Pressure washing buissness

[foggy1111]

I concurr with most of what was said above....sounds like it could be a ruff area to enter into.

One thought I have if you want to try your hand at a startup sevice type biz.....get a job doing "whatever" you can find needs doing.....and rent the piece of equipment for your first few jobs. You will soon learn if it's going to work out for you....and how much you need to charge to get paid a fair rate.

As an example: I had allot of stumps to grind out of my trails this year. About 400 ten to fourteen inch diameter pine stumps. The cheapest anyone will do this for is $10. apiece. That would have cost me $4000.00 had I paid for the work done. Instead I rented a stump grinder for three days at at total cost of $500.00. I saved about $3500. by doing three days work. IF I NEEDED A JOB.....I would advertise for stump cutting at a slightly lower rate than the prevailing ($10) price here.....and still make as much as $1000. per day!!!! Not too shabby......and the work isn't that hard. If I get a job....I rent the equipment....if I dont find any jobs.....I dont have any money invested or debts to pay.

 

[JohnDeere4300]

I have a friend that has a pressure washing business, and he has been running it for 18 years.

He has a large pressure washer & tank that is mounted on a 24ft trailer......There is a lot of coal trucks in this area and the owners have around 100 trucks each, and Mike has a contract with them to wash the trucks on the weekends....On the weekend he works all day & night to get them all done by Monday morning.

During the week he has a contract with Norfolk & Southern railroad washing trains....and there is also other people that has a pressure washer business that has a contract with the railroad...because of how large the railroad is.

He does houses sometimes, and he goes on a strip mine & does that equipment....He works 7 days a week and he told me that it took several years to get his business built up with the high paying contracts.

 

[have_blue]

Deereboy,

It's not so much the business you're in as how good of a salesman and worker you are. If you hustle and your clients like you, you'll make a go of it. Have your washer ready and offer to demo it. If you can't find enough equipment to wash, consider picking up the slack on houses. Show the owner what your machine can do. Once the house has a big clean spot on it, it's hard to refuse.

Don't over spend on the power washer. Deere and other respected brands are very often another brand with expensive paint. Stick to Honda and Subaru engines and a good pump and you can't go wrong.

 

[EddieWalker]

I make a living fixing houses. Lots of wood rot and other issues that come from neglect and time. One of the worst things that you can do to a house is put a pressure washer to it. Except for a little cosmetic improvement (sometimes), there is nothing good that can come from a pressure washer on a house.

Concrete walkways and driveways are fine, but never use it on a building.

Which brings up another concern. What about liability? If you wash a dozer and after you are done, the owner of that dozer says that you damaged a seal, which is very likely to happen, what will you do? What if it's a really big excavator and the seal is over a grand? What if that machine makes a grand a day and it takes two days to fix it?

The more that I think of what you can damage on all the different types of equipment, and how much money it can cost to fix them, plus down time for that machine, I wouldn't do this. Too easy to get into allot of trouble.

Eddie

 

[franklinute]

Eddie brings up some good points about the liabilities associated with high pressure cleaning. Older heavy equipment generally has a few oil leaks and high pressure water can get past the seals and into unwanted areas. Also if too much pressure is used on a radiator or oil cooler then the fins can be damaged. Look at most repair shops that have an equipment washing area. They use a dedicated pad that is sloped to a catch basin. The water is recycled and the oil, dirt and debri is not allowed to go into the sewer system or groundwater.

 

[EddieWalker]

Good point about the debris. I didn't think about what happens to the oily and greasy material that comes off of the tractor. The damage that you can do to a piece of equipment is nothing compared to the fines you can get if you are intentionally contaminating the soil with oil and grease!!!!

I've heard stories, and they are just stories, of guys having to remove all the contaminated dirt, then haul it to a facility to clean it, then return the clean dirt. Everything is tested multiple times to make sure it's all removed and that the new dirt is no longer contaminated. Depending on how far away you have to bring that dirt, how much dirt you have to remove and the cost to clean that dirt, plus inspections, it can easily get into six figures to clean up a contaminated area.

Eddie

 

[mikefromnh]

If you have a pressure washer and want to use it to make money, how about auto detailing?

I would imagine the real money would be in cleaning the interiors though. But if you can make cars look like new inside and out( a little armor-all and elbow grease) you should have plenty of business through word of mouth. People might be willing to splurge on cleaning their cars since most people are putting off buying new.

Just be careful with the pressure washer -- don't get too close to the paint

 

[harpoonalt]

Ambition is a good thing. I would read up on starting your own business. Lots of good info on the internet. I had a lawn business part-time because I like the work. 2 of my customers were lawyers and one is a friend. Best advice he gave me was to make sure you carry liability insurance. You hurt someone or do damage and you need to be protected. Without it, every day is a gamble, but the stakes are the rest of your life if someone sues you for a big amount. I learned a lot having a business. Taxes, insurance, scheduling, customer relations. It's a lot of work but can be very rewarding.You'll learn to appreciate and understand why contractors make $50 or more an hour. Educate yourself and you'll do fine. People here give pretty good advice so it was smart of you to ask. Good luck!