What kind of residential pressure washing are you doing?

[Beth n Rod]

What type of residential pressure washing are you doing? What's the strangest thing someone ever asked you to clean? Share it here.

Beth


p.s. we sometimes get calls to wash the inside of chimneys out... we send those to the sweeps....

[reed]

Guess I will break the ice and post first.

My primary is wood, mostly western red cedar from Cananda here.

Will also do cedar sided homes on special occasions

Patios are always cleaned around the decks if they have one and will clean mold and mildew on their flagstone.

Reed

[ParadiseProWash]

I had a lady call me to clean just here carport. I could not get the house all she wanted was the carport and the house was dirtier than the carport. I wash mostly houses vinyl, aluminum, and brick and decks. I have not done a wood house as of yet however I have been asked to bid one as soon as it warms up so maybe I will get it. It is 2500 sq ft log home they only want cleaned and brightened no staining it has alot of mold and mildew they said they will make up their mind to go further after they see what it looks like. I am asked to do patio furniture and outside kids toys I usually ask them what they think its worth to do it and most of the time they say a price higher than what I was thinking I just say ok if that makes you happy. LOL

[Chuck Richard]

I do alot of new construction(decks,driveways,garages,decks,brick)

I also do house washing, deck cleaning/stripping and sealing, roofs,gutters,fog light replacement, concrete, brick, and just about anything else you can think of. I have a few maintanence contracts with some local stores and restraunts, and do the bus stops for the city.

The basement with no drains I just did was one of the weirdest things I'v washed. And like paradise said people who only want to wash theair house and they have trees and weeds growing a foot tall in the gutteres, or they want their porch wash and the rest of the house is black with mildew.

[Mike Hughes]

We do mostly houses and decks, and often add on patios, sidewalks, and pool decks.

[dgold42]

I think the funniest thing I do once a year is what I call the statue farm. A "Great" customer of mine is a multi-millionaire. The guy actually had a bathroom built just for contractors. Really loll!! His landscaping is the nicest I've ever seen. Just to powerwash the driveway I make between 1500-1800. Paid for my steal eagle loll.
Anyway, he has imported statues from China. 12ft marble ape, turtle, pig and duck. Coolest thing is these people didn't start out rich. The husband built his wealth on his own so there really nice people. Very down to earth. They don't care about price they just want to make sure nothing gets damaged. So I always leave the soil the way I found it. In a perfect world I would have a hundred customers like this. Actually, I'm really lucky I've been doing this for a while now and most of my customers are really nice people.

Dan
Reliable Contracting

[The Rob]

Houses with vinyl siding is my primary residential pressure washing. Will add on decks and patios a lot of the time. The strangest thing would either be the radiator on a farm tractor, or the metal awning over windows on a ladies house. Nothing else was to be washed, just the awnings. I told her for another $25 dollars over my min charge I would wash her entire house, but she declined the offer!

Robert

[reed]

Deck and Fences only, no houses, may do the concrete pad around decks if real nasty. Decks only is usually the norm. Make a damn good living at it too.

Reed

[Henry B.]

I power wash everything from 4 story buildings down to the inside of pools... I have pw empty ponds, driveways and probably the strangest things would be a parking garage and the inside of a grocery store. I've even quoted power washing at Regan National airport but I decided I didn't want the job so i just priced it high. Occasionally I run across someone that I really don't want to work for becouse the job will tie me up too much or the customer is just not someone I like so I refer them to other companies. I usually refer all my stripping jobs to see dirt run actually.. LOL I know Rod and Beth make good money on them and they like the extra work I just hate spending the time on stripping. Power washing has very few limits its all about experiance and learning to try new things. I'm a VERY good salesman so that's one of my biggest advantages. I don't try to sell the customer on the best most expensive products I just look at the home and figure out what it is that they are looking for then I convince them its their idea to hire me since "I" can make their home the best it can be. I don't bother with lowballing things or trying to get the highest price I can. I think that's where most companies make mistakes. As far as I know beth and rod charge about the same as I do depending on the sealer being used. Sure I might have been able to get another 25 bucks for doing the job but I would rather give a lower price for doing the house then add in other things like the walks, patios and other items. Plus, I have a two gun unit so I can get the job done twice as fast as anyone around here so even if I am a little cheaper on some things the speed in which I can do it makes up for that easily. I also have 3 small pull arounds if I need them.

[Beth n Rod]

The strangest thing we have ever been asked to do, is wash out the inside of a chimney. We didn't do it. We gave them the name of a chimney sweep.

Henry - we use two wands also. Guess maybe we're BOTH fast, eh?


Beth

[Aplus]

I'm not a fan of two wand machines because if the washer breaks down, it can put too big a hurt on you.

In my small trailer, I always carry two portable cold water units, and in my larger trailer, I have my hot water rig, and a portable cold water rig.

I also keep a spare cold water rig for backup and larger jobs, where three guns are appropriate. Of course there is often not enough water pressure at a residential location for three, so I'll bring the larger rig with a 330 gallon tank for those cases.

Some of the strangest things I've cleaned are the inside of a three season enclosed patio, kitchen equipment from a Mexican restaurant, and fancy street lites on a main drag thru a small town. I had never thought about washing street lites before.

Oh, and there was this diamond tipped drilling rig used to drill at landfills for installing pipes to extract methane gas. I don't think I ever want to work at a landfill again!!

[Beth n Rod]

We aren't running a two wand machine, we send out two cold water units with the guys. Like you said, it's alot easier when a cold unit breaks down to pull another one and sign it out. Not to mention the fact, that we wouldn't want the crews thinking about hot water on wood. Not a good thing. Softens it too much, and you can cuase alot of damage easily.

Our setup is similar to yours Tony.

Beth & Rod

[Henry B.]

We aren't running a two wand machine, we send out two cold water units with the guys. Like you said, it's alot easier when a cold unit breaks down to pull another one and sign it out. Not to mention the fact, that we wouldn't want the crews thinking about hot water on wood. Not a good thing. Softens it too much, and you can cuase alot of damage easily.

Our setup is similar to yours Tony.

Beth & Rod


I know of a couple companies in the area that use hot water for cleaning decks. They say they only use it at 120 degrees so it will clean easier with less pressure but not hot enough to cause damage. I've tried it on my deck also but I usually just use cold water myself I never saw the advantage it using extra fuel and risking damage. It does clean faster but not by much. As for my rig being too small it works perfectly for the work that I do and I have tried using two machines at customers homes but even using two different hose bibs you just can't get enough water on some homes unless of course your using a 3gpm unit.

[John Orr]

I do mostly residential, but I had a call last winter to clean the inside of a smokehouse at a local meat processing plant. Its two gas ovens about 4x10x10 that had built-up soot that was getting on the smoked meats.

It was so cold (10 deg and windy!) that I had to drive there with the machine running in bypass so that the pump wouldn't freeze. The only way to access the ovens was by running the hoses (both supply and pressure) through an exhaust fan in a wall.

Every trip to the rig required walking all the way around the building. Of course, even with a rain-suit, I was soaked - and then frozen/thawed each time. Plus, I smelled like smoked meat. Fortunately, it only took me about 2 hours to complete.

Why did I take the job? a) I needed the $$ b) the customer was desperate and c) I was promised future work. LOL

[reed]

Henry,

There is someone in this area using nothing but hot water on decks. He has to sand everyone when he's done, can't imagin why can you??

Reed