Howdy folks. Got a call from a car repair shop that maintains fleet. They want the shop washed twice a month. Its a nasty ■■■ car grease soaked concrete. I have washed restaurants before but never automotive shops. This is fairly large company and I could use some pointers as far as what to watch out for? What are the usual payment terms? What kind of insurance coverage do I need to get ? Anything else that you could think of?
I was concerned with the oily water run off but their shop has greasy concrete saturated with soil that runs off outside already. Do I need to do something to catch oil ? They have oil trap holes on the outside of shop.
Any pointers would be highly appreciated.
What have they been doing? Got any pics?
I guess what I would like to figure out is what are the usual payment terms when dealing with large clients?
Is it possible to get separate insurance for that particular location or project ? Reasoning for that is that I hardly ever get commercial clients aside from couple of restaurants. I would like to be prepared when I submit my estimate.
Is it common to require them to move all the stuff out of the way or is it usually on the cleaner?
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Payment terms are what you want them to be…everyone is due upon completion for us, but so long as commercial folks get us paid within 30 days, we’re fine with that. You’d have to think about what you need in terms of cashflow.
I’d hope whatever you have for insurance would do the trick already, if it doesn’t then you may want to rethink doing the job IMO.
You can setup the “stuff” any way you like…tell them it needs to be out of the way, or an $xxx charge applies. The charge should be enough to “encourage” them to do it themselves, unless you really don’t mind adding on that work. Then you’re good both ways.
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Man I’d be concerned about where all that oily water is gonna go.
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@JAtkinson I was going to call my insurance tomorrow to see what can they do to up my coverage to have me covered. Perhaps cover by project or by location? Will talk to them tomorrow morning. Is there something in particular I need to ask insurance to cover in case like that?
If you do wash that, make sure to post the after pics.
I would think about using hot water to clean with. Set your own terms for payment. I would set up a net 7 days but that is the way I do business. Just make sure that it on the invoice.
What coverages do you have now? I’m not aware of any requirements outside of the owner’s requirements. At that point it’s more what you think you need. $1-2MM umbrella GL would be my thought.
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I got 2mln liability coverage.
Benny, where are you located? When you say oil traps outside I assume you mean grates over concrete drain that runs along outside that they drive over. What most have. Go to any Discount Tire.
Dude, that is cleaned out, don’t get much better than that. If those are steel tables, you may want to have helper so you can slide out of way. Why are you so worried about insurance? This is standard stuff, not even that dirty.
Are they not operating now? Never seen one this cleaned out. Do you have any wide angle photos showing the entire place? Are there doors on both sides of the bays? How many sq. feet is the total area? How large are the aprons outside the doors, usually they need them cleaned at least every other time probably. Sheesh, you need to give us some info here. This is the kind of crap I do weekly. I assume you have heat. If not, pass.
If they want washed biweekly then I’d make payment terms net 15, so they don’t get too far ahead of you. Just ask them what their normal terms are. You never know. I just did for the first time last week a large company that I gave net 30, heck they wired the money within 48 hours straight into my account.
When is the last time this place has been cleaned? What happened to their old cleaner? Or is this a new operation. Anyway, get me some more info asap. And then you’re going to call me. These type of places are a piece of cake.
If this is an operating shop or will be, they’re probably going to want done at night. And it’s going to be a lot more congested usually. Couple of things you need to check on, is drainage, does the floor slope enough to get most of water out or are you going to need to squeegie a lot of it. Water supply? What time of day they want done, etc.
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They operate now. They didn’t go in to details of what happened with the previous cleaner. Woman who was talking to me said her husband recommended she called a pressure washer to get a quote.
The doors are on both side of the shop and the shop is around 6k sq ft.
I don’t have a wide angle shot , sadly but the aprons on the outside are around 1200 on the front and 2500 out back and they want those quoted as well.
They do want it washed at night. I haven’t checked on water supply but I assume being a shop they would have water.
The drainage is actually looks like an oil trap and by that I mean the square hole in concrete that holds water and have a sump pump with 2" pvc going to a plastic drum , by the look of it around 1000 gal. I did not take the picture of it but I assumed that was for catching an oily run off
They also want walls which have cobwebs but woman told me they don’t want walls washed because her husband told her that those are insulated and can get wet inside (metal building walls) so she said she want a quote on actually scrubbing those with “moist brush on a long handle” . I haven’t thought about that yet.
How can I get in touch? Can I send you a private message ? Didn’t want to bug without asking first.
I will have helper with a squeegee as there isn’t much slope in that floor. Not to the naked eye at least.
I get that you’re trying to buff your SEO by linking your website here but literally everyone on this forum is a professional contractor (well 99% are) and thus you’re just wasting your time. Stick around, introduce yourself in the newbie thread, read threads, gain knowledge, and enjoy yourself.
But, do not spam.
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