So a 3500 psi 4GPM how much can it clean on average per hour in sq ft or m?
Depends on what youāre cleaning, how dirty and method. Thereās a formula called ācleaning powerā = gpm times psi. So say a 4gpm times 4000 psi = 16000. A 8.5 times 3500 = 28000. A 1.5 times 2000psi = 3000
So you can see a big difference in cleaning power.
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Cheers man
Honestly,
If it works and making you money, then go for it. Always can upgrade later. My first year I got a lot of large condo jobs with 2.5 gpm 2400 psi pressure washer and foam cannons from Amazon. Ideal, noā¦but it still made me $
Upgrade when you canā¦but donāt let people tell you that you have to have a expensive machine to get started. If it makes you $$ itās doing itās job.
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I would stay away from concrete with that washer though. ā¦siding until you can save your money.
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I donāt think most of us think spending $1300 on a machine is expensive to start a business. Itās all a matter of efficiency. Why donāt you sell all of your equipment and just buy a couple of tooth brushes. You can clean the hell out of siding and concrete with those. Weāre not berating him for his equipment. Weāre trying to give advice on here to make him more efficient and profitable. Your machine you started with is twice the cleaning power of his. But the difference is making a minimum wage versus being a small businessman.
I think what most of us are saying is get a supplemental job for a couple of weeks to save up to get a minimum commercial grade machine thatās going to last him and enable him to do pretty much any job he wants to tackle within reason. Why bother being in business with liability, no benefits and a lot of hard work for minimum wage. You can go to work for McDonalds and make $10/hr, get free food, benefits, have no liability or risk and not hard manual labor.
With that machine he is going to have a hard time saving up enough in the foreseeable future to have money to reinvest in upgrading his equipment. Sure, he can make some money with it, but not going to be very much. By saving up for just a little while with a supplemental job, he can increase his efficiency by 500%.
Our income is determined by the market to some degree, not necessarily by how hard we work.
So for example, letās take a small patio, say 10ft by15ft so 150 sq. ft. And the customer is willing to pay $30.
Weāve got four different scenarios.
#1) With your tooth brushes, and youāre a hard worker, so letās say you can do 1 sq. ft. per min. Thatās 150 min - so you just made $13-$14/hr but you used up your 2 toothbrushes that cost $2 @ so you really made $12/hr. But while youāre cleaning your insurance agent drives by and stops to collect his $1 premium and someone clicked on one of your Google adwords campaign ads and that cost you $2 and to top it off while you were scrubbing that patio you kicked over a plant pot with your foot and that cost you $5. So now youāre down to $8/hr
#2) So you say screw this and you go buy a $300 machine with a hundred hour life expectancy and you clean that patio in an hour and 30min. So now weāre up to $20/hr less $4 depreciation so net $16/hr. Weāre rockin now. But weāve still got our other incidental expenses of $8
#3) So next we buy a 4gpm 4000 psi machine that easily has a 1000 hr service life. Now with this $1300 machine and a $300 surface cleaner weāve got $1600 invested but we can clean this patio in 30min. So now weāre at $60/hr less call it $1 depreciation, so $59/hr. Less our $8 in fixed expenses.
#4) So then @JimLuke, whoās been watching all this going on from next door, says screw it, Iāll come do this with my $7000 8.5gpm hot water machine and $500 surface cleaner. And to keep it simple itās got the same 1000hr life span as the 4gpm. Jimmy knocks it out in 15min. So he makes $120/hr less $2 in depreciation so $118/hr. Less $8 in expenses.
So yes, Everyone is making money. But the biggest jump percentage wise comes from the starter machine to the basic commercial machine.
Now where it gets REAL interesting is when you get fully booked. Letās say 1/2 hour travel time between jobs and you start adding up the number of jobs you can do in a day and extrapolating those numbers out. Iāll let everyone figure those out on their own since this post has gone on way too long. But if you take the time to do then thatās when you see Scenario #3 not bad but Scenario #4 really starts to pull ahead. WashOn
Hope this helps
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Exactly why I have been working in the smaller upper middle class homes. They donāt pay as much, but I can knock them out so quick it is unreal. The big homes are all brick and would take much longer resulting in a lower price per hour, but an overall higher sale price.
Iād rather have similar money but work 70% less hours for it.
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Another route you could go too is looking for a honda gx 11 or 13 hp on craigslist and buying a pump offline. I found a pressure washer with a burned up pump that had a honda 13 on it for $100ā¦ bought a 4gpm 4000 psi pump that was on sale for $270. ā¦$370 for the same pressure washer some of these places sell for $1300ā¦
That washer has lasted two seasons and has made $70,000 in revenueā¦ I started from nothing but a sams club pressure washer and a foam cannon off of amazon. Now we have an Isuzu NPR that is fully set up for mobile and can carry 700 gallons of water and a C3500 Flat bed that carries 700 gallons of water and fully set up. No loans, no hand outs from family.
My point is everyone starts at the bottom, keep your head upā¦ go make money and when you can invest back into your business and upgrade. Donāt let people get you down, whether it be on this forum or people you know in lifeā¦
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Be sure to at least spray SH mixed 50/50 with water, with a pump sprayer, since you donāt have DS injector.
