I imagine your price per square foot going down to make up for quantities… if its worth your saved time and the drive way isn’t oily or greasy, how about renting another machine? In the end the work has to be worth it. Maybe price it well enough to cover cost of overhead + rental + price of buying a second surface cleaner. Getting a big job like this is a good time to put yourself in a position to do another one like this again… without having to rent the second time.
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My concern is with the low cost per sq ft because of the size of the job, that I still make money on the job regardless of how small that profit may be.
How many sq feet can someone realististically do in an hour?
Is a surface cleaner the answer? Some of the parking garage guys may know of a piece of equipment that would cut time down vs using a surface cleaner.
How long do you think it will take you to complete this job with the equipment you have? Figure that out then price it accordingly. If you get it then do it and put some of that money away to buy some more equipment that can help you do a job like this much faster the next time. Also make sure you bring some degreaser for any oil spots that may be on the concrete.
I can’t price this for you because with our setup we can do this if need be in 2-3hrs running 4 Powerwashers rated @ 8-10gpm @200 degrees and the surface machines ranging from 48",39",36" and down. Part of the reason why I like doing parking garages because of the flatwork sizes. We have a parking garage booked at almost 1,200,000 sq’ in the summer.
Spin a comparable surface to a desired quality for 15 minutes and then do the math. See how far YOU go and give it your best guess commercial cleaning or parking garages I don’t think would compare in sf. Price or per minute ability
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Totally agree. You should be able to do this faster then a parking garage of that size(which would be extremely small) and also charge more per sq’ also since your dealing with the owner.
How big of a surface cleaner can we run on a 8 GPM machine? Could use part of the cost of this to purchase another washer and surface cleaner and be all set for next big job.
Hey Heroes–Rule of thumb is take the gpm’s x 4 to get an idea of what size Powerwasher you need for your surface machine. This is for water powered surface machine like most are such as yours. (I have 2 belt driven surface machines that clean much faster and can go with gpm x 6 with no problem).
Since your machine is 4.8gpm and you times that by 6 your right at that 28" size but that is not optimal for a surface machine of that size. Here’s a quick idea. See if a rental place in your area has 8gpm powerwasher and if you could rent that for this job you will see how well your surface machine can really work.
How long does it take you to do a regular 1000sqft driveway? Your equipment and exsperiance will determine the man hours. If it’s not in the budget to upgrade, you can buy some extra garden hose and have a helper rinse the concrete behind you while you continue to surface clean it.
