen.

Now in a modern and perfect world, I would be washing the driveway, but not always. So if you have to park in a customers driveway and you leave tire marks, what do you do?

1) You just leave them there.

2) You rinse them away for free, since they are your customer and you do not want to leave their place dirtier than when you got there.

3) You factor into your price, the cost of rinsing the marks away, but keep it as a hidden charge.

[CCHSNC 14]

If its concrete I park on the road.

[One Tough Pressure 580]

The reason that I sometimes have to park in the driveway is because of these large driveways, that are 200 to 300 feet long.

I use a trailer mounted unit, and running hose for the length of the drive, plus more to the backyard is not going to work.

Today for example, I was doing someones backyard. After parking in the driveway, which was 250 feet long, I then ran 250 feet of pressure hose, to reach the end of the back yard. If I were to park in the road, that would of been 500 feet of hose.

Wish I could of sold them a driveway wash too, as it was a 4000sq foot one. But they are getting it redone soon and did not want to spend the money for washing.

[Paul B. 523]

Stop burning rubber in the customers driveway!

Kidding aside, to me the clean-up would depend on the existing condition of the driveway and how much impact you made on it.

I don't add incidental, occasional clean-up into my pricing.

If the driveway is in a ****-n-span condition when you arrive, it should be no different when you leave - some faint tire marks would be an exception as in my mind driveways are meant to be driven on and can't be treated as a Sunday going-to-church suit. Some tiremarks should be expected.

If this is a persistant problem for you, and are consistantly leaving nasty tire marks on driveways, I would suggest looking into harder compound tires.

Oil drips, grease spots and spills would be a definite clean-up without a hesitation.

[One Tough Pressure 580]

The driveways are not **** and span and could use a cleaning, but lately I have had a few customers that plan on replacing the driveway soon, and do not want it washed.

My marks are from turning the wheels , and pivoting of the trailer. They do wash away fairly easy, since they are fresh.

I do have a newer vehicle, so I have no problems with leaks, as of yet, but if I were to, they would be addressed asap.

[CCHSNC 14]

I never ran into a long dirve that was over 200' and concrete. (Yet) you bring up a goot point.

[Mike Hughes 18]

Cleaning it could make the situation worse.................make sure your tires are properly inflated and that might reduce the likelyhood of leaving marks.

Concrete driveways are only found on about 1% of houses up here though......

[Mike Williamson 198]

Wow, not here....I don't know the last time I saw an asphalt driveway here. Too hot for a car to park on the asphalt all day...It would deteriorate too fast. Just about everything is concrete here.

[Aplus 525]

I go with Pauls' approach.

[Guest rfitz]

This happened to me a few times, so I tried pulling up on the driveway, unloading my stuff, then wetting the concrete real good, and then pulling the van up a few feet, so the tires were on a wet surface, and that solved the problem, it was an easy fix, only took a couple minutes to pre wet area I was parked on

[Jon 533]

I don't do residential jobs so don't really have this problem but if I did and my vehicle made the marks I would remove them.

Now if the driveway was so bad that removing them would show a few nice clean spots and the rest dirty I would talk to the customer about cleaning it and offer a discount.

95% of my work I am able to park far eough away there are no marks left and if so they would blend in with all the others so I do nothing about it.

Always leave the job site cleaner then when you arrived. Do that little extra and be sure the customer knows about it one way or another and you will have that customer as long as your in business.

Like backpacking, take out what you pack in plus a little extra.

Jon

[Tim Smith 14]

I would remove the marks and if need be - wash the entire drive.

Its just good business and leaves a lasting impression on the customer.

[One Call Power Wash 500]

I live by the old rule of things. "ALWAYS LEAVE IT IN BETTER SHAPE THAN YA FOUND IT" I dont know about a 200' driveway but normally we do extra things like cleaning driveways with the exterior wash or deck restoration. The equipment is already out and they will remember you for it. Its that little extra that counts.

[Ron Musgraves 240]

I clean the whole drive and then bean the krammer who parked in the drive.

[One Tough Pressure 580]

So Ron, What does "Bean the Krammer" mean exactly?

[Ron Musgraves 240]

Slap the guy around...LOL

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Hmmm... sounds like a Seinfeld reference to me...as in him the guy who acted like the character Krammer on Seinfeld. That's my guess but I'm curious to hear the real meaning too!

Beth

[Ron Musgraves 240]

the employee that was stupid enough to park in the drive. most of my new construction contract if you leave payment it will cost you 500.00.... thats standard throughout the industry. I realize you guys are talking residential but i only do customers house and i usally dont charged them. I still dont pull in the drive. we usally use a portable machine that we use on resorts or get the hose out.

[Paul B. 523]

Ron,

Some places the driveway backs into 2 lane streets which eliminates parking on the street (...could always park in the neighbor's driveway).

There are other customers that have extremely long driveways of several hundred feet. I have one customer who's driveway is over 1/4 mile long.

We only park in the driveway when it's not practicle to park on the street.

[One Tough Pressure 580]

Ron,

Some places the driveway backs into 2 lane streets which eliminates parking on the street (...could always park in the neighbor's driveway).

There are other customers that have extremely long driveways of several hundred feet. I have one customer who's driveway is over 1/4 mile long.

We only park in the driveway when it's not practicle to park on the street.

That is what started this whole thing, the super long driveways that if parked on the street would require 500+ of pressure hose as well as lots of supply hose.

I see that Paul has been in the same situation that I have been.

[Paul B. 523]

I've turned down several jobs last year and this year due to lack of access.

You end up spending more time figuring out where to park and how to get the equipment and materials to the area than what it takes to do the job.

Maybe someday I'll have to be less picky, but for now I leave the challanges to my competition.

[Bob Gates 14]

Maybe I missed something..(I usually do)...But I Always park in the drive..concrete or whatever....I have never left any tire marks..how does one do that..???? I only park in the street at last resort..and then I use traffic cones/ flashing lights etc....But to answer the question at hand...of course I would correct any problem that I caused at no cost...