Hey guys I’m not at this point yet but planning for the future. What’s more productive and profitable? 1 man or 2 man crews? Note with the two man crews each truck will have two pressure washers on it, so each crew member would be responsible for two sides of the house or house and drive way at the same time etc, or is it better to have two separate trucks and have them working by themselves. Will you be able to get more jobs done per week with 1 man crews And if so Is it worth the extra expense, that’s double the amount of trucks needed, more insurance costs, more potential accident liability. With 2 man you have higher employee morale, safer ( someone can spot the ladder) but you can also have less production if they are fooling around. What do you guys think?
I’ve done both. For residential, one man crews are best. Idea of two machines running sounds great, but unless there is a hydrant close by, they won’t have water. One guy can milk a low water house while water catches up, but two guys is just wasted payroll. Two on commercial is ok, but I’ve found as I have downsized but kept the trucks it’s almost better to have one guy per truck. Unless they work at the exact same speed, the guy that finishes his half of the building tends to take a break instead of helping the other guy finish. Human nature.
Jobs with multiple services or safety risks (ladder work/roofs), two people is great. For just washing houses, one guy per truck works best in my opinion.
Probably my window cleaner coming through, but it’s a good idea to have a second person watching your back.
I wash with my dad, we got a 4pm & 8gpm, one soaps and the other one rinses, or one cleans the driveway while the other washes the house, water supply in my area is generally not a problem especially when we double feed the tank, he’s starting to get old and I take most of the heavier work like gutter cleaning while he helps me, I don’t think I’d run a 2 man crew if I didn’t work with him, it’d be 2 trucks with one guy each
Works fine both ways. I worked with a helper all year and it really sped me up. While I’m talking with the customer they are getting everything set up and taping outlets and then we do have 2 powerwashers to work off of. If we dual feed our water tank then water isn’t usually a problem. And now I have a couple helpers from this year ready to be crew leaders next year. A 2 man crew will never double production but it’s definitely not a waste
Assuming one guy is doing the house or the driveway at the same time.
- Window Cleaning
- Deck or Fence cleaning. A lot of that process would be a pump or backpack sprayer for the chem treatment.
- Gutter Brightening
Sometimes I like having my son with me just for hose management in the driveway or taking doorhangers around while I’m working on a job.
Crucial point there…with 1 man crews, you never gain new leaders for the next truck.
No, you put a new guy in the truck with someone to learn what to do, or better yet, your train them. I’m way past having patience to train someone though 
My new guys go through 2 weeks of training to be the second guy on the truck, lol. But I’d never send one of them out alone after even a month or more of training. Too many things come up that they won’t know, and I or my Service Manager can’t always be available to resolve for them…like the time we had to send a crew of 2 good new people we had out together to do a clean up project. The undiluted Gutter Butter worked so good on the oil stained asphalt that they decided to try it 50-50 on the garage door… that one resulted in hiring a painter 
