Just wanted to get a feel for how everyone’s doing this season vs last?
Prices stable, down or up?
Volume of jobs?
How many new washers have you noticed?
I’m in NC and seems there are a good amount of new washers and I definitely see pricing pressure.
About half what I made last year. Same percentage of accepted bids just lower numbers. Phone calls have been desolate. Weather has been an issue and also I’d assume political climate?
Have a few other guys in town saying business is down as well. It would seem that way as they have posted signs likely everywhere and they haven’t in the past. Must have a lot of free time I guess 
Crazy amount of washers the last 3-4 years….were down 5-6% from our norm. Prices so-so, we have kept our prices steady, very competitive at the moment, closing about 65-68% of tickets.
Terrible, hardly any work the past two months. Both PW and WC. Hoping it will pick up in September. Noticeable reduction in tips, everyone is writing checks for the exact amount which is unusual.
Season went from being booked out a month or two to a few jobs a week. Guess my birthday month is cursed.
Things should pick up a bit more heading into fall though.
I was apprehensive about this year, however, it’s our absolute best year ever- window, cleaning and Pressure Washing Jobs just keep calling, we’re still booked out over a month.
I’ve noticed an uptick in commercial jobs, especially for government entities, federal government state and county-Not sure if there’s any correlation, but it’s really helped out.
Hope things pick up for you guys where it’s slowed down, hopefully it’ll be a good Fall season for everybody!
I need to get out of this $300/job rut. Seems like it’s always the same, customer wants a house wash and 10 windows. I’m thankful for even having work but could really use some small commercial jobs.
I agree , everyone seems to only buy the minimum like a house wash. Totally black driveways…nah I’ll pass and it remains (like another person isn’t doing it for less just a pass)
It would help if people could list the states they live in since this is highly dependent on where you do business.
Ohio, if you couldn’t figure that out, and I’ve been consistently landing $500 plus jobs and booked out at least 3 weeks since June.
Glad to hear the guys doing well are. I haven’t starved by any means but I’ve been scratching my head wondering if it’s me being lazy/complacent or if it’s the economy. Maybe I just had an absolute boomer of a second year. Idk. I hope the ship rights though that’s for sure. I have 27 15 gal containers of SH i bought early this year thinking I’d go through it. I blew through my original 27 but my 2nd order is sitting in the warehouse still…that’s like 5 grand that I spent and didn’t use…whoops
Louisville…Loovlll…
Lexington, Kentucky
Well, I hate to say it, but ya’ll making me feel a lot better. The last job I did was a $300 hw on 8-5-24. The phone just isn’t ringing AT ALL. I put out about 70 more signs this last Monday and Tuesday…still nothing. However, I have kind of learned that it takes a few days or a week-ish for the phone to ring from new signs. I’m in E Tn.
Does fall usually pick up after this summer slow down? If so, “how much”?
Just depends, I’ve been window cleaning since 1996 so pressure washing is an ‘add-on’ for me to diversify when WC slows down.
Typically this time of year everyone is scrambling to get their kids back in school and a lot of income is spent on that instead of ‘luxury’ services. We see an uptick in calls early September through late November.
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Fortunately, I learned of the July/August slow down before now, but it is good to hear/know that it’s not just dead for me. No, it’s not a “misery loves company” thing. I’ve been questioning the actual viability of all this (PWing) here in E Tn as the mentality of my area is still quite backwoods/old school. It’s just a bit comforting to know that it’s not just this area, or excessive in this area.
Are you able to advertise a broader area in TN? May need to drive an hour or more in that case.
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We ripped it all spring and summer. By early July we were booked out to mid-September.
Now, we’re still booked out til mid September.
It seems people got nervous over political happenings. Trump got shot, Biden dropped out, the phone stopped ringing immediately.
Election years always suck in the fall, but we are operating at about 50% booking volume.
Yes, but my current intention is not to. I started out with my service area about 50 miles in all directions.
Someone here posted that 1 of the things they’ve learned is to focus their efforts more locally. Focus on building their name to a smaller local area. After actually getting involved in this and doing the traveling, double-traveling when giving quotes in-person, I’m seeing the value of that.
The biggest local name is busy doing commercial work an hour away, so they really are not any competition to me. Had a young guy start up this year. Apparently a local-yokel not-far-out-of-HS that’s very well-known and well-liked. So, I suspect he’ll be flooded enough to not really be competition to me.
I had a guy call me yesterday that could not get a hold of a local side-hustle cop that has been doing his place for the last 5-6 yrs. No idea what’s up with that, but the guy that called didn’t like my $100-higher price. So I’ve left him to keep trying to get ahold of his working-too-cheap cop friend.
Plus when I hit an area, I flood it with signs. So, it takes time to get the signs together, then more time to get them placed. Plus, I put them out at night, so I only go out Mon-Wed to help avoid cops looking for drunks. So far it’s worked well.
I’ve still got some signs to put out. So, for now I’m just going to accept that it’s a slow point in the season, and get some more signs together and put out. Relax and see how things play out, so I know more for next year.
This thread isn’t the only “It’s the slow part of the season” information that I’ve come across. It’s just good to know that it’s not just me and it’s not just locally.
I’ll spread out further, if I need to, but that will likely be next year. Right now, I’m waiting to see how people here behave with the holidays coming up.
To be fair really most know that this is the slow time but I was trying to gauge (based on locality) how the whole season has been as I see more new washers in my area week to week.
