BRICK IS A COLLOSAL PITA! It does no good whatsoever to clean brick that isn’t stained, but my experience with brick is that the stains often take several applications and a solution of 4-5% SH. Only experience can teach you how long that job will take. Its contingent on the PW, your method of mixing (DS or XJet), and your source of SH.
Brick is VERY porous. I avoid it in favor of vinyl, which isn’t especially. Having said that, I WILL clean brick, but I charge a small premium that covers the cost of extra SH and the extra time.Since I expect to earn $100 per, and my PW pumps 4GPM at 4K, I will usually add a third to my bill to cover those contingencies.
The nice thing with brick though is that it can be spot cleaned and not noticeable ( unlike vinyl). To offset the cost we tell the customer that on the brick we will clean all of the algae and mold off of the brick where needed…
If you’re getting paid to clean the house clean the whole house. The brick is dirty, maybe more so than other siding because the surface holds dirt. Your car gets dirty sitting in drive for a week, what makes you think brick that’s been sitting there for years isn’t. Most the time regular hw will clean it right up unless you have ton of stains on it. Got to use the right soap. Does take just a tad longer to rinse if you have bigger machine. Low volume machines will take a little extra time.
Brother Rick, low volume machines take FOREVER on brick. The good thing is, at least in my limited knowledge, rinsing can be superfluous. As can trying to clean brick that shows no sign of staining. It may just take @Racer’s 8GPM monster to do justice to old brick. When I cleaned my own 30 yr. old brick with my 4k 4gpm machine, I couldn’t tell where I’d cleaned, where I’d rinsed, or where I’d left alone EXCEPT where there was staining.
I spray house wash on everything that’s brick but only really focus on the bad areas. Mist people in my area font even want their bricks cleaned unless they are horrible.
just because you can’t see it doesn’t make it not dirty. You take a shower once in awhile, but bet you can’t really tell you’re dirty by looking at you, lol.
Yes, start with folks you know and see how long it takes you. You might not have the ideal rates in the beginning, but over time you will dial it in.
I am working part time and have found that I am under charging on flatwork. How do I know this? People don’t flinch at the rate and some say “is that all?” I am in my first season as a PT self employed. Spent 4 years doing PW as part of an exterior cleaning company but did not get involved in cost of jobs, just labor, so learning.
I am gradually raising my rates by a few cents per square foot and will do that until I find that about 10-15% of customers say no or hesitate, then I will know I am at the sweet spot.
You might also do some googling of pressure washing in your area. One local company was kind enough to put their “starts at” prices on their website, which helped me with pricing houses competitively and not low balling the local industry.
Using this theory will you drop your prices in half when you move to bigger more efficient equipment ? Or just double your profit per hour.
My point is things change. Time to do the job changes and cost goes up and down as your company grows. Setting a price per job instead of price per hour will better serve you in the long run and build consistency to you customers
My pricing is the same for apartments and homes…time x per hour rate…that never changes…regardless of apartments or homes. If my cost of doing business goes up…my hourly rate increases. Setting a price per job will never serve me better…your business may differ.
I get paid my rate for the hours I work…regardless of what I am washing.
As to the more efficient equipment…I am already using 8gpm equipment.
May be more important to have 8-10 GPM than proper surfactant. I appreciate @Racer’s postion here. However, more often than not folks only see what’s on the siding, fascia, and soffit, with the exception of window sills and the mildewy areas of the front steps and spigots. (HMM, I SEE AN UPSELL OPPORTUNITY HERE, THANKS AGAIN @Racer!) “Let’s clean the rest of your brick while we’re cleainng up the steps”
Nonetheless, if you’re trying to clean brick with 4GPM you are wasting your time. Brick is much too porous to really respond to 4GPM or less. My experience (@Racer is one of MY venerable teachers) is to use multiple treatments of 4% SH on stains, and lots of H2O to rinse all of the brick.
