Bid advice needed

I had an apartment complex ask me to give them a bid on cleaning just their breezeways. The manager said they like to get them cleaned a couple times a year because they get dusty and dirty from people leaving trash bags and such outside their doors.
I will include some pics but I’m uncertain if my bid would be anywhere in the ballpark. I was initially thinking to bid a price per breezeway.
They have 42 breezeways with stairs they need done and they aren’t big. Would I be bidding myself out of it at $80/breezeway or leaving too much money on the table?
I didn’t find anything directly pertaining to this in the search.
I would appreciate any advice. thanks!

I hope @Innocentbystander comments because this stuff is his bread and butter and I want to be him when I grow up, but just slightly less grumpy. :slight_smile: Actually, if @Racer and IBS could have some weird pressure washing baby, I’d like to be it. Let me know if you guys plan anything.

Anyway…

A few questions though:

Do you have a hot water machine?

Do they want vinyl (hardiboard? I can’t tell) AND concrete done?

I’ve done a couple apartment complexes and HATED them. Lol. Breezeways are the tedious part.

Currently, this is how we’re doing apartments:

5 buildings once per month, perpetually. Meaning no end to the contract.

If they haven’t been done in years I’d do the first round at double what you were guessing to get them back to a baseline. Meaning as clean as you can reasonably get them.

Then I’d do 10-12 breezeways once every month maintenance washes that way everything was getting cleaned on a quarterly basis.

But then again, I have jobsite ADD and absolutely hate being on the same job site for longer than 2 days.

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Figure 12 to 15 minutes to wash. Don’t know your water situation. I’d be all over this at $50 each. Black stair paint will flake if rinsed with much pressure. Tape key holes and throw snake down in front of lower door thresholds.

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@squidskc that sounds like one heck of a money makin child.lol.
I do have hot water, 8gpm
They do want the siding (appears to be hardi siding) and the concrete cleaned. I do like the idea of the continuous cleaning contract. I hadn’t thought of that.
What do you think about giving them one bid as you explained and one bid to clean it all at once?good or bad idea?
@Innocentbystander I will definitely be slower at this than you, I’m still workin on gettin quick. I figure I could handle do the for that price. I tend to try and bid a bit high being afraid of leaving too much money on the table.
At 12-15min per. Are you hitting it all with SH,wash and move.

Leaving money on the table is made up gobbledygook they pitch at trade shows and roundtables. If you get paid for what you bid there is no money Ieft on the table. Surface clean bottom. Soap everything from bottom level. Switch to rinse. Walk backwards up steps turbo nozzle steps as you climb. Turbo top landing. Rinse on way down. Pull tape on your way down. Run squeegee across floor on bottom. Grab snakes and go to the next one.

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What happens if I clean the entire apartment complex and no one ever calls after that? Lol. At least I have this on the calendar. A full calendar, any way I can get there, helps me sleep at night.

With limited information this is how I’d probably bid it. And I’ll use the numbers you and Dr. Page are throwing around.

Month 1: $80 per breezeway baseline cleaning for the first 1/3rd.
Month 2: " " " second 1/3rd
Month 3: " " " last 1/3rd
Month 4: $50 per breezeway maintenance charge for the first 1/3rd again.
Month 4: “”“” second 1/3
And so on. You get the point.

Month 13, 14, and 15 I’d charge $80 again for the in depth, hot water gum removal, baseline wash.

Edit: I reread your question… I misunderstood at first. Give them both. Heck yeah. People like choices.

Son: dad the neighbors have some guy washing their house with a ryobi

Dad: walk away

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:joy:

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@Innocentbystander @squidskc thank you guys very much! Awesome information. I appreciate you guys takin the extra time to help out when you have your own businesses to tend to.