All righty nice to see this forum.

Tim Lynch

New Member
I may have missed it before?

But this year I am going to be gutter cleaning myself. Decks are fun Spring to Summer but not Winter.

How many others here do Gutter cleaning? I know of a few from the Gutter Source Message Board.
 

oneness

New Member
I'd say that thus far, about 20% of my work is roof/gutter cleaning, mostly for commercial accounts (condo associations). Good money, easy work, though it is HOT up there on the roof in July when it is 98 on the ground!
 

hadishon

New Member
Mike, I've been thinking of bidding on some condo's. They are really bad with black stains. What do you usually charge per sq ft on the roofs? I'm in a new area and still getting use to what to charge here so I'm just looking for a ballpark. There is one other guy in town that I know of that cleans roofs, he is half retired and charges more then I do. For some reason I feel guilty when I charge more then 15 cents a foot when it's a walkable roof.

How do you approach the condo associations to get the business?

Thanks
 

hadishon

New Member
I'm hoping to get through this winter with gutter cleaning. I think there is a good market for it in my area. When it's too cold to power wash, I'm going to clean gutters. When it's too bad to clean gutters, I'm going to sell on eBay. :)
 

Tim Lynch

New Member
Originally posted by hadishon
I'm hoping to get through this winter with gutter cleaning. I think there is a good market for it in my area. When it's too cold to power wash, I'm going to clean gutters. When it's too bad to clean gutters, I'm going to sell on eBay. :)


How did you prepare for your advertising? My yellow pages comes out in april so I made sure last year I was in it. So far the calls are comming in. Yet I had to pass on 2 as they were to high for me to play life with. Next monday I have 3 setup at 90 bucks a wack. All in the same area so that looks fruitfull.

I wish you the best of calls.

E-bay LOL You know the guy at my quicky mart was saying the other day that one of his customers buys the junk in his misc case and sells it for double on e-bay and gets buyers...
 

oneness

New Member
Hadishon:

I don't charge by the square foot, because every roof is different. Some are steeper, some have a lot of gutters, some have no gutters, some are just square buildings, and some are fairly complicated. Basically, I look at the job and do my best to determine how long it should take....Take my hourly rate and you've got your price!

Two ways you can approach condos. First, contact the board members. Depending on where you are, getting that info may or may not be easy. Here in FL, it is easy, since the condo is a non-profit corp, and the corporate officers of all corps are available online. All you need is the legal name of the condo assoc. and you can get the board member names and addresses.

Second, you find out who manages the association, and contact the manangement company. That can often be difficult, as far as getting people to take notice. What you need to do is find out who the decision maker is for that property, and either get them on the phone or get them to agree to meet with you for a few minutes. Bring pics and a proposal, and you never know what might happen. I can say this...cleaning condos is great...You are there for sometimes several days, so the money is pretty good.

I don't have to work too hard getting that business, since I am also the VP of the largest HOA management company in our area.
 

Tim Lynch

New Member
Originally posted by oneness
I'd say that thus far, about 20% of my work is roof/gutter cleaning, mostly for commercial accounts (condo associations). Good money, easy work, though it is HOT up there on the roof in July when it is 98 on the ground!

Oneness oh mighty master of Condos! LOL

I was stopped at a redlight today and a guy in a nice car pulls up and said he wrote my number down for gutter cleaning. A nice little condo community under all kinds of tress that drop at differant times. He is going to call he said (fingers crossed) I would love some stable work.

I normally do residential work, but the place he is talking about is a sweet deal.

I normally charge 90 2 hour min 30 an hour after.

I guess I should go if it happens hourly? What do you think? He did say at first it would be harder then just checking the account when needed. I guess maybe just do 30 an hour would be best. I could live with that but I don't want to undercut.

Do you find Condo owners like up front bids or hourly?

Im far enough away from you not to interfear with your accounts.
Anyone eles care to offer some tips on this job?
E-mail if you want.

timothyjlynch@hotmail.com

Thanks guys
 

Dan Flynn

PWN Founder
I wouldn't tell customers hourly. I would figure too my self hourly plus material plus 10%. Then give them a price.
 

Tim Lynch

New Member
Never heard back from the guy that said he had a few condos... Figures. I get all my work from the yellow pages or reffers.
 

Mike Hughes

New Member
I never work hourly..........I leave that for handymen and the hacks out there that do jobs for people and have no insurance, etc..........

No offense intended to anyone here do does charge by the hour......
 

oneness

New Member
Well, we all charge by the hour, essentially, but we don't tell the customer that! I don't think anyone likes an open ended deal like an hourly bid...they want to know bottom line what it is going to cost them, up front. Besides, on some jobs, I don't want the condo management to know what my prices work out to per hour! It can be damn good money. The problem with many condo associations, however, is that they are filled up with retired folks with nothing to do, and some of those people are just plain impossible to please.

Tim:

If you have the time to do some research, find the condo associations that need roof/gutter cleaning, find out who manages them, and send a letter and a follow up phone call. Can't hurt! If they need cleaning badly, that may mean no one is currently doing it.
 

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