After spending numerous hours scanning the other Pressure Washing forums on the net, I came across this one and its by far the best. It seems like each thread here has 10 or more replies! Thats awesome. I've learned more here in the last 2 hours than 2 days at the other boards.. You guys are great.
My name is Cale, I own a Marine Services company. We specialize in logistics (setting up yacht transportation), surveys, painting and refinishing. Which includes detailing. I've been pressure washing boats with a team of up to 5 people for the last 5 years and have done pretty well with it along with a job at a SeaRay dealership.
I've decided to expand my business and work full time at it now and I have a few questions I hope you guys can answer.
We do the docks at 4 different marinas around here all within a 1 hour drive of each other and it takes about 8 days to do each marina working 10 hours a day. (BIG marina's) Does anyone else do marinas? How do you price them out? Its more than just the wood because all the grime off the boards shoots all over the boats and you have to rinse them off.. if you rinse off a boat that has just been detailed then you have to wipe it down and make it look like it did before you got there.
While doing this, I end up talking with slip renters about getting their boats detailed and I become friends with them, after they get their boats detailed they are so impressed that a lot of times they want us to come do their driveways and decks at home or their lake homes. We've been turning down the work because its only 3 people working and we stay busy with boats. But now that summer is almost over, we're looking for stuff to keep us busy year round.
After speaking with some of my customers and getting some jobs lined up we bought our equipment today. Its nothing fancy but we will earn our money back in just a few days with it I hope. Then we can pocket some extra money and upgrade later this season.
We bought a husquavarna 3700PSI @ 4gpm w/ Cat pump and are hooking it up to a 275 gal tote with two inline filters (bypass-able). 50' of pressure hose, 75' of garden hose, two sump pumps, 15 sand bags, 3 tarps and 5 bags of plastic sheeting (clear)..and the miscellaneous gas cans and what not..
Our first non-marine job is this sunday night when we are cleaning 17 peices of heavy equipment at a jobsite. overnight. We can use the hydrant to fill up with water but the machines are scattered over the jobsite so we have to carry the water to the machines. No detail work or degreasing, just busting the mud off of them basically. ($55/each).. How do you guys price out this equipment?
Our second non-marine jobs are some lake homes in our area. The question i have about this is how do you keep from throwing dirt all over the house when you start pressure washing around the bottom of the house towards the foundation?
($200/each) no driveways or decks, those are extra.
We have 3 other pressure washers but they all are 2500 psi 2.5gpm smaller units that run almost constantly keeping boats clean.
How do you guys stay busy when the temps are freezing? surely you can't clean when its below freezing or you'd just make more of a mess than anything else..
My question, does it seem like we are on the right track? Anything we should change or do differently. Can anyone offer any advice for me?
We have a really prestigious customer base that all trust us and want to provide us with work. ranging from Trisha Yearwood, Garth Brooks, Lots of oil guru's and other multi-millionaires. The majority of the boats I survey and detail are valued over a million dollars easily so they trust my work and they trust me.
After spending numerous hours scanning the other Pressure Washing forums on the net, I came across this one and its by far the best. It seems like each thread here has 10 or more replies! Thats awesome. I've learned more here in the last 2 hours than 2 days at the other boards.. You guys are great.
My name is Cale, I own a Marine Services company. We specialize in logistics (setting up yacht transportation), surveys, painting and refinishing. Which includes detailing. I've been pressure washing boats with a team of up to 5 people for the last 5 years and have done pretty well with it along with a job at a SeaRay dealership.
I've decided to expand my business and work full time at it now and I have a few questions I hope you guys can answer.
We do the docks at 4 different marinas around here all within a 1 hour drive of each other and it takes about 8 days to do each marina working 10 hours a day. (BIG marina's) Does anyone else do marinas? How do you price them out? Its more than just the wood because all the grime off the boards shoots all over the boats and you have to rinse them off.. if you rinse off a boat that has just been detailed then you have to wipe it down and make it look like it did before you got there.
While doing this, I end up talking with slip renters about getting their boats detailed and I become friends with them, after they get their boats detailed they are so impressed that a lot of times they want us to come do their driveways and decks at home or their lake homes. We've been turning down the work because its only 3 people working and we stay busy with boats. But now that summer is almost over, we're looking for stuff to keep us busy year round.
After speaking with some of my customers and getting some jobs lined up we bought our equipment today. Its nothing fancy but we will earn our money back in just a few days with it I hope. Then we can pocket some extra money and upgrade later this season.
We bought a husquavarna 3700PSI @ 4gpm w/ Cat pump and are hooking it up to a 275 gal tote with two inline filters (bypass-able). 50' of pressure hose, 75' of garden hose, two sump pumps, 15 sand bags, 3 tarps and 5 bags of plastic sheeting (clear)..and the miscellaneous gas cans and what not..
Our first non-marine job is this sunday night when we are cleaning 17 peices of heavy equipment at a jobsite. overnight. We can use the hydrant to fill up with water but the machines are scattered over the jobsite so we have to carry the water to the machines. No detail work or degreasing, just busting the mud off of them basically. ($55/each).. How do you guys price out this equipment?
Our second non-marine jobs are some lake homes in our area. The question i have about this is how do you keep from throwing dirt all over the house when you start pressure washing around the bottom of the house towards the foundation?
($200/each) no driveways or decks, those are extra.
We have 3 other pressure washers but they all are 2500 psi 2.5gpm smaller units that run almost constantly keeping boats clean.
How do you guys stay busy when the temps are freezing? surely you can't clean when its below freezing or you'd just make more of a mess than anything else..
My question, does it seem like we are on the right track? Anything we should change or do differently. Can anyone offer any advice for me?
We have a really prestigious customer base that all trust us and want to provide us with work. ranging from Trisha Yearwood, Garth Brooks, Lots of oil guru's and other multi-millionaires. The majority of the boats I survey and detail are valued over a million dollars easily so they trust my work and they trust me.
Thanks a lot for everything!
Cale
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