Bidding on apartment complexes

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blacklabbear

Guest
I am located in Oregon and have been receiving more calls on apartment complexes. 99% of my work is residential, but I have noticed there is quite a gold mine in apartments. Any tips on how much to charge for them? Also, when cleaning gutters, do most of you just clean them out by hand & call it good, or do you use hoses & water to flush the gutters & the downspouts? What about the debris that slushes over the sides of the gutters on the outside from pulling wet muck out? Do you charge extra to haul away debris?

Thanks.
 
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OrangeCrest

Guest
Getting the excess out by hand would be a good start. Washing them out with a pressure washer is really what is going to get you paid.

They see you up there just pulling out the excess and then coming down to get paid is only going to get you a, "I could have done that."

Go through the routine, even if you just rinse. Make sure it is presentable and makes you look like a professional. Word of mouth can make or break you.
 

Mike Hughes

New Member
With all due respect, I completely disagree with the above. I have cleaned the gutters on over 3000 houses/buildings, and I have yet to use a power washer to do it.

You are being paid to make them functional, and no more. No one cares if you can eat out of the inside of the gutter or not. Clean them out pretty good, but be certain that the downspouts are clear......that is critical. While this would certainly be easier with a power washer, its not necessary. And with all the time it would take you to drag hoses around these buildings, me and my crew would be half way done the next complex before you finished this one.

I do run some water down the downspouts, but I almost never flush the entire gutter, with a few exceptions at the owner's request.

There is great money in the complexes, but some of them are cheap as can be and you will never be able to price them low enough. We have a 59 unit townhouse complex we do which I charge about half of the amount per unit as I would if I got called out to do just one house.

When cleaning gutters, alwasys start at the downspout........for two reasons. 1) If there is not too much debris in the gutter, it will all be washed down towards the spout, and you will only have to go up once. 2) If the gutter happens to be full of water, you can unplug the downspout and let the majority of it drain prior to cleaning the rest of the gutter = less mess.

When you pull the debris out of the gutter, grab a handful, pick it up, but pick it up over the first row of shingles. By doing that, any loose debris will drop on the shingles and not fall down onto whatever is below you, and will not drip nasty stuff down the face of the gutter. Just make sure you clean off the shingles then............I usually get the bulk of the stuff out of the gutter, then sweep (with my hand) the leftovers on the shingles into the gutter..........then do a final sweep with my hand in the gutter.

I have an under 1% call back rate doing it this way. We get them clean enough, and do it right the first time.


I do not haul away debris.........we can almost always find somewhere to dump it on-site so it will degrade. I very rarely take leaves with me. At single homes, if there is no appropriate place to dump them, I bag them and leave them for the trash. If the homeowner is home, I ask them if they would like me to put them by the curb..........

I have never had complaints about doing it this way.

Pricing...............price the complexes as cheap as you think you can do them and still be profitable. I've been doing this a very long time, I can just eyeball a gutter job and price it out. It's really hard to explain and just something you'll get used to over time.

Look at the building and imagine it were a house. Is it as hard as say, two houses? Three? Do some multiplication and come up with a price, then discount it some for volume. The more buildings, the larger the discount.

Lastly, most complexes will require you to add them as an additonal insured on your policy......and have a certificate sent to them. If you get the job without them asking for the certificate, there's a good chance their accounting department won't even pay you until they have it in hand.


Bid on these jobs early.......most of them give the contracts out in late summer in preparation for fall. Some of our complexes have them done twice per year, but some of them just do it in the fall. We have one that does once in the Spring, and TWICE in the fall. I love that one.


Anyway, good luck to you.
 
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OrangeCrest

Guest
Not something I have done or specialize in... Here is someone who does this line of work, so if that is the way it is done, there you go... :D

I do tend to do overkill, and I am a perfectionist and won't leave until you can practically eat off of it. This is why I have a 0% call back. So if you can do it that way, it would probably be a lot more profitable.
 

Mike Hughes

New Member
I have a 0% callback rate on all services that I have not done also. :D

Pressure washers can be an effective tool for gutter cleaning, if you are prepared to clean up the mess below. They can be a poor choice if the temperatures are near freezing, or will be that night. Imagine the liability of covering an entire property in ice.....

The best time to use a power washer for cleaning gutters (insides) would be if you are doing a whole house wash anyway.
 
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OrangeCrest

Guest
Originally posted by Mike Hughes
I have a 0% callback rate on all services that I have not done also. :D

Pressure washers can be an effective tool for gutter cleaning, if you are prepared to clean up the mess below. They can be a poor choice if the temperatures are near freezing, or will be that night. Imagine the liability of covering an entire property in ice.....

The best time to use a power washer for cleaning gutters (insides) would be if you are doing a whole house wash anyway.

Ice? Ice? Why would anyone want to blast anything with ice?

Oh, that's right! Only ice around here is in the freezer and in the mountains...
[lllkiuy]
 

Mike Hughes

New Member
Sure, rub it in! I'm not a huge fan of the cold, but I do enjoy the variety of having four distinctly different seasons........
 

mhpoole

New Member
I agree with mike i never use water unless a drain is clogged up. I use a pole with a gutter spoon on the end and cuts the time quite alot. Apts for the most part want it done cheap! Most are paying between 30-50 per building with 12 units in each. Not worth my time unless i am very slow. Where are you located in Oregon?
 
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blacklabbear

Guest
I am located in Portland.

I don't see how water isn't used in order to do a thorough job, especially when gutter muck & grime innevitably run over the outside of the gutter, even if you try to lift up debris towards the roof & not the gutter. The outside of the gutter is now dirty, caused by the person cleaning them, especially if they are white gutters. Do you quickly spray off the outside mess, or do you not use water at all on most of your jobs. If a downspout is clogged, pouring just a small amount of water down isn't going to let you know if it is clogged at the bottom. It seems to me that you have to spray the downspout clean for at lest a few seconds to make sure they are clear. Also, if you don't at least spray the inside of the gutters, don't you leave behind debris? I don't know how it is in the Midwest & East, but some of the trees have pine needles & those helicopter things that can't be entirely picked up by hand. Do you use a special tool, or just your hands.

Also, what methods of advertising do you use? What is your most effective way of getting new customers? How long does your season last? Is anyone able to clean gutters full time throughout the year?

Thanks for any feedback.
 

Mike Hughes

New Member
I really cant say much more............thats the way we do it, and I clean a lot of gutters. I use rubber gloves........and I can get almost anything out of them with my hands..........no problem. No power washer or hot water necessary.

Often times i have one person putting the water down the spout while another listens at the bottom to be certain its clear. We take any steps necessary to clear it if it is clogged. Starting with a plumbing snake..........and dismantle it if necessary. If the clog is in an underground pipe, that is a different story.......Roto Rooter or someone like them could take care of that..........or a sewer jetting attachment on our power washer..........but I never have my power washers handy when cleaning gutters.

In all of my gutter cleaning experience, I dont think I've ever heard one single complaint about anything that dripped on the outside of the gutter. If it concerns you, you could pour some clean water on it by hand to rinse it off, but I really wouldnt let it bother you............you are not hired to "clean" the gutters per se...........you are there to clean the insides and ensure they are functional, nothing more.

We have tons of pine trees and the helicopter things too..........most of the time downspouts dont get clogged.......I'd say about 85% of the time the debris is just laying up in the gutter, covering the hole..........not actually down inside the spout. They can be picked up by hand. Scoop up the bulk of it.........then run your hand down the gutter for a final sweep..............like sweeping a kitchen floor..........you only use the dustpan once........

I clean gutters in every month of the year......every year. We get the least amount of gutter cleaning calls in April and May. We use yellow page ads primarily.

Don't make this harder then it needs to be.........or you will not find it to be a profitable activity.....
 

Mark Dadian

New Member
Water water everywhere
and not a drop to drink,

Clean the gutter inside/out
and you'll be in the pink.

I have four different pricings for gutters:
Blast from the ground with pressure washer;
Tiger-stripe wash with a brush;
Inside/out (Scoop, garden hose rinse and then tiger-stripe wash with brush, );
And finally, I/O with protection.

I agree with Mike Hughes on getting the job done to the point of effectiveness, BUT I like to see the inside as clean as the out, so I put the extra time into the job. Maybe, when I get an employee who naturally goes slow, I'll rethink this philosophy.

Hope this helps.
 

oneness

New Member
I do gutter cleaning for a lot of condo associations...The easiest way I have found is to use a blower. However, that's because I'm in Florida, and our roofs aren't very steep for the most part. Thus, you get a good bit of buildup of leaves/pinestraw on many roofs...The debris in the gutters is often minor compared to the amount of debris on the roof.

Just blow the roofs/gutters out, and pick up what can't be blown into the shrubbery. The ONLY time this is a problem is when there are fenced/locked areas around the building (such as a courtyard for each unit), or where the gutters haven't been done in a while and are full of dirt/mud...that makes quite a mess.
 

oneness

New Member
As far as cleaning a gutter with water, there's no need...I've yet to run into anyone who is concerned with how clean the inside of the gutter is, as long as the debris is gone and the water flows when it rains. There's a difference between being a perfectionist and wasting time. :)
 

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