You want advice?

[Dave O 15]

Every year the same thing happens over and over again before certain seasons.

From Landscape, plowing, and yes Pressure washing or Power washing which ever you want to call it.

The markets for these service become flooded with newcomers to the field, most wanting to quit their $80,000 dollar job with the new kid on the way thinking. Everyone wants their piece of the pie, and wants it yesterday.

The problem is that most won't even know the first thing about their venture. Most will jump right in with no clue on how or what works the best. They will in most cases test their newly bought equipment out the customers property. The problem with this is the damage that is done to the property from the newcomer.

Why not test your equipment out first and see what it is capable of. Yes these wonderful pieces of equipment in the properly trained hands will bring magnificent results, but in the wrong untrained hands they cause damage and even death in some instances. This even includes those chemicals we use. Just because your breathing fine now, doesn't mean you won't be hacking a year later or longer down the road. Proper safety equipment and precautions are required in any business venture. Not just for you but for your customers as well. Ignorance has no place when it comes to safety. You screw up a piece of property or someones health, you might as well kiss alot of things goodbye. You better hope that your insurance covers it and better yet that the customer still doesn't sue you for everything you have. Yes this includes your own personal family belongings in some cases. Think about everyone from yourself, to your family, and your customer. If you are not going to do this properly then don't quit your day or night job.

From plows that damage unseen obstacles under the snow, to lawn mowers that can catch a lawn on fire in a heartbeat, or worse yet contaminate a lawn with a weed species from another previous cut lawn. The same goes for PWing.

So hear is some advice before you take your new found freedom on the road.

Go to a training class. These classes are offered for all fields. From Power Washing schools, to Wood Certification Classes like WRAPI, Awning cleaning, Hood Certification, Environmental Certs, ETC...

Also you can tag along in some cases with another contractor for experience.

Now if you still persist on doing this on your own without proper training, please practice at home first not on a customers property.

For Chemicals most companies will offer samples of certain products, or if you have one in mind try it out first at home not on a property owners. This way when it doesn't work like your buddy or the sales brochure said. At least you wont look like a total fool standing there in front of a customer. Or the wind blows and you get a wiff and lose your breath or burn your skin, because you did not have the proper gear on.

Stains are also another product that needs to be explored in various techniques. How will it turnout, what will the color actually look like on certain woods? How much will it soak into a 15 year old piece, or a new piece that is under a month? Well the color on the sheet was this, but then I put it on here and it isn't what the customer wanted.

How to practice:

Concrete, pavers, brick, asphalt, or other aggregate can easly be found at demolition sites, crushed concrete yards, asphalt yards, scrap, previously knocked down houses or buildings. If you ask they will usually give you as much as you want in most instances. Then you take this home and get out your chemicals or chemical, and practice. Put the new found treasure down and test certain chemicals on certain stains. See what happens when and how long it takes for certain chemicals to remove oil stains, graffitti at certain dwells and percents. See what happens when a degreaser is used on asphalt. (Not good in some cases) Then get the water beast out and see what happens and at what distance you need or pressure to clean certain stains without damaging the surface. You will notice that surfaces come clean with a proper chemical and dwell time. Always let the chemical do the work for you.

Now siding can also be had at the same places, except for a crushed concrete yard. Find some painted aluminum siding, vinyl, or other types you want to clean. Remember most will be happy to give you a nice size piece. Just look for the crappiest piece you can find with a lot of stains and even oxidized aluminum. You may have to divert their attention to get the aluminum, and run like crazy since aluminum is worth money. Just joking now no stealing.

Now take this stuff home and practice some more. Different housewashes, techniques, tips, dwells and so on. See if you can get the aluminum clean without taking that oxidized paint off with the rest of the good paint. Did I say 2 step process? Oh yeah that's another thread just use the search button on this board. See at what temperature you can actually warp the vinyl siding, or at what distance/pressure you need for proper cleaning without damage.

Okay now for the biggest one that everyone wants to do. This is the one that still gets me to this day. Why would you do wood if you know nothing about how to clean it? This is not like concrete, where you can blast the stones out of it, and you might not be seen. This was a living tree at one time and still needs a gentle touch. More water GPM not PSI. Did you read that there? Good now read this it takes the proper chemical, followed by the more GPM not PSI. Still there? Scrap wood can be found at many lumber yards, not big box stores but more like mom and pop lumber yards. Since I was a lumber yard manager at one time I can tell you that lumber does get thrown out. They usually have scrap boxes that say free wood scraps right on them. It can also be found in the garbage where someone recently demolished a deck. This is the best because it is usually stained already or pretty well black from abuse. Take the wood home and practice with chemicals and techniques on the various species you have picked up. Hopefully you picked out some really horrific looking pieces. See what dwell and technique will remove stains. See what chemicals work for stained, grayed, or just rotten slippery pieces of the wood. How close do you need to be just to remove the dead wood fibers and that's it? How close before you totally blow the knot holes out? How close to remove the stain? What chemical works best at what percentage or dwell? What happens when I put the acid on to neutralize? Should I rinse it off? Should I leave it? How about testing stains on different species, and ages?

The same goes for Shingles, awnings or whatever else you plan on cleaning. You must practice, and investigate on your own. Research every chemical you want before buying them. Most you will notice are the same ingredients just different names and percentages in them. Now some have the trade secrets ingredients, but that is why you have to try them first. Chemicals and Cleaning are like cooking. He said what? Yes cooking I said. Have you ever made a soup or some awesome dinner or other, and everyone raved about it? Then when you try to make it again it doesn't turn out the same. You know why? Because you didn't write down what ingredients were used and how long you actually cooked it for. The same is for cleaning, restoring, preservation of surfaces. You need to experiment first to see what ingredient (Chemical) works best, how long (Dwell) before it is done for serving. Then what is the best way to serve it (Stains).

The bottom line is that you must practice, practice, experiment, experiment, research, research before you go out. It makes your life so much easier when a housewash takes 1 hour instead of 2 days, because you didn't have the right chemicals and know how for a job. I see damage way to often in this industry, and it is always for the same reason. Do you know what that is? If not start back from the top and read again.

When it comes down to it most of the newcomers from all trades will be back at all these forums with a different question from the one they asked in the beginning. This question will be how do I now fix what I have destroyed, or do you want to buy my equipment, because I have to sell for lawsuit reasons. Please don't be that person that comes back in that situation when the advice was given above. I want everyone to suceed, it is their given freedom to own a business and prosper. Just do it properly, because believe me I don't mind competition it keeps me striving harder to be the best.

[R L S 14]

Amen Brother!! Good Post

[HotShot 34]

perfect practice, makes perfect. If you practice something the wrong way, you'll just waste a lot of time and money. That's the good thing about forums like this one. Learn from the experts, then practice what they taught you.

[Kory 14]

Great Post. One other thing is do your research first before posting. Use the SEARCH function thats what it's here for. Also before you ask about priceing check your market, there are to many variables for anyone on here to tell you how much to charge. They may tell you what they would get but it may be missing key info such as distance, demographics, overhead you never know there is to much to factor.

[CCPC 26]

Good post Dave. Hopefully people will get the message. I swear, if I do one more estimate and here from the homeowner how the last guy blew the seals on the windows, or killed a bunch of plants, I'm gonna scream!! For god sakes people, learn what your doing before selling your services!!!!! All right, I feel better.

[Dave O 15]

Thanks for the kind words.