I got a job while doing a freebie today and have to estimate a 2 story house for exterior wash in a couple days. I was roughly trying to determine the sq ft estimate but my numbers were off. Sorry if this is a stupid question, but how does one determine the equation for the quote on sq ft. I obviously know LxW gets the sq ft. Should I just quote a 450.00 house wash, trying to upset the gutters etc…
Thanks for all help in advance, im sure ill be reaching out more on this new adventure of mine.
I wouldn’t go by square foot for houses when doing pricing. Just have a price for one story, one and half, two, and two and a half. Ask about a walkout basement too. You can then pull the house up on google maps or a realtor website to take a look and adjust price if need be. You don’t want to charge the same for a two story mansion that you do for a two story house. Although, many of the two story houses you do will be similar in size. You’ll get a good system down once you get more jobs lined up. I have my base price for each story size I might adjust up or down depending on different factors. Most of the time I just stick to base price unless it looks like there might be some difficulties.
I use square footage for my base price. Easy to get the info and makes pricing more consistent. One story gets priced higher than 2 in most cases on a per foot basis because more gutters and soffit, which is where your time is.
My pricing is based off sq/ft as well. At first I undercut then I felt it was over priced. Took time but I found the right penny per sq/ft and it’s been spot on for all my washes. Bigger the sq/ft bigger the home; the more time it takes !
It’s fits right around my hourly rate as well so.
Everyone has a method I prefer to see in person if possible. I zillow the home for sq ft and then when I speak with the customer I ask the sq footage it kinda gives you an idea if the person you’re dealing with is honest too. But I always use sqfoot as my base I normally stay between .10-.15 per sqft for house wash. I average 100-120 gross pee hour. Again everyone has a method and what they need to make. The best thing you can do is bring value to your company and you can almost name a price. People will know what they get when they hire your company. I have grossed over 20k this year with virtually no advertising other than Facebook. I’m not swamped not have I pushed to be but quality is more of my concern as I grow my business. The people looking for the best price will always be looking think about it. Best of Hustling to you.
Thanks for all the feedback, it really appreciated. So the sq ft used is what the house’s total sq footage, not just the exterior sides that are being washed?
I do my quotes based off interior square footage which as stated already, can be found pretty quickly on Zillow, realtor, your local county gis site, etc. Those sites don’t usually don’t tell you square footage of garage, but you can tell from photos if it’s a one car or two car, etc and just factor in a price that works for you whether you have to clean only two sides of it, three, or maybe all four sides. When I first started I was looking at apps for my phone that could take a picture and calculate the exterior square footage - what I’d actually be cleaning - but using interior sq ft is easier for me, allows me to quote site unseen if need be and takes 2 minutes to determine from a smart phone. I don’t offer gutter debris removal, or any gutter brightening other than one or two hits with my regular house wash mix. I don’t offer any extra window or screen cleaning services. I just clean siding and driveways/walkways so this system works well for my limited offerings.
I do a base price and add for problems features…in my area that is darn porches. I loved porches until I started washing houses,now, I hate’em. For the most part, I just look at most houses and I know how long it will take and price accordingly.
How much do you pay for facebook advertisements,i was thinking about it
No I meant I just made a Facebook page this year. I haven’t used their boost or anything.
Ive paid 60.00 so far, no business from it. Just a lot of page views
I don’t run Facebook ads because they don’t target very well. Instead I join Facebook groups in the area like garage sell, swap shops, and community pages and I post about my business and services with before and afters and a website link.
Just read the page rules to see when you can post. It’s free and targets the area better. I tried fb ads and get way more jobs posting vs running paid ads. My opinion
Yeap I go by square feet to get my base price then add to it if I need to for things that I know from experience that will take me a while example would be large porches, stairs, hard to reach dormers, nasty gutters, dirty chimney, red mud stains, etc. I try to make at least 100-150 a hour.
You can use things like zillow to get a idea of square feet but it does account for all of the house like garages. I mainly use a app called “find my lot size” to do my own measurements but sometimes you can’t see due to trees and you just need to go out and eyeball the house to know what your getting into. Doing prices over the phone with a app isn’t the best way but for smaller jobs it’s been just fine if you ask the customer the right questions. Larger jobs $600+ I usually take measurements from the app while in the driveway then walk the house and add to it for pain in the butt factors. It’s just not worth a base price for me.
If I’m doing a lot of surface cleaning or a roof I always go to the job to measure the pitch of the roof and check the gutters because those things can make your day a nightmare if you under price and bad drainage on a surface cleaning job if very annoying and time consuming.
BINGO!!
Good to know,thanks
Ok,thanks
Yes had an issue with that on my freebie for a friend. Had my son push broom the water to help. Was a PITA to clean up at the end and make look nice
I got a good floor squeegee. I didn’t think I would need it all that often, but it’s saved my *** a few times. It’ll also help keep water away from store front doors. If the business is open, that keeps management very happy. I have run a few Facebook ads. Probably spent $150 to $200 total. I haven’t seen any return. Facebook Contractors groups are great tho. A lot of contractors advertise there, but I think that is a waste of time too. Just troll for GC’s looking for help, and ask to be added to there contractors list. I put in a pretty big bid today from a GC I randomly emailed last week. Don’t be afraid to expand your Services a bit. If you have the knowledge to properly use a presser washer, you can probably do painting, staining, epoxy floor coating, ect I’ll even do a little welding repair. (15 years experience I just don’t really feel like doing it anymore)
Doing the opposite of this will build your business
Hear in Dallas, it has been my experience that there are some things that are expected to go along with pressure washing. Maybe it’s different in your area. I can’t to put in quote to wash a fence without also quoting the price to restain/seal it. You have to use a presser washer to prep for epoxy paint a garage, there’s none around here that is going to hire separate contractors to prep and epoxy seal a floor. Roaling out epoxy paint is easy if you know what the variables are. Why would I leave money on the table. If I’m washing a driveway and the customer asks me who can reweld a hinge on a gate, guess what, I just doubled or tripled my revenue on that job. It happens all the time around here.
I don’t advise those services, but I don’t see the need to turn down easy money.
