@OhioFloMo @qons @Dirtyboy @WashTheLZ @Nickski @PPWofLexSC @LetterGuy
I’ve been meaning to report back to this post to update everyone, but as we all know it’s busy season and I just haven’t had the chance to sit down and do it.
WARNING Long Winded Story Ahead
First off, I have to share a story of how this all played out that I’m sure some of you can all relate to. When I originally spoke to the HOA President about this job (and others around the property) she mentioned that they had “a guy” come out and give them a quote for $400 to do this entire fence line. Keep in mind that there were (48) 10’ x 12’ sections of fence around these courts. I knew that it would take cleaning these from both sides, so really, it’s double that. The “$400 Guy” came out and did a “test” and never came back. This had been like 3 weeks prior to me speaking with her. I felt bad afterwards but I literally laughed in front of her and another Board Member when she told me this story. I told her that there’s no way anyone that priced that at $400 had any clue what they were doing and of course he gave up after coming out for 30 minutes to do a test. It really was a ■■■■■ of a job. They also tried to get the “resident handyman” to do it with a little box store machine and he gave up after 3 hours and wasn’t able to get a single piece off. I saw some of his other pressure washing “handywork” around the complex so that wasn’t shocking.
I told her that my cost was going to be nowhere near that but if they bundled some additional work around the property that I would give them a discount on the total invoice. My price for cleaning just the fence was $1400. I sent the quote for this and a few other items over for approval and a week or so went by with some texting back and forth about updates on Board approval all the hemming and hawing back and forth about spending the money, yada yada yada.
After about 2 weeks I finally get a call from the HOA President and she apologized for the delay in getting back to me, and the reason for the delay was that the “$400 Guy” showed up again out of nowhere (It’s been over a month since he came out the first time and disappeared) and said that he would have the entire fence done in by the end of the weekend. She called me about this on a Friday.
Monday rolls around and I was dying for an update, not because I was worried about losing the job, but because I knew that there’s no way the “$400 Guy” could actually do this. She calls me Monday afternoon and I asked her right away, “So, how’s it look”. She laughed and said “he showed up Saturday for an hour and couldn’t get a single panel clean and left”. My quote was approved that night and my 50% deposit was paid immediately. lol
The entire job, including a mail center gazebo, and softwashing of half of the tennis court (the pickle ball side) that was covered in black organic growth from overhanging tree canopy, was a total ■■■■■ and I wish I had charged more. Another lesson learned.
First off, I was pulling water into my buffer tank from the community clubhouse and the water pressure was so poor (I didn’t flow test it beforehand) that I actually had to run a 2nd hose from the pool area running directly into my buffer tank. With both hose valves at full open, it still couldn’t keep up with my 8GPM. I was running wide open non-stop for this because of the nature of the work, so I still had to take breaks and let the buffer tank top up every hour or so.
In regards to the method I used to clean off the Lichen, I stuck to my original idea from testing and used the old XJet nozzle so that I could adjust stream as needed for the top portion of the fences, but I quickly abandoned the usage of any chemicals. Chems were a complete waste of time of time and money in this situation. I realized that the SH wasn’t actually helping. I didn’t want to waste the time to give it enough time to dwell and attempt to kill any of the growth, and since the fence is chain link, only about 5% of what I was spraying was actually sticking to the intended target. So, I just ran full bore about 6 hours the first day and about 2 hours the second day and got it all knocked off. The lichen was wrapped around all sides of the “chain” so I had to spray from both sides and both directions (at an angle) to fully get it off. Like I said, it was a ■■■■■ and took a while to perfect the technique. The amount of lichen chunks that were blown onto the courts was UNREAL. I attached a pic for reference.
The Board and the residents were super stoked on the outcome. The fence had been like this for years and they couldn’t find anyone to come out and clean it. I suspect the previous Board President was too cheap to hire a legit person to do it. The lady I dealt with was the new President and she was motivated to get ■■■■ done, thankfully.
I’ve already been called back out to quote several other projects around the property with some big projects being discussed for later this year. So, all in all, this ■■■■■■ little ■■■■■ of a job is looking to be a good long term relationship.
Here are a couple of pics of the finished product. I took a ton of drone videos and pictures but again I haven’t had time to put together the before / after video yet.
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