I’ll post a picture with it loaded up…definitely more crowded when I have to bring my own hose and am doing a pressure wash job and a separate stain job. I’ve had a lot of requests to stain decks after I pressure wash. It is time consuming and harder work but pays well.
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Add an airless sprayer to your arsenal if you plan on staining decks on occasion. I’ll never stain a deck by hand again. I just don’t see how anyone would be able to hit $150-$200 an hour staining by hand. It’s just too time consuming. The railing just takes forever with a brush.
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Does the airless sprayer do as quality of a job? What I read was the stain doesn’t get into the grain of the wood as well and the difference is noticed after a few days This could be bad sources I was reading? Yesterday’s deck was $360.00 for 1 hr. 55 minutes and they paid for the stain but I also paid a worker $50.00 for the help. We did all by hand.
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Hey everyone, my name is Paul and I’m going to be starting my own power washing company in North Florida very soon. I have been amazed at the amount of resources on this forum and elsewhere in the interwebs and hope to stop lurking as I learn and (hopefully) contribute. Right now, my goals are small as I am getting married this summer and this is my first venture into self employment. That being said, I wanna do this the right way and while I’m hoping I can do this full time eventually, I’ll take what I can get and keep building for now. I’ve been running around in the restaurant/service industry since finishing school and haven’t had a chance to breathe let alone commit to something like this. But Covid has given me some time and perspective. I love pressure washing and grew up washing the neighbor’s driveways for $50 during the summers in central Florida. I never would have imagined I could make a living off of something I enjoy so much and discovering the soft washing process has introduced a whole new level of instant gratification for my inner perfectionist. So I’ve pushed my 2.7gpm Home Depot pressure washer down the stairs and bought a 4gpm Honda washer from pressurepro (I know it’s not the best but it’s where I’ll start), an xjet, and a few accessories. I am slowly muddling through the process of creating a website and other business essentials (ordering the equipment is the fun part). I hope to provide driveway, house washing, and roof washing services though. I’m also currently working on my ideal set up as I was planning on operating out of my truck bed, I have started looking at trailers. Soft wash systems are still intimidating to me as I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve read so much online I feel like I don’t know anything anymore. Leaning towards a 12v system because I am hearing impaired and want to protect what I got though. I appreciate y’all sharing your knowledge!
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Dang, I didn’t mean to write a novel. Apologies for the long post.
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Nah man your all good and your definitely in the right place to learn more about power washing!
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Hello Everyone,
Chris here from Dallas, Ga, I started a P.W.C. three years ago and its called Power Washing By Chris. I just thought it would be a good idea to join the Pressure Washing Resource Page, I have seen some really good information on here.
Thanks,
Chris
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Hi Chris and welcome!
Hi and welcome to the forum. Thank you for your service. There are plenty of vets on this forum, and one or two people in your current situation. You have given yourself more than enough to to save up, read, learn and experiment with the information before going out on your own. I couldn’t give you an ROI timeframe, as I am not really a PW.
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Hey everyone!
My name is Lincoln, from Northwest Arkansas. I’ve been in marketing, graphic design, web development and retail operations management and consulting for over 20 years, but have been discussing with my wife and boys about starting a pressure washing business for over a year, never making the jump. We’ve been doing a lot of research, watching a lot of videos and crunching numbers over the last few months, and finally made the decision to move forward, filing for our LLC, just today. And today, I come across this community and wish I had sooner.
We’ve only 3k to invest to start, and that had to cover equipment, LLC, insurance, initial chemicals, advertising, etc. We went with a Simpson Powershot 4200 (4200 PSI / 4.0 GPM) , a BE 20" Surface Cleaner, and a couple of 100’ pressure hoses and some accessories, to start. Since we work FTJ’s, we’re going to re-invest profits back into equipment and marketing. I’m definitely making mental notes on product recommendations for our next investment.
We are looking to start out part-time, after work, with residential house washing, driveways, patios, fences, etc…, and hope to build out into commercial work and doing this full-time. With such a emphasis on “safe” and “clean” environments, I’m hoping to drive business for sanitizing store entrances and high-tough, customer-used items such as shopping carts, baskets, etc., and use that “in” to discuss contract work - so I’m interested in learning how current washers are doing this type of work, pricing, contracts, etc…, if at all - for cleaning building exteriors and awnings, etc. I’m also interested in fleet vehicle cleaning.
Being in marketing, and especially with Covid-19 and tight wallets, I know that an enticing, yet profitable, flat-rate introductory offer paired with targeted ads can drive phone calls, but requires add-on’s to produce decent profitability.
So, a couple of questions for the knowledgeable…
If you were in my startup position, what type of enticing introductory offer would you do, and why?
How long did it take for you to go from side hustle to full-time gig?
How quickly can we realistically expect to get a return on this initial investment? I’m curious if I got my estimates right…
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I don’t know about an enticing introductory offer, it means you have no experience witch will set you back to start off with. Find out the average price for your area and be 10-20% more expensive, that 10-20% is your leverage to sweeten the deal to be where you should be. Sales is a mind game as you should know being in marketing. Take pride in being expensive, not everyone’s your customer and you should be ok with that. As far as how long it will take you to get your 3k back, that’s virtually impossible to answer without having any previous sales data/numbers. Could be 2 Saturday’s could be 2 months.
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Hi all. My name is Erik I’m new to this group. Thanks for all the great information on here. I have a lot to read. I am new to powerwashing and I’m looking to get some side work going after I set up my business. I’m in upstate NY area and I’m looking to do decks, driveways, gutters, siding etc. I’ll be on here looking for posts about the basics like what chemicals to use where, how much pressure to use on what surfaces and the best machines. I need to learn about the legal stuff too like insurance, permits, liscenses. I would appreciate any advice or please point me to specific posts that relate to basic get started kind of info. Thank you.
Erik
Welcome to the forum. A big help to me over the years has been the search bar. Use it regularly, a bunch of good info to research. Much success!
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thank you, hard to know where to start with a new business! I’ll get there soon enough.
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Start with your legal/insurance stuff first. Research that go from there.
Hello,
My name is Tom I’m in South TX, I’ve been lurking for a while and have learned so much from this forum. Thank you to all of the contributors.
Working towards starting a business and doing things the right way. Had a long talk with a insurance agent today, have an appointment at the business office tomorrow and actively looking for equipment. Hope to get started soon.
Thanks.
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I’m a college student doing lawn care and power washing on the side. Just bought my first PW after borrowing the Troy-Bilt from a friend on occasion. Got a used Lifan 4500E 4500PSI 4GPM with 24" surface cleaner. Needing to replace some o rings that the previous owner wore out, and learn to grease the surface cleaner. Thinking I’ll find a local shop to go to and get o-ring sizing advice, because some of the ones that I need to replace are not the regular 1/4" or 3/8" ones. Excited to be joining the forums here.
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BTW I’m from the Pacific Northwest (Vancouver, WA). Lots of moisture here, so lots of mildew growth. We can clean pavement yearly. I’m also hoping to do some house washes. Gotta order up the second story soap tips, and get a new standard soaper tip. Anybody know if orifice size matters on soap tips? At 4500PSI and 4GPM I should be using orifice size 4, but I’m guessing soap tips are wider so as to be lower pressure and engage the siphoning. Would appreciate any onfirmation on this 
Choose 4 gpm in the drop down arrow. Although, if you scroll down further you’ll see what tips are used. Use the soap tips for rinsing too. The rinsing tips are too much pressure for vinyl houses.
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At 4gpm, a #4 nozzle will give you 4000 psi. You won’t pull any soap through that. You’re probably better off looking for a #25 or higher orifice. The 25 will put you at 100psi, a #40 will give you 40 psi.
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