Extenda wand Results are IN

[jimspowewash]

Found the wand to do to be pretty sturdy at 24ft with a 45deg.Im very happy with the push button but i will say if using for a while ide get the back belt all in all it was worth the money its quite lite and easy to handle with pressure.This may be as much of an asset as the xjet for me at least.

 

[ron]

ron p

did you get the 1/4 inc hose or the 3/8 i think im going to get the 3/8 so i can downstream the gutter zap
How are you cleaning gutters?
Did you try the gutter cleaning hook for the insides yet?
did it make a big mess?

 

[Steven Rowlet]

Ron, Use the X-Jet for the zap on the gutters. The downdtream will dillute it too much. Give me a call and I will help you with the mixture rate. I clean about a 20-25' section at a time.

 

[ron]

ron p/steve

i will give you a shout, iwas hopeing to cut down on the cost by getting it closer
i use a alum pole and brush to put it on and x-jet it off
putting it on with the x jet just costs a lot of money
i plan on useing del#os dbn1430 and downstream it
now that i ordered the extenda wand with the gutter attachment im adding the insides and outsides of the gutters to my "SPRING CLEANING SPECIAL"
For one price you get
INSIDE OF GUTTERS CLEANED
OUTSIDE OF GUTTERS CLEANED
YOUR SIDEING CLEANED
*FRONT PORCH AND WALK CLEANED
$1.50 A LIN. FT FOR 1 STORY
$2.00 LIN FT FOR 2 STORY
AND ASK ABOUT SPECIAL PRICING ON YOUR POOL APRON IF DONE AT TIME OF HOUSE CLEANING.
WE ARE FULLY INSURED AND ONLY USE SAFE PRODUCTS IN OUR CLEANING
IF YOUR NOT HAPPY WITH OUR SERVICE - YOU DONT PAY**
SIGN UP NOW FOR OUR DECK SPECIALS - CALL FOR DETAILS
IF YOU HAVE A PRESSURE TREATED DECK PLEASE CALL ASAP
REPETE CUSTOMERS ALLWAYS 10% OFF
* up to 50 sq.ft.
** labor only
Well STEVE what do you think of this as my newspaper ad?
i know that the wand is going to make a mess but im there to wash the house anyway.

 

[Steven Rowlet]

Ron, I like the add. Are you going to run it in a large paper or a neighborhood type? Now is the prime time to get the word out. Go for it.

 

[ron]

RON P

Still part time, so local paper right now. But things change.
Our town is doing major sewer work so the houses are all real dirty
ripping up streets,ect..

 

[Steven Rowlet]

Ron, Check your e-mail.

 

[jimspowewash]

I got the 1/4 i use the xjet for all detergent apps. I spray the zap on straight and get 1.50 a lft for that alone.So you should be pretty busy,the hook is good quality but i havent used it yet.

 

[ernie50]

Jesus ron, kinda low on your pricing aren't ya? This is spring time, charge accordingly. $2 bucks for 2 story home? I know your part time but next year if you go full time and have full time expenses, your going to lose your shirt on your repeat business.

Last year there was a guy who ran ads in the Press. It read "Name your own Price" power wash. I guess the theory was people would call him last and he'd lowball other estimates. He didn't make it til June. There is plenty of work for everyone without playing the Lowball Game.

Don't sell them on price, sell them on quality and professionalism.

 

[Mike Hughes]

Ron,

Leave the pricing out of the newspaper ad. Its not necessary. Plus, tells your competitors what you're charging.

I'd rather get a call, go out and look at the place and make a quick judgement..............some places you're gonna want more, some you may want to do for less.

 

[ron]

ron p

#1 i dont care if my comp. knows what i charge
#2 if a customer knows ABOUT what im going to charge, when they call its all most garrenteed ill get the job.
#3 This is a SPECIAL not my everyday price- its a good way to pick-up the extras and build a customer base.
#4 my full time job i bring home $500 a week busting my butt with a 20 lb sledge hammer
at $2 a lin ft. a 30x50 home thats $320 x2 on a sat= $640 now wash 12 trucks on sunday at $35=$420 now thats $1060 now i have to pay out everything a full timer will in a 40 hr. week in 20 hours so my exspenses are[like being] double not to mention NO LIFE
so after the list of maint., insurance,ads,book keeping, you know the list
i can still bring home between $600 - $750 a weekend not bad for a pick-up truck,trailer,and a skid. Now add in 1 deck per week at night 5 to 7[add 10 hours to the part time job] add another $250 or so
thats $1500 bring home more or less
thats working from 6 in the am to 5 at night with fixing tires from 5:30 to 7:30 doing deck work
and 20 hours a weekend for house and truck washing.
im 37 and look like 57 but there are things in life i want and the only thing you have to do to get them is work hard.
This is what i do to try to get to a point that i can go fulltime.
sorry for the life story its just that i hate when your charging a customer $100 per hour and someone tells you your price is too low no offence to anyone but house washing is the easiest no brainner type of washing out there thats why there are so meney house washers out there. 1 or 2 types of chem no water recovery,no recapture,no EPA,no waiting 30 days for your money, the most cash[so im told],no big water tank,no trailer, and 1 ad will keep you busy for a month part time good luck ill be watching but dont think ill be posting anymore
cept maybe to keep bigboy in line good luck to everyone and have a good season.

 

[JR Wood]

Ron,
That's a great deal for customers especially for people who routinely have their gutters cleaned.The price just to clean the gutters alone in new jersey is between $50 and $120.More towards the high side!
Call the customers in october and remind them to have their gutters cleaned.You could make a good buck going into the winter.

 

[Mike Hughes]

Ron,

I see your point, but I still disagree with including pricing in an ad.

If I'm your competitor, I'll just go in there and bid $1.90 a foot......THEN who's more likely to get the job??

Dont allow the customer to have preconceived notions about you before you get there, sell yourself not your price.

 

[Larry L.]

*LOL* that may be harder then you think ron b/c I'm feeling in a runaway mood,no not that way you old lowballer you hahahahahaha,it would be harder heck to make a living with high prices like that around here.
Besides the way I read your chicken scatching you can go fultime powerwashing ifen you haven't stepped to a higher standard of living with the extra money you made from it.What more poo'if you need,your figures should be poo'if enough.Look at the free time you could have ifen it wasn't for that another fultime job,you got all the bullits you need right here,whats so funny the shells are laying everywhere on the boards as to tract your pray if you want to grow,hahaha.

ever watch a honey bee do the honey bee dance as in telling all the other bee's where he got that honey and how,which way to fly,how far,watch out for that grasshopper by the yellow flower plus warning the dragon flys where ambushing,stealing honey from the honey bee's that had to much honey coming from there.....

see may be harder ya think to keep me in line,lol.

 

[ron]

ron p

BIGBOY just when i think im out,you drag me back in.
I talked to a couple of people on the phone about you and some just dont get it, and some just dont want to. There loss. If i would have had a reg. teacher like you in high school maybe id be in 3 piece suit instead of a rain suit. What did you do before driving a truck,salesman,and washer?
went and watched our local PRO wash a house today. He has SUBS. magnetic signs and everything.
took his brand new pump up sprayer out of the box,flattened it out to put under his truck because he did'nt want the dripping oil on the guys driveway. Then he pulled out his case of bleach and filled the pump up. 2 story. Got his ladder and walked the roof with a back pac blower and did the gutters, then with rag and bucket hand cleaned the gutters[outside]
Then sprayed one side with the bleach[pump-up] and his 11 hp portable rinsed
it was so strong that the rinse blew the mix onto the neibours fence and whitened it[but only partly] no pre watering of the grass. the empty bleach bottles are blowing around the front yard as we speak. His idea of saftey is putting his head down as he sprays bleach up. When i could'nt take watching any more he was on the first roof trying to pump up as much as he could to get the chem to the peak[he did'nt want to put a ladder on the first roof to reach the peak. yes he used the ladder and pump up to put the bleach on the first side.
its been 4 hours and he has 2 sides done.
i see he has 4 boxes of A-1 DECK WASH sitting out also. Ill go back over in about an hour and see how far hes got.
Bigboy im about 90 days away from getting my new house then im loaded for bear.

 

[Larry L.]

talking bout me huh,atleast my names out there huh plus everybody just don't get it,does that mean I've got my competitors guessing and wondering bout me.Hint only my true customers aND friends know me,I'm like a spider,you'll never know how my web is going to catch ya or when I'm going to eat ya.

I was also a milkman,I owned the routes.....played with it for bout 8,10 years........man I loved to open a good COLD chocit'milk off the trucks huummm.

So I see where that extra has been going,is bear season in,if so walk around the spider web's.

Don't be over there bothering that local pro or atleast learn his sek'r-it.

I would love to have friends like on the movie"brother where art'ya'll or something like that"..

 

[Mike Hughes]

Damn you, Bigboy...........you just made me have to go downstairs and make some chocolate milk!


Ron, that story is something else...........that guy is desperately in need of some education!

 

[jimspowewash]

About time i heard truth ,Big you own the 16 pounder i v only been to 14, bass that is my freinds still yell at me or eatin it?Inever take without a cause or reason and i also like to know where my fish cum from

 

[Larry L.]

Never was crazy over powered chocit but if it came down to it I'd lite a fire under it,love hotchocit too.To me there is nothing better then a cold glass of real chocitmilk and fried bologna (round steak) between 2 slices of whitebread with a bowl of pork-n-beans to go with it,even for a midnight snack.

Hey Jim had a friend do the same thing,he eat him and its made him sick ever sen'it.I like playing tricks on him,I went by his house one day and he wasn't home,he'd been and still was mowing the yard but had shut off the mower and went somewhere.I had ran over a copperhead (snake) before I got there which I had it in the back of the truck to show him.Hmmm he's not home hmmmm I took the snake and ti'ed it to the back of his lawnmower with fishline (catgut),covered it up with freshly mowed grass.............I got a kuzzing for showing him the copperhead dat way,he still kuzz me today for dat wittle trick but I get to kuzz him back for eating his BASS,he'd ate him the night before seeing the copperhead.When he started his mower and started pushing it the snake cawled out from under the gass which was between his legs,it had scared him so bad it made him sick but I keep telling him it wasn't the snake that made him sick it was that BIG OLD BASS he'd ate that night.He also reminds me I have NO BIG fish mounted on my wall either,,,,its cuzz I turn ALL my BIG ONES loose I don't eatem.lol.

 

[ron]

hey bigboy/ron p

you asked what i learned from that PRO house washer?
1-i should keep my rig looking better then i do and get it lettered no magnetic signs looks too cheap and unprofessional [he did'nt]
2- mix all my chems before getting to the customer and anything that needs to mixed on the job be in a professional type container. [he did'nt]
3-get a uniform even if its a printed tee shirt and clean jeans,printed ball cap
and have the truck lettering,printed shirts,biz. cards,and truck match
kind of like UPS makes you look more professional [he did'nt]
4-make sure your equipment looks good and everything is kept neet not sanford and son thrown in a old pick-up truck.[he did'nt]
5-you need a good mix of speed,price,and quality. That PRO guy did a good job because he took his time he did the job as if he were just a reg homeowner that went to the depot bought everything and went home to do the job in a weekend. Not like he was getting paid by the job but by the hour. The customer was not home to see anything that he did so as far as they are concerned he did a good job and thats all the customer wanted.[ it did come out good]
6- tools are tools a chiesel in one mans hands can knock off a rusted nut the same chiesel in another mans hands can carve out a piece of art. learn your tools, learn how to use them.
7- im sure that the salseman knew the way this guy was going to wash this house and told the customer WHY this way was the best way, and charged accordingly. This PRO guy has about 8 crews working doing all diffrent things. He power washes,paints,gutter cleaner,chimminy sweeper,decks, anthing for outside maint of homeowner and professioal building maint, ecept lawn care, driveway sealing, or street sweeping but give him time. His trucks look great its the subs he uses that have the crap.
8- so if you use a sub set a standard and give him more then a magnetic sign.
BIGBOY on that other thing i know its a power source for tools mixers,you could put your tire parts on pump-ups so you dont need to pump,good for winterising your equipment, but you got me to scratchin my knoggin. cant seem to add today. like fishin in a big pond i know i got a fish on but cant see whats on the end of the line so i dont know how to land it.