I wanted to take a minute to share this story for those of us that haven't been in the business quite as long as some of the veterans on this board...it goes to show that fear of the unknown may be preventing you from making money!
I recently got the contract to clean a couple of newly constructed, million dollar homes that had sand faced brick on them. Having never cleaned it before, I innocently contacted Eacochem to ask about bucket ratios, application process, etc. I've cleaned several regular brick homes with NMD80, but never sand faced brick. Eacochem was naturally trying to protect themselves by telling me to use very weak ratios of NMD80 and to ONLY rinse with a garden hose, etc...as if I was cleaning butterflies...LOL. The rep then began telling me horror stories of others that have cleaned sand-faced brick and how contractors won't even touch it, etc.
At this point, I am FREAKING out...I was petrified of ruining these homes and was envisioning lawsuits and damages and all sorts of ugly stuff. Well, I called Roger at Carolina ProWash and asked him for some advice. He gave me TONS of confidence by simply explaining what his experience has been with sand-faced brick and how easy it really is if you clean it correctly. The trick is LOW pressure, NMD80, and LOTS of scraping.
Both houses came out beautiful and not only am I proud of myself, but I am now the "sand-faced brick guy" because everyone else is so scared of it. I charged for my time (because it is a bit time consuming with all the scraping) and it's a win-win situation for everyone! I just thought I'd share because overcoming my fear put me in a great spot to earn money and I learned something to boot!
I wanted to take a minute to share this story for those of us that haven't been in the business quite as long as some of the veterans on this board...it goes to show that fear of the unknown may be preventing you from making money!
I recently got the contract to clean a couple of newly constructed, million dollar homes that had sand faced brick on them. Having never cleaned it before, I innocently contacted Eacochem to ask about bucket ratios, application process, etc. I've cleaned several regular brick homes with NMD80, but never sand faced brick. Eacochem was naturally trying to protect themselves by telling me to use very weak ratios of NMD80 and to ONLY rinse with a garden hose, etc...as if I was cleaning butterflies...LOL. The rep then began telling me horror stories of others that have cleaned sand-faced brick and how contractors won't even touch it, etc.
At this point, I am FREAKING out...I was petrified of ruining these homes and was envisioning lawsuits and damages and all sorts of ugly stuff. Well, I called Roger at Carolina ProWash and asked him for some advice. He gave me TONS of confidence by simply explaining what his experience has been with sand-faced brick and how easy it really is if you clean it correctly. The trick is LOW pressure, NMD80, and LOTS of scraping.
Both houses came out beautiful and not only am I proud of myself, but I am now the "sand-faced brick guy" because everyone else is so scared of it. I charged for my time (because it is a bit time consuming with all the scraping) and it's a win-win situation for everyone! I just thought I'd share because overcoming my fear put me in a great spot to earn money and I learned something to boot!
- John
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