Hey guys, I am mainly a residential guy, at this point that is pretty much what I am limited to for the most part. I don’t have heat, I can’t reclaim, and I don’t have my own water.
I have a returning residential customer from the previous year… He owns a gas station in the area. And wants the parking lot washed (We are talking about 100,000sq ft of concrete here).
On top of the gas station, I will be doing his house again, and his car wash. The wash and house pay well, and I really don’t want to lose the wash, because he is going to keep having me come once a month.
So, by the sounds of it if I do not pursue the parking lot he is going elsewhere for a all-in-one guy. I can rent a hot water machine, that is not the issue, but I am not sure taking the risk of not reclaiming my water is worth it.
I have 3500psi at 4gpm truck mounted machine. I feel way under equipped for this job. Any advice one what I could do is helpful.
Thanks guys
I don’t think I would touch the gas station without hot water
1 Like
Find a good outfit to subcontract it to. There are guys that specialize in commercial washing, and don’t want to deal with residential.
In my opinion, I think the customer is a little short-sighted in wanting an all-in-one company for both his residence and his business.
He has someone who he’s happy with (you), and contemplating dropping you because you can’t provide an additional service? He may find a company that does great commercial work, but when it comes time to wash his house, the crew might be like bulls in a China shop. Not saying all commercial washers are like that, but he’s taking a bit of a gamble.
1 Like
Sub contractors are a beautiful thing on big jobs. If you find the right one anyway… you can work alongside them and do half the lot, they do the other half save yourself some money, but if it means doing the first one “free” in exchange for regular work?
I’m gonna do the first one free. Just don’t lose money. Never… ever… do a project that is upside down from the start.
Btw, I rent a hot water unit and trailer for $150 a day or $400 for 3 days. When I have it I do everything I possibly can to put as many hot water jobs together as possible.
If I know I’m working at The Chic’est of Filets on a Sunday, About a week before I spend a day putting out driveway washing flyers and call my other commercial contacts to see if they want me to see if they need gum removed. I typically pay the machine rental costs off in half a day and the fuel for it in another half of a half of a day.
Just my two cents.
2 Likes
That thing must use a lot of fuel.
I would guess about 4gals per hour, total, for the washer and burner…but I really don’t know.
It was a rough estimate. (Really rough) I like to be conservative. Ha!
Thanks guys,
I really don’t know any companies around me personally. I like the idea to sub contract though, that sounds like my best bet.
Hell with 4gpm and 3500psi my surface cleaner moves SO SLOW in order to remove dirt. I feel like it would take me a century to clean the surface with just a wand.
Exhibit A. Call all the companies around because you might get a last minute call for some weird stuff. As I type this, I’m going to make $850 for sitting in my Tundra and turning off generators when these guys are done. Oh and I got it prepaid.
These aren’t my guys. And each inflatable obstacle is going to take about 2 hours. At 3 obstacles, 6 hours… that’s a lot of pay for shutting off generators.
Don’t use a wand on the concrete. You will be there for ever. You need a surface cleaner and for 100,000sf I would say a 30". But then you need about 8gpm to run it. If yo at going to do it, rent an 8gpm machine (with hot water if there is grease) and either buy or rent a big surface cleaner. Good luck.
I did a BP gas station last month. I got 5.6 gpm cold water unit and it did a horrible job. It would not lift any of the oil or gas stains. It looked as if I didint do anything . So my opinion is don’t even try to use your unit It will be a waste of time. I would rent a hot unit or sub contract it out
Honda GX 630 uses ~ 1.25 GPH @ WOT under load,
6 GPM diesel burner is ~2.50 GPH @ 100% duty cycle,
