Powerwashing tall buildings Manhattan style

[John T 744]

We powerwash a building one story and one City block long in Manhattan every Month which is just a few blocks from the Empire State Bldg. This bldg. is probably the cleanest bldg. in the city. One of these days I'll take a picture of us cleaning it and show the empire state bldg. in the background lit up in all its glory.

One of the highlites of cleaning this bldg. evey month is seeing all the tourist and ok I'll have to admit it all these beautiful ladies in the area. Its been more then once that one of them said "Can you spray me". We get a kick out of this but truethfully most times its somewhat of a pain to clean with so many people around. We also do the flatwork for this buidling and with a few hundred if not thousand people walking thru its not that easy of a job to do..but it pays pretty good.

Anyway as luck would have it a Bldg. owner just happen to be walking past us and he was impress with our work and equipment..After he checked out how we cleaned he gave us his card and ask us to give him a price to clean his bldg. which is even closer to the Empire state bldg. The guy's company owns an 85 foot lift which we could use if they accept our bid. My wife has called this guys office and he is who he says he is.

Anyway here's a few pictures of this building and if all goes well it should pay a few thousand a day.

Tommorrow I'm to go into the city and size up this bldg. and write out the proposal..should be fun.

[Jeff 232]

Hey put some Gargoyles up on it and it looks a little like the building in Ghost Busters.

John looks like it could be a very profitable job. What are you cleaning off it, Pollution? I would imagine you would need a restoration chem with all the traffic exhaust and city pollution.

Good luck

JL

[JFife 14]

JohnT,

...That is AWESOME!!! Man, what a cool job to do, in a great area. As one of the guys that's been on these boards about as long as i have, it is good to see how you biz has grown/changed. Hurry up and retire!! Man, if I were doing that job it would be nothing but the largest wet T-shirt contest in the history of NYC!!:)

[newlook 265]

Good luck on the bid John and congrats on your continued success...

[John T 744]

Thanks for the support. Here's some more pictures of this bldg. In the background you can see the Empire state bldg. This is a clean and pre-prep for the building to be painted... Still trying to figure on how to price this monster.

Anyone want to take a guess on how much they would price this out at. The building owner will supply the lift. This building is in the heart of Manhattan where pedestrian traffic is very high. This is definetely a late night early morning job. This building needs to be cleaned and pre-prepped for a paint job. The painters will scrape most of the loosed paint off.

Here's my guess so far..2-3 weeks of work for a crew of 4 guys. All done at night with lights and crowed control including. Of course I see a problem already with all the pigeons there must be pigeons nest up there.

Anyway my price is going to be at the very least $50,000 for this cleaning.

[Ernie Greese 14]

Awesome John. Just curious with something that large are you required to contain and collect the run-off? Where would you dump the pigeon poo water, etc. I visited NYC when they were working around the WTC. The workers had the nearby buildings wrapped in tarps, do you have to go that far for liability protection?

[Barry M 73]

Hey put some Gargoyles up on it and it looks a little like the building in Ghost Busters.

JL

Make sure you don't cross streams while PWing.

Congrats John, what chem would you use to do a paint prep? Do you have to etch with acid?

[Jeff 232]

I was wondering about containment also, wonder what the law/rules are in NYC.

John use the owners lift but Id have a 2nd lift, hell I would use 3 lifts, get in & get it done as quick as possible, less time, less hassles that way.

If you are using owners lift make sure its not a peice of crap, check it out 1st to make sure it in good running condition and wont slow you down. I've used properties lifts before and almost everyone was an old rental unit and pretty beat & SLOW, it can add a lot of time & aggravation to a job. just something to check out before bidding

looks like fun!!!

John whats that building made out of, is it all painted now

Good luck

JL

[John T 744]

Jeff- Thanks for the heads up on using "there" lift. My main guy who works for me told me the same things since he has used tall lifts in the past.

Since the whole building is going to be repainted I'm leaning on just doing a Hot water wash because if I add chemicals I could run into a problem with reclaiming. Also alot of the grime you see on this building cleans up pretty easily when you are using 180+ degree water.

They Key here is that the building is going to be repainted...anybody want to come down and paint it for $500,000:) It crossed my mind to track down a few painters and try to take on this whole job but since I;m sure I will run into some headaches of just cleaning it if I get it the last thing I need is to deal with Painters headaches....and I hate painting.

[JFife 14]

No!!!! Why would they PAINT that building??? It looks so nostalgic and old-school NYC. I cannot even imagine what color they'd paint it???? Why don't you propose sealing it?? I am with you on trying to GC the whole job. Why not? As long as all the paperwork is in order, it seems reasonable. The logistics may be tough, but everything has a price. Charge large and try and pull a cool 50K or so off the top. 10% is a minimal GC rate.

[Ernie Greese 14]

John,

just doing a Hot water wash because if I add chemicals I could run into a problem with reclaiming.

Just a heads up for you, even without chemicals, anything you rinse off the building is considered to be pollution (especially pigeron poo) and you are going to have to use some form of water recovery. EPA nailed us for that down here, after someone turned us in for non-recovery. We talked our way out of a 50 G fine by walking away and giving the job to an out-of-town big hitter, who had all the necessary recovery gear. Check with Mr. Hinderliter about what you need to get.

[Ron Musgraves 240]

i have another freind, he saw your photos John. He has done this building in the past. He said about 4000 a day.

He's not bidding the build was sold about 2 years ago and he has no relations with new mang.

He did say they used to was it every year, he said he didnt think its been washed for sometime now.

He said the building wasnt where you said so maybe a different building?

[Celeste 341]

Here is a perfect example of where the subject of reclaim / recycling should be discussed.

If a building is surrounded by sidewalks or concrete, is an old facility that wasn't built with any type of "system" or drains, I'd like to hear how the contaminated water would be handled on these jobs. Although we'd all like to think that diversion is the answer to reclaiming & transportation.....I don't think it would apply to this type of cleaning.

Any takers on the subject?

[plainpainter 217]

This is a perfect example where you beat your chest out to the EPA - and tell them to puffer off. Reclaim Schmeslaim. They're going to bankrupt everyone with their -it's just freaking wash water, throw in some bleach and you neutralize any and all bio-hazard material from pigeon poo for example. I'd think it would be better for the city. What has happend to our society where they make it illegal to be clean?

[Celeste 341]

Just for the record, in our state, it's ILLEGAL to throw our wash water just anywhere. Frankly, I wasn't looking at just some housewash mix - I just used that picture. I'm talking about acid restoration more than just " bleach water"......

Glad I don't live where you are. I prefer to know the professionals are compliant for my SAFETY