DECK WASSIHG vs. TRUCK WASHINGvs. HOOD CLEANING

Hello ALL I think this board is very informative, lots of experience between all of us.I have been watching the board & most of the discussions are about decks. With some of you posting your yearly grosses,I am starting to think i am in the wrong business.We wash trucks do a few drive thrus ,wash caves (ask me about that one). I just cant imagine customers paying 2-5 dollars sq ft. for their deck upkeep.Ihave a 40x20deck myself, & the best thing i did was stain it! Takes 1 hour to roll stain on this deck every 3 yrs costs 45.00 for stain Maybe people are a lot more helpless then i thought! ANYway, i am thinking about adding hood cleaning to my business also, any one know where i need to start? but then again, maybe decks really is the best ticket JUST HAD TO PUT MY DIME IN

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Originally posted by whiplash:
Hello ALL I think this board is very informative, lots of experience between all of us.I have been watching the board & most of the discussions are about decks. With some of you posting your yearly grosses,I am starting to think i am in the wrong business.We wash trucks do a few drive thrus ,wash caves (ask me about that one). I just cant imagine customers paying 2-5

dollars sq ft. for their deck upkeep.Ihave a 40x20deck myself, & the best thing i did was stain it! Takes 1 hour to roll stain on this deck every 3 yrs costs 45.00 for stain Maybe people are a lot more helpless then i thought! ANYway, i am thinking about adding hood cleaning to my business also, any one know where i need to start? but then again, maybe decks really is the best ticket JUST HAD TO PUT MY DIME IN

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Hood cleaning similar to other procedures require focus and training. I only clean hoods and to me job focus is very important. Useing a PW on o hood would amount to less than 1 hours work in 5 hours, thus it becomes just one of many tools. I would pick one discipline and be the best at it. Send me a EMail and we can talk on landline or come on out to the West Coast and we can show you.

Originally posted by whiplash:
Hello ALL I think this board is very informative, lots of experience between all of us.I have been watching the board & most of the discussions are about decks. With some of you posting your yearly grosses,I am starting to think i am in the wrong business.We wash trucks do a few drive thrus ,wash caves (ask me about that one). I just cant imagine customers paying 2-5 dollars sq ft. for their deck upkeep.Ihave a 40x20deck myself, & the best thing i did was stain it! Takes 1 hour to roll stain on this deck every 3 yrs costs 45.00 for stain Maybe people are a lot more helpless then i thought! ANYway, i am thinking about adding hood cleaning to my business also, any one know where i need to start? but then again, maybe decks really is the best ticket JUST HAD TO PUT MY DIME IN

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Hey Whilash;
Hood and Duct cleaning is a specialize field, we do about 175 restaurants a month, theres a lot more to it than you'd think. e-mail and maybe I can help.
Richard

Okay, I am asking. How do you wash a cave? The most unusual thing I have ever washed was an Ice cream freezer that was set at 20 below. I was inside. As for the other questions, I agree with the others. Specialize in one thing and do it well. No one can be a master of everything, and you will be amazed how it helps your business to do only one thing.

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Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?

Just a guy driving around trying to make a living washing trucks, Wouldn't know a deck if it bit me in the hind quarters,

Bus. Phone 480-834-3434
Cell Phone 602-509-9741

[Yes, We washed a cave. Actually it was a freezer at a large underground storage facility, This particular freezer had approx 900,ooosq ft in ceilings alone.freezer just had been closed in,We were called to wash green &black mold off ceilings &walls Everything was limestone except divider walls took us 6 weeks to complete we used 10,000 gallons water a day, had to pick up water off of floors too this was a 100,000+ job. This outfit called us again, planning to do a nother one soon

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Our business is divided among commercial/industrial, kitchen exhaust systems, vehicle fleets. Each represents about 1/3 of our revenue.

If you want to do kitchen exhausts, you need to know what you are doing. There are some classes that you could take. Check with PWNA.

If you are ever in my area, give me a call. I could show you some of the tools that we use and maybe send you out with one of my crews to see how we do it!

Dave Olson



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Tidy Powerwash Service, Inc. P.O. Box 781, Catlin, Illinois 61817 Phone 217-427-5557, Fax 217-427-2632 We are a commercial cleaning contractor serving East-Central Illinois and West Central Indiana since 1984. http://www.tps-inc.com

Whiplash, My advice stay away from deck restorations. We offered this service for 7 out the 11 years in business. When we dropped the deck refinishing our profits jumped 30%. No joke!!!

Do you want to own a painting business or a pressure washing business?

Hood cleaning is a great section to be in.
House washing is also a great area to focus on. House washing is nearly 70% of our business.

Good Luck

Mark

Hey neighbor - I see you are in Carthage, mo. I'm an hour away in Springfield. I personally would stick with general pressure washing, things like trucks and houses. Maybe CLEAN fences and decks but let them do the staining and sealing or have them hire someone else. Usually thats what the customers I get want anyways.

I have done hoods with another company before, couldn't pay me enough to do it again. I dont know if you know much about Branson or not but south of there is a golf course called top of the rocks. We used to clean their hoods for them until they had a large fire and they attempted to blame it on us. The fire was actually caused by a crack in the flue of the wood fired pizza oven, within this wooded structured building, that we were not responsible for anyways. You know how insurance companies are tho they will try anything possible to get out of their responsibility of paying up. We cant see any way they could pin this on us (the other company that i dont really do much for anymore) but they are trying.

The building was a 2 million dollar loss and we're insured for 2 million but for some reason in this case the insurance company says theres only 1 million in coverage for this type of loss. So IF they were somehow able to hold us liable for it (which they cant) then we (the other company, not my company) would be responsible for 1 million dollars or more of the cost.

There is just way way too much liability in hood/exhaust system cleaning for me plus I have done all the hood cleaning I care to do on top of that. Even if you do your job perfect, if the restaurant you clean for has a fire guess who they are going to try blame? You may not be held responsible but there will still be alot of stress, inconvenience, attorneys fees, etc plus the insurance company may drop you (ours did) and your new company can jack up your rates.

Even if you're not at fault...


Like I said, you couldn't pay me enough to do hoods again. If I ever SEE the inside of a commercial kitchen hood again, it will be too soon.

Mark nailed it. We can do half a million a year in decks and its not worth it from a profit standpoint. the money is in washing.