Hoods

[rocco]

havent done any hoods but i know there are a lot to do around here! I might have to look into that schooling!

[redinbaugh]

Hello everyone.
My name is Robert Redinbaugh, I own American steam Co in redding Ca.I was aproached on a job site i was running about purchasing a pressure washer.I was interested in buying for my concrete resurfacing business.I made an appointment and metup later.After i talked about the powerwashing business and looking at the previous years W-2s i ended up purchasing the whole business, including a large local established customer base.I went on every job to meet the restrauant owners to make the business transaction smooth and also learn the trade.
One year later i am already making profit(rare in a new bus start up).We clean mostly hoods with some walkways,usually as a complementry add on.
I have been reading all of the posts and learned a lot.I never realised the diverse applications of powerwashing.You guys have given me some really good ideas.
I will probably stick to hoods as a main source of business because I feel comfortable with it.(I used to be a ruffneck,kitchen grease is similar to crude)especially chineese.
Which is where everyone seems to have to start at first in the hood bus.Not many people competing to do them.
I have bid on flat work but rarly get awarded the contracts.I am overbidding.Seems the weekend worrior low ballers are keeping flat work prices down to 40.00 hr where i usually get 100.00 hr for hoods.
I am working with the city to establish requirments for water reclamation specs now.
Soon we will all have reclamation units and low ballers will have to raise prices or leave the bus.
Any info on the good bad and ugly about different water rec units would be helpful.
Well thats my story.Thanks again for all the info.This site has saved me time money and a few possible humilating experiences.
Robert Redinbaugh

[PLD]

Originally Posted by redinbaugh

Soon we will all have reclamation units and low ballers will have to raise prices or leave the bus.

<WARNING: OFF TOPIC AND HEADED ON A TANGENT>

As much as I hate fly-by-nighters and low ballers, my libertarian side finds this statement nauseating. If you want the business, go take it from your competition. Don't use the legislature to build barriers to entry. That puts you in the same category as WalMart and their detestable emminent domain abuses.

Furthermore, I have heard comments that the PWNA feels similarly about reclamation and may be encouraging the local chapters to pursue similar legislation. If I find that to be true, they can forget ever getting this membership app that has sitting in my inbox...

</WARNING>

[CPW]

Phillip, I am surprised to hear this coming from you! Reclamation is an issue that technically, is already in place through the CWA. It is our responsibility to work with those guidelines to best serve our industry. If pressure washers don't step up to the plate and handle our corner of wastewater, then some other uninformed jackleg will do it for us and we may wind up with something far worse than just reclamation! As far as the PWNA encouraging local chapters keeping you from joining, I'm sorry you feel that way. Having a voice in the decision making process is far better than sitting back doing nothing then whining about what's wrong...it's kinda like not voting then *****ing about government. I'm sure this post will be followed by much more eloquent political speeches but the nutshell, layman version is that reclamation is coming, it's going to be enforced, at present the PWNA is trying to keep the pressure washers' voice loud in the decision making and how all of it is done.

Celeste

[mbryan]

Originally Posted by pldoolittle

<WARNING: OFF TOPIC AND HEADED ON A TANGENT>

As much as I hate fly-by-nighters and low ballers, my libertarian side finds this statement nauseating. If you want the business, go take it from your competition. Don't use the legislature to build barriers to entry. That puts you in the same category as WalMart and their detestable emminent domain abuses.

Furthermore, I have heard comments that the PWNA feels similarly about reclamation and may be encouraging the local chapters to pursue similar legislation. If I find that to be true, they can forget ever getting this membership app that has sitting in my inbox...

</WARNING>

How do you take business from your competition when the customer is using them because of their low price? I think what he is saying is these guys will have to get legit and that will force them to raise their prices to what it should be it they were doing the job right.

[Steve Moore]

got insurance for hoods and general pw work 1,000,000 worth it cost me 750.00 a year in st augustine fla

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by redinbaugh

Hello everyone.
My name is Robert Redinbaugh, I own American steam Co in redding Ca.I was aproached on a job site i was running about purchasing a pressure washer.I was interested in buying for my concrete resurfacing business.I made an appointment and metup later.After i talked about the powerwashing business and looking at the previous years W-2s i ended up purchasing the whole business, including a large local established customer base.I went on every job to meet the restrauant owners to make the business transaction smooth and also learn the trade.
One year later i am already making profit(rare in a new bus start up).We clean mostly hoods with some walkways,usually as a complementry add on.
I have been reading all of the posts and learned a lot.I never realised the diverse applications of powerwashing.You guys have given me some really good ideas.
I will probably stick to hoods as a main source of business because I feel comfortable with it.(I used to be a ruffneck,kitchen grease is similar to crude)especially chineese.
Which is where everyone seems to have to start at first in the hood bus.Not many people competing to do them.
I have bid on flat work but rarly get awarded the contracts.I am overbidding.Seems the weekend worrior low ballers are keeping flat work prices down to 40.00 hr where i usually get 100.00 hr for hoods.
I am working with the city to establish requirments for water reclamation specs now.
Soon we will all have reclamation units and low ballers will have to raise prices or leave the bus.
Any info on the good bad and ugly about different water rec units would be helpful.
Well thats my story.Thanks again for all the info.This site has saved me time money and a few possible humilating experiences.
Robert Redinbaugh

Hey Robert, all I have to say is congrats on your fairly new biz
JL

[name is Lou]

i do hoods mostly.......

[PLD]

Originally Posted by CarolinaProWash

Phillip, I am surprised to hear this coming from you! Reclamation is an issue that technically, is already in place through the CWA. It is our responsibility to work with those guidelines to best serve our industry.

Celeste,

Don't ask me why I never saw your reply 'til just now, but I did not. My apologies for seeming if I had ignored it. That said here's my reply;

First, I'm not against recalmation per-se. However, I am totally against *any* business/entity that seeks to use the color of law to improve their own position, and weaken that of another. Be it WalMart/eminient domain, or PWNA/reclamation such actions serve no purpose than bastardize the process of a government of laws for personal gain. And I find that personally quite offensive. Furthermore, I would be willing to bet my last nickel that despite much rhetoric to the contrary, you won't find more than one or two PW's out of a hundred who actually give a d**n about the effect on our watersheds. The rest either push reclamation for their own purposes or only seek to have some control over the process (as you have mentioned). And neither the PWNA nor any chapter that seeks to play that game will receive anything from me but bitter opposition.


That said, let's move on the issue of regulation and our role therein.

Originally Posted by CarolinaProWash

If pressure washers don't step up to the plate and handle our corner of wastewater, then some other uninformed jackleg will do it for us and we may wind up with something far worse than just reclamation!

Celeste, at the risk of sounding extremely rude (not intended) I'm going to be as frank as possible in my response to avoid any ambiguity the might result from beating around the bush. That said... Statements like yours make it perfectly clear who is uninformed regarding how to play the federal regulatory game. Furthermore, it makes it very clear that their efforts at manipulating the PW lobby are having precisely the intended effect.

After many years of involvement in the banking industry, the LD telephone business, and participating in a sport that is *now* (unfortunately) heavily regulated by the Fed govt, I have a bit of experience with how the regulation game is played. And based that experience, allow me to offer this;

First, federal politics is league reserved for men who are profesionals at the game. And like a professional baseball player, they play it so well that they make it look easy to you and I. It is not until you actually step up to the plate and try to hit that 97mph slider that you realize you can't hit a ball you cannot even see coming. And it's only after you have missed 15-20 in a row that you begin to become aware that you couldn't even hit the bat boy's pitches at this level of play.

This game is not for 'fun-sies' It's played for money and power by people who play for keeps. And they wany ALL the power and ALL the money. If you try to play in their league, you will be hustled. You will be manipulated into a position where you believe that you are making headway and friends that will serve your needs. At the end of the game, you will find that your confidence, your time/effort, and your money has been taken and used to further their quest. They sought NOTHING but total domination. You will also find that although you believed that their cause and yours were in alignment all along, nothing could ever have been further from the truth. You will truly understand what it means to be violated and used.

Originally Posted by CarolinaProWash

Having a voice in the decision making process is far better than sitting back doing nothing then whining about what's wrong...it's kinda like not voting then *****ing about government.

Actually, it's nothing at all like that. Votes are black and white. They are difficult to manipulate for political gain. It's more like trying to buy a car marked $2000 by making an opening offer of $1950 AND telling the buyer you will *not* go over $2500. At the end of the game, the the seller gets $2250 and you walk away excited about how you "saved" $250. You lost before you even started playing.

Originally Posted by CarolinaProWash

it's going to be enforced

An assumption that you have been lead to believe (bad cop) so you will be more pliable when offerred a "better deal" (good cop). There are policemen that lurk here, ask them to explain the less obvious subtleties of real world good cop/bad cop. It's an extremely powerful psychological tool and is rarely played out as obviously as it is on TV drama shows.

And if you truly believe that enforcement is a real possibility, use the City of Atlanta as your alarm bell. They have been under sanction since before 1980 (25+ years) for dumping BILLIONS of gallons of raw sewage into the Chattahoochee watershed (Ga/Fl/Al's drinking water). To date, they have been fined a TOTAL of 23 million dollars by the EPA. As soon as you see them get serious there, start getting worried.

Originally Posted by CarolinaProWash

at present the PWNA is trying to keep the pressure washers' voice loud in the decision making and how all of it is done.

So what you are saying is that Brer Fox has a two hand grip on Brer Rabbit and is ready to toss him into the briar patch...


Even a first year public defender knows to start with "no guilty" and work from there. If we are serious about workable reclamation legislation, then start by demanding NO reclamation. Justify that decision and then negotiate to where you wish to be. If you try start negotiations from a position of reason, you will end up far beyond where you wished to be.

Philip

[PLD]

Originally Posted by mbryan

How do you take business from your competition when the customer is using them because of their low price? I think what he is saying is these guys will have to get legit and that will force them to raise their prices to what it should be it they were doing the job right.

Simple, you do what entrepeneurs do. You find a way to do it cheaper and faster. That, or you find a way to make your services more valuable to the customer than the lowballer.

[mbryan]

So pay my men less and make them work harder? There isnt much more to cut back on besides labor. The expendable items on our jobs are at rock bottom already.

[Greasebuster]

The business grows daily in hood cleaning. Not much competition. We also install hinges on the fans, grease containment boxes around the fans and do the concrete and walkways for the fast food and steak houses.
It's kinda rough at night on a roof spraying sodium hydroxide with a 4000 psi pressure washer in the dark, but the money is good and Pennsylvania loves to eat animal fat for me to clean.
Greg
Industrial Steam Cleaning
www.greasebusters.com

[mbryan]

Hey Greg,

How do you like that Grease Beast? The video on your website makes it seem like magic!

[Russ Spence]

fear the foam

[mbryan]

I guess the Grease Beast cant touch the foam!