Expansion of services.

Made up my mind to expand services for next year. This year has been CRAZY busy, and it's just now slowing down.

I have decided, in order to capture more dollars from clients, and to drive more business, I am expanding into doing power washing. Looking to expand into house washing, patios, decks, drive ways, etc.

I already have a smaller enclosed trailer that will be used for this. I'm just pinning down now, what equipment I'll be buying. Want to get this all set up this fall, so it's ready to go next spring. I'll give this a shot over next year. If this isn't a good fit for my company, I'll sell off the equipment in 2020.

I'm hoping this turns out for me though.

Good for you James !
I have a friend that does power washing, he uses sapphire scientific 2500 HS, he said he can do 2000 psi power washing and still gets 180 degrees hot water
Find a good used one in the winter, you should be able to get one under 10 grand, my friend mounted his in an enclosed trailer, I would have to say in your area, driving a truck with a trailer should be okay, my area, no bueno, I don’t know how he does it. Even driving cargo van, if I have a dollar for every time someone cut me off on the road or freeway, I’d be rich by now

I did some pressure washing a few years ago, but around here it was way too seasonal. In your area, why not? I would look at just getting a dedicated psi washer with emphasis on gpm. The gpm is what does all the work in psi washing rather than heat and psi...spend your money there.

I mainly did bank entrances and sidewalks downtown along the bar circuit. Paid pretty well actually, but was even more seasonal than carpet cleaning and thieves were always trying to steal it. I had it trailer mounted and seriously, thieves were always trying to take parts or all of it.

I already have a unit picked out. 5.6 GPM unit. Honda powered.

I'm more gearing up for house/roof washing, decks, drives, and whatever needs done in residential. Not really looking for commercial work, as I will not be using a large tank to carry water, just a 50-65 gallon buffer tank.

I'm using pressure for cleaning tile and grout inside homes. It's been great now that I'm nearly 60% up on revenue from adding service to my lineup. You just need to produce 2.2 gallons a minute

dp1 wrote:Good for you James !
I have a friend that does power washing, he uses sapphire scientific 2500 HS, he said he can do 2000 psi power washing and still gets 180 degrees hot water
Find a good used one in the winter, you should be able to get one under 10 grand, my friend mounted his in an enclosed trailer, I would have to say in your area, driving a truck with a trailer should be okay, my area, no bueno, I don’t know how he does it. Even driving cargo van, if I have a dollar for every time someone cut me off on the road or freeway, I’d be rich by now

For 10K, I could buy a power washing trailer, already set up and ready to go.

I'll have under 3K into mine.

Correction. I'm seriously thinking of buying another unit, still 5.5 GPM, but 20 HP Honda, rather than a 13 horse. This one would come with a separate gas tank and electric start.

I could buy an 8 GPM unit for a bit more, but I am not going to haul my water, and I would need a BIG water tank for the 8 GPM unit. The buffer I'll be using for the 5.5 GPM is a 65 gallon tank, and still needing to hook up to the customers water.

It sucks I have NO ONE within 2 hours drive of me that sells commercial power washing stuff. I can get the buffer tank locally, but everything else has to be shipped in. Ugg....

IF running a cold water unit, I would still go for big gpm rating, if hot, then 4 gpm would work at around 3,000 psi. It really is the gpm that does the work so the more you have, the quicker the job gets done. I understand your desire to avoid adding a huge tank, but I don't see why you would need one. The average water service at the house through a 3/4 hose is still around 15 gpm so you should be able to just connect to the house or business with the larger pressure washer.

Nobody sells them withing 2 hours from you? Wow, around here, they are all over the place (Northern Tools, Hotsy, Dultmeir), seems odd that it isn't that way around you.

I enjoyed that work when I did it, lots of drive-thru concrete cleaning and house sidings, but it was just a 6 month season around here.

15 GPM? LOL, we are doing good at 6-7 GPM around here. Average is about 50 seconds to fill a 5 gallon bucket.
That's why I run a pump on my WFP. We don't have enough pressure at most jobs to do second story work and have "squirt". More like a drizzle.

Nope, no one I can find, sells commercial power washers. It's hard to find a 4 GPM machine, impossible to find one belt drive. Want more flow than 4 GPM? You have to order it.

Not going to buy and 8 GPM machine at this point. Talked to guys in power washing, and they said a 5.5 GPM should work well for me. Plenty enough flush.
I won't buy a heated unit either. If I need heat, I'll just rent a unit in town, and tack on the price to the bill. Those cost way too much, and do not have the flow when you are using them cold.

Wow, line pressure is that low out there? That would drive me nuts, we have strong psi in this area....sometimes too strong where I need to choke it down some to keep from damaging things. I wouldn't bother with heat either, it is not really needed for 90% of what you will be working on.

The one advice that I will offer is that if you plan on doing any siding washing, get really good at covering / sealing the power supply to the house, some of those chemicals will trigger a fire pretty quickly and then you are on the hook financially. I spent a lot of time doing that after seeing a local washer nearly burn down a house.

Burn down a house?! I'd be interested in knowing what he was using and what material he applied it to.

Was he applying hydrochloric acid to tin foil?

I know nothing about power washing so I can't comment on technical specs but it seems like you figured that out already.

Regarding electrical outlets, down here the outdoor ones MUST have covers attached to them, I've almost never seen one that is not covered, besides those outdoor outlets are pretty rare here.

I'm curious how do you charge for pressure washing, seems like easy enough work ?

Even something as simple as sodium hypochlorite will ignite...just have to be careful around those electical mains and outlets.

dp1 wrote:I know nothing about power washing so I can't comment on technical specs but it seems like you figured that out already.

Regarding electrical outlets, down here the outdoor ones MUST have covers attached to them, I've almost never seen one that is not covered, besides those outdoor outlets are pretty rare here.

I'm curious how do you charge for pressure washing, seems like easy enough work ?

Most all the homes here that have been built in the last 30 years, have at least one outlet outside. Many have 4+ outlets, outside. It's not unusual to see a water spigot and an outlet on all four sides of a house, 10 foot or so apart.

Pricing, it depends on what you are cleaning. Most guys who are serious, charge by the square foot. But like anything else, it comes down to time. I intend to target 150 an hour starting out, and move to 200 an hour by the end of season/beginning of next season.

I've heard of some guys getting 300 an hour, but I doubt many markets will support that. 150-200 an hour average seems common.

You might have to quit yoir job if you get too busy Freemind. It would be a good problem to have though

That's what I'm hoping for Mo. I'd honestly like to build my company to the point I have employees doing the work, and I just take a salary every week, doing little actual work.

It was completely nuts this year, until now. I was so busy, I couldn't believe it.

Just to follow-up some, it isn't so much the standard outdoor outlets that are the problem, it is the electrical main that you need to seal off tightly.

That's good to hear Freemind. I know you invested time and money on marketing and it's good to see it paying off
It would be nice to market a service that is in demand hen window cleaning slows down

Going to pick up a 6x10 enclosed trailer tomorrow. Getting rid of my smaller enclosed trailer for this one.

At least I can stand up in this one! My other trailer only was 4 foot tall.

Now IF I could just get some commercial insurance at a REASONABLE price. I can't use my local agent anymore for it. They literally want 6 times my current price, just to add on power washing.

Hardly any insurer is offering commercial liability, CCC, and inland marine, all in one. Most of them only want to offer the first two, and I can't get a separate inland marine policy from another insurer.

Look into "Auto Owners" for your insurance. Most people have never heard of them, but they are always highly rated in the industry. I have been with them for about 10 years now and they were about 40% cheaper than my previous insurer.

Aside from Bob's recommendation, I would shop around these providers, Safeco, Hartford and citizens insurance company, the last one if the one I'm with currently, if they tell you, you need an agent, I can give you my agent's info, but they are out of Fresno California, not sure if you want to do business with us californians, lol.
I'm paying around $ 50 - $ 60 / month for $ 1 million liability coverage that includes coverage for damages to stuffs I cleaned ( can't remember the term for that coverage ).

You are probably talking about CCC (care, Custody, control) DP.

I found one insurer that had a great price for liability and CCC, but didn't offer an inland marine policy that I could see. I HAVE to insure my equipment. Too much money to take risks.

I bought two 55 gallon plastic drums with removable lids and two 20 gallon plastic drums with removable lids.
55's are going to be water buffer tanks, tied together, and double fed to the power washer.
20's are going to be used strictly for chemical mixing and usage.

After measuring, the tote was out. It would have ate up all the room in the trailer.

I'm looking forward to this build. But at the same time, nervous about what business will end up being like.

Nervous? Remember the old advice, a business owner must always be confident and ignorant to be successful. If that confidence isn't there that the new service will be in demand you are starting out with your hands tied.

I am confident. That's not the issue. Investing in power washing is more money than window cleaning. Quite a bit of money is going to be stuck into this endeavor. I just hae no idea, until I actually offer the service, how well it will be received and how receptive people will be to the price I'll need to charge.

I'm not the only guy doing it, and I don't know how big the demand is.

I know what I am envisioning, and that is going full time and telling the boss to "take this job and shove it".