Heavy Equipment Washing

[HotShot]

Received a call today, a contractor wants me to wash his construction equipment. Backhoes, forklift, loaders etc....

I have no idea what to charge, or frankly, how to clean them....any help?

[Larry B]

A lot of it depends on what the owner wants done. How clean does he want the equipment? Undercarriage, engines, joints etc. or just wanting them to look good on the outside.
One thing to consider is it is very difficult to get them shiny without 2 stepping. They are simply too hard to brush in most cases. A good degreaser is also a must.

[HotShot]

thanks Larry for the reply.....

He basically wanted it sprayed down, all of the leaky grease off of the outside. I used some degreaser and with the hot water it came right off. It was really easy. Nothing too extravigant, just a simple squirt of degreaser, rinse off of everything you can see and that's it. Easy money.

He said that other contractors are always asking him where to get their stuff washed also. He is an aquaintance of mine and he said that he will definetly get me some more business.

[Jimmy M]

A lot of guys want engine degreased and radiator washed out, meaning dust and grease buildup which causes it to overheat. use very low pressure and good degreaser and rinse straight through radiator if you have to do this being careful not to bend the fins . I usually charge by yhe hour when I go to a jobsite. Nasty work but it pays good.

[danster]

Originally Posted by Jimmy M

A lot of guys want engine degreased and radiator washed out, meaning dust and grease buildup which causes it to overheat. use very low pressure and good degreaser and rinse straight through radiator if you have to do this being careful not to bend the fins . I usually charge by yhe hour when I go to a jobsite. Nasty work but it pays good.

Jimmy is right on the money with what the clients usually want, you get the odd guy once in a while that wants it so clean that you'd think its out of the showroom but that's OK, you charge by the hour. I make good money this way. All my equipment washing is by the hour cause you never know how hard the equipment is going to be to clean. You may have one piece that can take you 2 hours one week and 5 hours the next because its so filthy. Just get ready to get dirty. We washed a baby like this one
www.cat.com/cda/layout?m=37840&x=7&location=drop

this summer. It came to the job site on seven flatbeds. It was 5 years old and never washed. It took us 3 days to wash and we could have used an extra day but we didn't have time. Just under the boom where it connects to the platform we removed about 2 drums of grease (no kidding) by shovel. This thing was huge, the top of the tracks was the height of the top of the cabin of a Cat D9 parked beside it. It was an impressive job site.

Dan

[danster]

I see the link I put in does not work, let me try this again

http://cmms.cat.com/cmms/servlet/cat...26&imageType=2

[Paul Kassander]

I have washed a few like that as well. It is kinda cool when you can stand underneath the equipment and wash the engine and radiator. It is also suprising how small the engines are to power those things.

[PowerPlay]

We do a lot of this work. We charge by the piece, however these are accounts we do both weekly and bi-weekly. You will need a good degreaser, hot water, roto nozzles, and a squeegee for your safety glasses.

It deffinetly depends on what kind of dirt they are getting into. Limestone, clay, standard dirt, and then there is that dirt / grease mixture. MMMM yummy.

We average the following:

Hauler / EUC $69
Loader / Dozer $49

These are weekly prices at a quantity of 10 or more. Takes about 30 to 45 mins (depending on the type of equipment) to remove the bulk of the dirt, grease, and clean the windows.

[Paul Kassander]

I'm suprised you can get that work weekly, most HE guys just do it for emergency or transport use, kudos to you. Oh ya I like the squeege idea for the safety glasses, I was thinking about getting a pair of those ones with the wipers on them...

[danster]

HaHa....I do agree on the squeegee on the safety glasses, boy you can get dirty real quick. And it is possible to get accounts to clean heavy equipment but they are hard to get at least on a weekly basis. I don't bother too much with it because my main focus is painting.

Your prices seem a bit low for heavy equipment though, but I guess maybe that's why you have the weekly account. Do those prices include the degreaser or is it extra ?

Dan

[PowerPlay]

Those are on the low end, the easy maintenance cleans. That does include the degreaser that when you buy in bulk isn't too pricey.

To speak from the other end of things. We do some very large cranes at the local recycler that only get done on an emergency basis. Over heated and broke down, now they need to work on it. We charge $350. I am convincing them it would be better to keep them clean all the time so they don't overheat, less repair. If he gave me all 6 on a bi-weekly, I would do them for $150 each.

Pricing varies largely from job to job and I probably shouldn't give my prices. Just have an idea of what your business needs to gross per hour to make you happy and stick with that.

[Paul Kassander]

Originally Posted by PowerPlay

Pricing varies largely from job to job and I probably shouldn't give my prices. Just have an idea of what your business needs to gross per hour to make you happy and stick with that.

That pricing sounds about right. I price my stuff the same way, Heavy Equipment is varys so much you have to do it that way.

[danster]

I charge $75/hour plus degreaser with a minimum 3 hours. So when they call me, they don't call for nothing, they will line up work for at least 3 hours or more. Usually most construction companies around here have there own PW rigs, but they do call when its a very dirty job or something they are unable to do themselves, or they are on a very tight schedule and they need bigger rigs to do it fast so they can get up and running again (time is money for them and for me..hehe)

Dan

[PowerPlay]

Danster,

I'm confused, you thought my pricing was too low. On maintenance cleans your looking at 30 mins on the small guys ($49 bucks) as stated in my original post.. I do six, which takes me three hours I am at $294 bucks. You are at $225 for three hours of cleaning. The degreaser is such a small amount of the cost I don't see why you would charge it out as extra. To do six pieces you are looking at like two gallons maybe. So what 10 bucks total degreaser cost. If you're going to go with that logic then why not charge extra for how much gas you use. Unless you are selling the degreaser like an auto mechanic sells parts. Up charging the hell out of it.

Please explain....

[Barry M]

Sorry for the hijack. It just looked like a good thread to ask this question. I had a painter, whom I know and trust, ask me to help him prep some tool and die machines that he is going to paint. We are suppose to use an in house steamcleaner. I know nothing about steamcleaning. How different is it from pressure washing? Do I still use chems? Is it better than pressure washing or is it a step down? Will I still end up with waste water? You can see I have a lot of questions so any advise is appreciated, thanks and sorry again for the hijack.