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Pricing "curbs"?
- Thread starter WFSTOTT
- Start date
it depend's.
if you can sit on the tailgate of a pick-up truck with 5 gpm ,hot water and a tank. With a second guy driveing the truck. You can go pretty darn fast. If your walking and pulling hose your going to be a lot slower.
As with any cleaning your equipment and amount of dirt will need to be factored in.
Also size of curb.
if you had a high GPM unit, they sell a TWIN TURBO nozzle set-up that you could really fly with.
if you can sit on the tailgate of a pick-up truck with 5 gpm ,hot water and a tank. With a second guy driveing the truck. You can go pretty darn fast. If your walking and pulling hose your going to be a lot slower.
As with any cleaning your equipment and amount of dirt will need to be factored in.
Also size of curb.
if you had a high GPM unit, they sell a TWIN TURBO nozzle set-up that you could really fly with.
<font color=e87400>Ouch, that's not a curb, that's a small sidewalk & a wall.
I can't really help ya on the speed or price but I will give you a warning which may very well be worthy of considering in your price. <b>IF</b> there is a crack between the 18" curb & the 13" vertical (right at where the 2 connect) when you pressure clean it's very likely going to sling out ALOT of debris. This debris will A) Be irritating as hell because it's comes straight back at you, thus for situations like that I use a 6' wand. B) You "may" have to rinse all that away somethere or worse yet pick it up.
Something to consider.
Cody</font>
I can't really help ya on the speed or price but I will give you a warning which may very well be worthy of considering in your price. <b>IF</b> there is a crack between the 18" curb & the 13" vertical (right at where the 2 connect) when you pressure clean it's very likely going to sling out ALOT of debris. This debris will A) Be irritating as hell because it's comes straight back at you, thus for situations like that I use a 6' wand. B) You "may" have to rinse all that away somethere or worse yet pick it up.
Something to consider.
Cody</font>
M
mel
Guest
good point CODY, washed a building this week blasting loose paint off , a day to do , a half aday to clean up!
Mel
Mel
M
mel
Guest
will the curb be re-painted or painted ? will you just be doing the entry ways of the parking lot ? is this for the city , state, contractor , who? will you be doing it from the street or parking lot , do you have a water tank, if you are doing it from the street , will you have to set out cones for safty or use a flag man?
what do you need per hr , are you doing 10 curbs or 1,000?
what do you need per hr , are you doing 10 curbs or 1,000?
B.E YOUNG Sr
New Member
What have you calculated yourself so far?
Have you ran some tests on your own as far as your capabilities?
What chems wil you use?
What is your hourly rate? Why would it change because your washing curbs?
Hmmm. Does $25.00 an hour sound ok? Ok do it fo $20.00 and make a killing. Or kill yourself!
How about I have this possible job to do xxx amount of linear feet of curbing. It is in a resedential neighbor hood or it is in a shopping center.
I ran a test with my machine and it looks like I can do xxx square feet per minute. I will be working by myself or I will have a helper.
A water source is available to cover my route.
Based on these numbers, my fuel and chem costs I am planning on charging XXX. What do you think, am I in the ball park?
I also have an spare turbo nozzle in case mine quits during the job.
Have you ran some tests on your own as far as your capabilities?
What chems wil you use?
What is your hourly rate? Why would it change because your washing curbs?
Hmmm. Does $25.00 an hour sound ok? Ok do it fo $20.00 and make a killing. Or kill yourself!
How about I have this possible job to do xxx amount of linear feet of curbing. It is in a resedential neighbor hood or it is in a shopping center.
I ran a test with my machine and it looks like I can do xxx square feet per minute. I will be working by myself or I will have a helper.
A water source is available to cover my route.
Based on these numbers, my fuel and chem costs I am planning on charging XXX. What do you think, am I in the ball park?
I also have an spare turbo nozzle in case mine quits during the job.
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If I can fill the day with curb cleaning, I will clean curbs for $75/hour or 25-50 cents per foot. I move pretty quick because I have everything in the truck and just go down the line. How much you charge depends on many things. Your costs and area you are working in play a factor. If you have a contract or if this is a one time job makes a differance. You also have to consider the amount of work. If I had a curb job that would only take 1 hour, I'm going to charge more per foot then if it took 8 hours. You have to take into account your total job time. What are you doing with the dirt you get off the curb? Are you just going to let it be, reclaim, wash down a sewer... Are you painting it?
A word of caution, if you use chemicals, watch out for storm drains and EPA officials...
A word of caution, if you use chemicals, watch out for storm drains and EPA officials...
Mike Hughes
New Member
If you use a turbo nozzle the cracks shouldn't get too much debris on you.
offdutyfirema
New Member
curbing
Hope this helps, I average 10 to 15 hours a week cleaning curbing and sidewalks for a real estate holding company. For curbings I have my helper walk the flat part with a 16" whisper wash(Perfect size) and follow behind with a turbo nozzle for the step up and to rinse.
Hope this helps, I average 10 to 15 hours a week cleaning curbing and sidewalks for a real estate holding company. For curbings I have my helper walk the flat part with a 16" whisper wash(Perfect size) and follow behind with a turbo nozzle for the step up and to rinse.
<font color=e87400>WFSTOTT
No offense man, but you need to learn how to price your own work. Asking for pricing advice here on the forums is not the way to go. I would love to tell you a price that is wayyyyy to low just to have you get the job & then get burnt on it. However this would be adverse to another that may lose the job because of it.
Pricing is a sensitive subject. In order to figure out how much to charge you first need to figure out how much YOU can do. I'm guessing your a newbie since you're persistantly asking this question. How much footage & how much per hour your are going to have to charge would most likely be FAR FAR from the same as my stats.
Example: I am experienced & equipped I may be able to clean 5000 sqft an hour & you may only be able to clean 2000 sqft an hour. If we both charge the same rate per sqft then I would make 2 1/2 times as much per hour as you. Thus if you tried to use what I make per hour for this job they may laugh you off saying your way too high because you would be asking my price but for your time. As far as hourly. I don't charge that way, & NO ONE SHOULD. Use rate whenever possible. Rate being sqft, or Lft in most cases. Using the "rate" method is the ONLY way to consistantly make money in this business. Reason: Because if you start off with a "rate" that makes you money when your a newbie if you don't lower your rate then you will consistently make more money because your speed increases over time. You may start out making $100 an hour but in a couple years the same jobs & the same "rates" may yield you $200 an hour because of your increased speed. Include other variables to the speed increase, like experience, chemical refinement, better equipment etc.
Now, along with all that. YOu have to consider that your area has different demographics than perhaps my area & many or most others on this forum. With different demographics comes different prices. IT's similar to real estate in a way. I might ask on these forums wether or not $100,000 is a good price for a 3br 2ba 2 car garage house. Well, how would you know? In my area $100,000 for a house like that may be 4 times too much or it may be the bargain of a life time. It's all about the demographics. Another example might be to see what the cost of living expenses of one area to another might be. I live in florida & you do to, but my cost of living income could be 30% less if I lived in your area. I could live as well off $70K annual income there as I do off $100k here. Cost of Living. It's a big part.
I don't usually give too much in the way of pricing but I will give this as a possible base of reference if you have absolutely no clue what to charge or what a viable business should make. As a rule of thumb I would suggest to any "new" pressure cleaner to set their "rate" (based on square footage or (linear footage where applicable, houses, fences etc)) so as they will make approximates 3 - 3 1/2 times per hour as whatever the highest paid "Tradesman" are making. Highest paid tradesmen being Master Electricians, Master Masons, ASE Master Automotive Technicians at "Dealerships" etc etc, In other words the TOP paying slots of the blue collar industry. Remember this is a STARTING point for new businesses. In my area they make around $25 an hour. In your area I'd guess around $20 an hour If you are already established then your multipler would be more. My multiplier is significantly higher than 3 1/2 x's.
Reminder. That hourly price there should NOT BE USED DIRECTLY.
You need to learn how much of what you can do per hour. THis ONLY comes via experience. Find something you do or have done that is as similar as possible to what you are bidding. Adapt what it took to do another job, time, chems, equipment & use it to calculate what it will take to do the job you are bidding. <b>Again. NEVER CHARGE HOURLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unless of course there is absolutely no other way, which does happen time to time but VERY rarely. CHARGING HOURLY YOU WILL NEVER NEVER NEVER GET A RAISE!!!!!</b>
Other issues to this job that affect OUR inability to give you an accurate price are things like.
<li>How many feet are we talking? If it's 500 or 10,000 affects the price greatly. 500 ft is no big deal 10,000 is a big deal because accessibility & mobility come greatly into play. The longer it is the more you have to move your rig. You may need to tank water? These are big issues.
<li>How bad is it. Is it Black, Green, Orange. Is it all of the above. If it's black green & orange. Then you are going to be in for a haul. You'll need to pressure blast the hell out of it to get the black off then chem treat it twice, once for the green & once for the orange. Each adds chem cost & labor.
<li>Recovery issue. If you are doing curbs I'd bet anything there are going to be storm drains in their path. I know for a FACT that Florida won't look on that water going down their storm drains too kindly.
Bottom line, don't ask people here what to charge. They cannot tell you accurately. Yes there is a pricing table on the internet however it's as helpful as empty roll of Toilet paper. The prices it reflects are either inaccurate or too wide a range to be of any use to anyone. For instance on a top pressure cleaning site there is a reference to $0.08 to $0.15 per square foot for flat work. Seems like no big deal on one hand however calculate that times 100,000 square feet & see what kind of price swing you get. It's ridiculous. That 100,000 sqft gets prices at $8,000 to 15,000. A few pennies can be A HELLUVA ALOT in flatwork!
<b> AND PLEASE no one elaborate on the prices given above. I have shared them of an example of how the price guide is basically garbage. We don't need people saying well I charge this & that. Whenever ANYONE says that someone should charge this or that they may be creating a pricing issue in someone elses market. I see this happen fairly often where someone will say I'd charge .xx per square foot for that in response to someone asking for pricing help. Very often the price that is quoted is significantly off from the pricing in my area. Thus when you say a price that is low you may be unnecessarily costing me a job due to lowballing. When the price is too high you are only setting up some newbie for doom. Either way it's not good!
<i>And if anyone wants to dispute my recommendation for a starting point price structure for newbies please let me know, if others deem it inaccurate or inappropriate I will delete it. I hate putting it out there but feel that it may be helpful to keep newbies from lowballing themselves.</i></b>
Well there's a ton more too it than this, but I'm tired of typing.
GL
No offense man, but you need to learn how to price your own work. Asking for pricing advice here on the forums is not the way to go. I would love to tell you a price that is wayyyyy to low just to have you get the job & then get burnt on it. However this would be adverse to another that may lose the job because of it.
Pricing is a sensitive subject. In order to figure out how much to charge you first need to figure out how much YOU can do. I'm guessing your a newbie since you're persistantly asking this question. How much footage & how much per hour your are going to have to charge would most likely be FAR FAR from the same as my stats.
Example: I am experienced & equipped I may be able to clean 5000 sqft an hour & you may only be able to clean 2000 sqft an hour. If we both charge the same rate per sqft then I would make 2 1/2 times as much per hour as you. Thus if you tried to use what I make per hour for this job they may laugh you off saying your way too high because you would be asking my price but for your time. As far as hourly. I don't charge that way, & NO ONE SHOULD. Use rate whenever possible. Rate being sqft, or Lft in most cases. Using the "rate" method is the ONLY way to consistantly make money in this business. Reason: Because if you start off with a "rate" that makes you money when your a newbie if you don't lower your rate then you will consistently make more money because your speed increases over time. You may start out making $100 an hour but in a couple years the same jobs & the same "rates" may yield you $200 an hour because of your increased speed. Include other variables to the speed increase, like experience, chemical refinement, better equipment etc.
Now, along with all that. YOu have to consider that your area has different demographics than perhaps my area & many or most others on this forum. With different demographics comes different prices. IT's similar to real estate in a way. I might ask on these forums wether or not $100,000 is a good price for a 3br 2ba 2 car garage house. Well, how would you know? In my area $100,000 for a house like that may be 4 times too much or it may be the bargain of a life time. It's all about the demographics. Another example might be to see what the cost of living expenses of one area to another might be. I live in florida & you do to, but my cost of living income could be 30% less if I lived in your area. I could live as well off $70K annual income there as I do off $100k here. Cost of Living. It's a big part.
I don't usually give too much in the way of pricing but I will give this as a possible base of reference if you have absolutely no clue what to charge or what a viable business should make. As a rule of thumb I would suggest to any "new" pressure cleaner to set their "rate" (based on square footage or (linear footage where applicable, houses, fences etc)) so as they will make approximates 3 - 3 1/2 times per hour as whatever the highest paid "Tradesman" are making. Highest paid tradesmen being Master Electricians, Master Masons, ASE Master Automotive Technicians at "Dealerships" etc etc, In other words the TOP paying slots of the blue collar industry. Remember this is a STARTING point for new businesses. In my area they make around $25 an hour. In your area I'd guess around $20 an hour If you are already established then your multipler would be more. My multiplier is significantly higher than 3 1/2 x's.
Reminder. That hourly price there should NOT BE USED DIRECTLY.
You need to learn how much of what you can do per hour. THis ONLY comes via experience. Find something you do or have done that is as similar as possible to what you are bidding. Adapt what it took to do another job, time, chems, equipment & use it to calculate what it will take to do the job you are bidding. <b>Again. NEVER CHARGE HOURLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unless of course there is absolutely no other way, which does happen time to time but VERY rarely. CHARGING HOURLY YOU WILL NEVER NEVER NEVER GET A RAISE!!!!!</b>
Other issues to this job that affect OUR inability to give you an accurate price are things like.
<li>How many feet are we talking? If it's 500 or 10,000 affects the price greatly. 500 ft is no big deal 10,000 is a big deal because accessibility & mobility come greatly into play. The longer it is the more you have to move your rig. You may need to tank water? These are big issues.
<li>How bad is it. Is it Black, Green, Orange. Is it all of the above. If it's black green & orange. Then you are going to be in for a haul. You'll need to pressure blast the hell out of it to get the black off then chem treat it twice, once for the green & once for the orange. Each adds chem cost & labor.
<li>Recovery issue. If you are doing curbs I'd bet anything there are going to be storm drains in their path. I know for a FACT that Florida won't look on that water going down their storm drains too kindly.
Bottom line, don't ask people here what to charge. They cannot tell you accurately. Yes there is a pricing table on the internet however it's as helpful as empty roll of Toilet paper. The prices it reflects are either inaccurate or too wide a range to be of any use to anyone. For instance on a top pressure cleaning site there is a reference to $0.08 to $0.15 per square foot for flat work. Seems like no big deal on one hand however calculate that times 100,000 square feet & see what kind of price swing you get. It's ridiculous. That 100,000 sqft gets prices at $8,000 to 15,000. A few pennies can be A HELLUVA ALOT in flatwork!
<b> AND PLEASE no one elaborate on the prices given above. I have shared them of an example of how the price guide is basically garbage. We don't need people saying well I charge this & that. Whenever ANYONE says that someone should charge this or that they may be creating a pricing issue in someone elses market. I see this happen fairly often where someone will say I'd charge .xx per square foot for that in response to someone asking for pricing help. Very often the price that is quoted is significantly off from the pricing in my area. Thus when you say a price that is low you may be unnecessarily costing me a job due to lowballing. When the price is too high you are only setting up some newbie for doom. Either way it's not good!
<i>And if anyone wants to dispute my recommendation for a starting point price structure for newbies please let me know, if others deem it inaccurate or inappropriate I will delete it. I hate putting it out there but feel that it may be helpful to keep newbies from lowballing themselves.</i></b>
Well there's a ton more too it than this, but I'm tired of typing.
GL
oneness
New Member
I agree with Cody and B.E. Young....You need to figure up your own pricing....We can't tell you what you need per hour, we can't tell you how fast you can get it done, we have no idea about much of this job....Nothing wrong with checking your own calculations here but at least show some initiative!
B.E YOUNG Sr
New Member
WFSTOT,
If you see a lot of curbs in your future why not make a tool for the job?
Envision a two wheeled tool. One wheel rides on the lower outside edge the other rides on the top outside edge of the curb.
The axle is stainless tubing formed to shape of the curb.
There is one nozzle for the top and one for the botton attached to the tubing.
Each nozzle is 2,000 psi 2 gpm each.
Spray height is adjustable to match the width of the top and bottom of the curb.
Your wand attaches to the tool.
If you want to be real slick attach this to your front bumper using an air cylinder and drive with a water tank and rig in the truck bed!
Or attach to a four wheeler and pull a small trailer!
I guess this makes me sound lazy, but I beleive in working smarter not harder!
Hey do those curbs have side walks adjoing them?
If you see a lot of curbs in your future why not make a tool for the job?
Envision a two wheeled tool. One wheel rides on the lower outside edge the other rides on the top outside edge of the curb.
The axle is stainless tubing formed to shape of the curb.
There is one nozzle for the top and one for the botton attached to the tubing.
Each nozzle is 2,000 psi 2 gpm each.
Spray height is adjustable to match the width of the top and bottom of the curb.
Your wand attaches to the tool.
If you want to be real slick attach this to your front bumper using an air cylinder and drive with a water tank and rig in the truck bed!
Or attach to a four wheeler and pull a small trailer!
I guess this makes me sound lazy, but I beleive in working smarter not harder!
Hey do those curbs have side walks adjoing them?