Large Commercial Building Wash

[sktyrhrtout]

Hey Everyone,

I own a window cleaning business and I think I’ve slowly converting to the religion of pressure washing. I started last year adding small soft-wash jobs to clients that needed it and getting by using a 4 Gal pump sprayer for chem application and renting a 3.5GPM unit. Slow but I was charging a lot and hitting my target hourly. Kind of a pain but I wasn’t sure if I fully wanted in. I’m at the point now that it’s time to take this portion seriously. I’ve started a trailer build with the beginners list form @TexasPressureWashing. Thank you btw for putting that together!

Fast forward to last week I was talking to a building manager to use their parking lot for an event and he saw my window cleaning truck and struck up the conversation about their windows and an exterior building wash. It’s 125,000 square foot building and about 2.5ish stories tall. Exterior walls look like a mix of painted cedar and tilt-up pre cast concrete (I think). The windows are filthy but the building actually doesn’t look too bad.

Taking a step back and looking at the project it’s bigger than anything I’ve done but doesn’t really “scare” me so to speak. It would stretch my ability and probably give me some stress and some mistakes but it really looks like something I can handle and the money in it would be great.

My plan would be to build a 6X15 trailer if I did end up getting it and basically downstream a section, rinse then do the windows with my waterfed pole. Move on to the next section and repeat. Playing it out in my head I would expect the Building Wash portion at my quickest to take 5 days and at longest to take 10 days. (8 to 10 hours each day). Adding the window cleaning portion will add time but I’m mainly looking for feedback on the building wash part.

I’m currently at around $18k on my quote for just the building wash.

Here are some photos and here are some of my questions:

1. Is this job feasible solo?

2. Those who have taken on buildings like this that are active do you have any tips to manage people coming in and out while you are working?

3. Anybody willing to share some of their verbiage for quoting commercial work like this? Mainly looking at what you add as exclusions/terms etc.

Any other advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

The main reason I’m interested in aggressively going after this project is the vendor has some requirements that will deter a lot of the local competition. (5M umbrella, tons of vendor paperwork and qualification process). I live in a very HCOL area but we are relatively small. I have got quite a few of these mid level commercial window cleaning projects by just being able to handle requirements like these professionally so I really think it’s a niche in my area that isn’t very competitive.

I have spent a ton of time reading on this forum and honestly can’t thank you guys for all the information!

[mwpws]

That building doesn’t really look dirty enough to clean. and 18k is way high

[sktyrhrtout]

There is a decent amount of bird crap along the top, it might not show up well on the photos and with the light color building. Not much algae/mold build up as the building gets plenty of sun but definitely dust/dirt build up as well. They’ve requested the wash so I’m not really going to turn down the opportunity to quote.

At 125,000 square feet where would you be at? Keep in mind I’m in a very high cost of living area.

[Racer]

Is the building mainly rectangular. the pics you show look like the front entrance portion. The cedar looks painted so that’s a plus. How much wood is there? You need to give us a little more info here. A standup building that size, with nothing special on windows, just standard exterior wash, would go for about .08/ sq ft here, so roughly 10-11k. Could do by myself in3-4 days. The wood throws a little unknown factor into it w/o seeing or knowing what they want done with it.

Estimate how long it’s going to take you with your equipment by what you want to gross daily, add a day or so hedge factor. $18k may be just a little high, but you know your market. May be a deal if you have windows all the way around.

[sktyrhrtout]

Here’s an overview shot.

There is not a lot of wood. The photo I have shows the main area with wood then there are (4) other staircases that have it. The rest is the precast concrete. It is a bit tricky in that there are a lot of “nooks and crannies” and it’s not just a flat wall all the way down. There are two balconies on the second floor as well that would need attention and that’s what pushed me closer to the .15 sq/ft.

The other reason I’m leaning towards a higher quote is the $5M umbrella policy they require. That is what forced out their previous window cleaner and I’m thinking it’s a higher barrier that most guys in my area aren’t going to want to mess with. It’s about a $5k adder from my insurance so I’m just going to roll it into the estimate.

Whatever happens this has been a good experience. Definitely the biggest job I’ve been asked to estimate so it’s fun to stretch myself and work it all out. I come from a project management background and in my last job at a sign shop I got a lot of projects just by being able to jump through all the hoops that these larger jobs require.

[Racer]

Does your 18k include the extra insurance? With all the windows and way building is broken up, 18k not unreasonable at all. Probably about where I’d be, not counting insurance extra. $5k for a 3myn rider (assuming you probably have 2myn now) is way too much. I’d shop that some. What part of country you located? Probably 6-7 days with a helper.