Thank you for your response, I appreciate it. For me, I personally love the idea of working for myself instead of someone else. And if I can graduate debt free and have enough saved for equipment, why not go for it? I’m not passionate or wanting to work in the field I have a degree in, so I figured I might as well try to start my own business. If I fail, I can at least always use it as a backup. That’s how I see it anyways
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Don’t even think about it just do it. Only once you are self employed do you realise what an hour of labor is really worth, it ain’t what an employer will pay you. My siblings have all the fancy paper work and spent years getting it but the lowest achiever in the family makes it rain every Christmas, go figure.
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Actually the price for both of us was 1400. But that included hotel costs, Food, airplane tickets and all.
Still, For the price it wasn’t worth it, I got a lot of good information on a lot of topics from marketing and equipment. But nothing I couldn’t of learned from this site.
We are on a small, But big to me budget. So we had bought one of there starter trailers, 5.5 GPM 4000 psi vanguard powered with a burner. But I found it locally and got it for a good deal because it only had 200 hours on the machine. My problem is that Im going into this green. Like no knowledge on this and I am just the type of person who over thinks the worst case scenarios. So I was looking for more of equipment knowledge and in depth chemical training. As well as hands on ( Best way I can learn ) but they didn’t deliver. BUT, Everything’s a lesson right? So that lesson costed me 1400 dollars to know that.
I’m still waiting to launch, I’m trying to find a good insurance company. Need to build my website, And get my uniforms. ( Making excuses I know, But its winter time and I’ve already winterized the trailer. Might do snow removal if we get enough ) But I’m nervous, Excited, And extremely overwhelmed. I’ve never ran a business, I’m used to back breaking labor and not the bidding. So I have all the common fears that most had going into this. None of that will stop me, But I’m trying to make sure I do this all legally and have a strong narrow vison of what my goals are and how I’m going to accomplish them.
I really need to find some good information about identifying stains and issues. But either way, It will all work out so long as I never throw the towel in. I hope haha.
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Good luck to you. There can be some information overload here, with some people using terms that don’t quite fit. For help Identifying stains, here you go:
The F9 cookbook was just on sale for .99 and was posted by @TexasPressureWashing
Eacochem has a training section full of literature here:
Downloadable and printable literature with a ton of info
If you check, most of the manufacturer’s will give out literature on their products. Many will take calls. I wouldn’t hesitate to call one if I had a question, and I have called Eaco Chem many times.
EDIT: Just remember, most of the manufacturer’s are all using the same chemicals anyway. Read the SDS, and come in here and ask questions if your unsure. I am not recommending F9 or Eaco Chem, but I have used their products. Eaco Chem has helped me out a couple of times. TO me, and me alone, I found that F9 and oxalic didn’t have much difference on rust, but F9 is much more expensive. THere is a chance of yellowing with oxalic, which is why F9 smells like it has some muriatic acid or phosphoric in it too (probably to keep the yellowing down). I’m no chemist, so consult a pro.
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NO problem. I have been helped by people on this forum numerous times.
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Looking to do the same while working as an EMT in Los Angeles. Just trying to absorb as much info as possible.
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My name is Camelia I’m a veteran just started a pressure washing and painting copy in palm Beach Florida
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Welcome, there are several veterans on here and a couple in Florida I believe.
Hi everyone, I’m Chad. I live in Pismo Beach. I’ve been washing windows here for about 12 years. I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with how things are going, so I decided to grow my business and offer a soft wash service. I know nothing about pw so I expected to do some research. I did not expect to find such a trove of information and experience. I’m really impressed, and I’m grateful to have stumbled on this forum. Thanks everyone who contributes here. I’ve had a lot of my questions answered by looking through past threads and I’m looking forward to learning a lot!
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Hello and welcome to the forums.
There are several people on here who have done windows and branched out to include pressure washing. THere are also several members who work in California, and can better answer your state’s environmental regulations.
Good luck to you in your new additional endeavor.
Hey everyone. Bill here from Indianapolis. Just stumbled on this forum as I’ve been researching pressure washing as a second business. I have another, totally unrelated business that keeps me busy maybe 70% of the time & I’m looking for something to fill in the gaps. I did a few odd PW jobs this spring with just a little portable unit & enjoyed it. There seemed to be tons of demand in my area. I don’t own any real equipment at this point … just trying to learn the ropes. There’s definitely a wealth of info here. Thanks to you experts who contribute so much. Cheers!
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Welcome @wlbkaer3. Plenty of good info here…read up! Much success.
Good morning, I’m Tyler, I’ve been coming here for a little while trying to learn as much about pressure washing as I can. I lost my job of 15 years back in August due to COVID. I’m 53 years old and have always believed in working and paying your own way through life so instead of sitting around accepting unemployment I decided to go out and get some jobs painting, I was a painter for several years before going into the corporate world. What I realized is how much I enjoyed working for myself. I rested a pressure washer a couple of times to clean the exterior before painting and then decided to use a local pressure washing service to help me with that part but they are extremely unreliable. I am in the process of putting together my own equipment and thanks to this site I’ve been able to get what I think will be a nice setup. With the investment I plan to offer pressure washing and soft washing services to my painting business. I look forward to learning more about this from all of you and I do appreciate your willingness to share information.
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Hi and welcome to the forums.
Post up your rig for members to give you feedback on, if you want. Some people find it helpful, as it allows others to tweak your build for you. Heath @TexasPressureWashing posted a lot of information on intial builds and equipment, so that may be useful to you. I believe your history of painting should lend itself to this profession. Good luck to you.
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Thanks a lot. I will definitely post a picture when I get everything put together. @TexasPressureWashing definitely set himself up with something that anybody would be proud of.
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Hi everyone and thanks for accepting my request to join this group. Our business is a power washing/soft wash located in the Houma/Thibodaux, Louisiana area. We have been in business for over 5 years and are growing into other areas. I look forward to learning from others, getting ideas and also contributing where I can. www.knsoftwash.com
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Hi everyone, my name is Sal and I am located in Southern California. About 20 minutes from that mouse’s place that takes all your money. I just purchased a Hotsy cold water 4GPM/4000 PSI washer. I plan to use it for around my properties and maybe do some side jobs if I ever get done with the wife’s Honey Do List. I’ve been reading a lot on this forum because there is valuable information here. What I learned is that if you search for “the best pressure washing XYZ” on the interwebs, you’ll get a bunch of advertisements. Not tried and true equipment that professionals use. I hope to contribute to the community in some way down the road.
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I agree.
I don’t think I posted a New Member post, so here goes:
Hi everybody. My name is Edsel Matic; I live in Houston, Texas. I purchased my pressure washer set up September 18, 2020 in response to a Home Owner’s Association letter. I didn’t think much of it. However when I put it together, I really enjoyed playing with water in this fashion and thought, “well, if my high school friend can make a business out of this, why can’t I?” The engine is a Honda Gx390 with a CAT direct drive pump. Now, at that time, I thought I would just load everything into my SUV should I happen to get neighbor clients.
I started door-to-door marketing, read Heath’s invaluable Pressure Washing 101 manual, watched countless youtube pressure washing videos, killed the grass growing near my house in the backyard area (doing tests), etc… the backyard of my house in the wood panel area now needs repainting because I found out not to put pressure on it.
My first customer was in October. I found out real quick that loading, unloading, loading again my pressure washer into an SUV would make me hate pressure washing. Also, I learned the value of hose reels because loading hoses back up and trying to get off the customer’s premises asap was a 45-60 minute process (and it was tearing up my SUV: water, dirt everywhere because i was just throwing everything back in the SUV).
To make a long story short, I purchased a humble 5x8 single axle trailer from Northern Tool in November, and these past weeks of December, I no longer have the 3.5 GPM CAT pump. I purchased a 5.5 GPM belt driven pump and all the other required items: pulley’s, belt, skid, etc from Mr. Russell Johnson’s outfit ( www.Pressurewasherky.us ), and I have hose reels (Coxreels, i can’t afford them Titans).
So now my current Pressure Washer setup:
- Engine: Honda GX390
- Pump: General Pump TS1021 5.6 GPM 3K PSI
- Surface Cleaner: 20inc Flat Surface Cleaner with 25035 meg nozzles
- DS injector: GP fixed Injector 2.3mm Hi-Draw
Softwash setup:
- Everflo EF5500 12v Diaphram Pump 5.5GPM
- Chemical Proportioner with the 3 cheap $ 36.69 dials made by Pentair (which I have cracked due to over tightening)
Current plans for trailer modifications:
- move unloader to an unloader block (Heath’s suggestion)
- get two 55 gallon tanks for SH so i may buy 100 gallons from local chem distributor instead of 4 gallons for $23 from Leslie’s Pool supply. (Heath’s suggestion again)
- meet with local welder to discuss trailer mods (move reels to trailer’s rails & create a ladder/surface cleaner holder or some type of cage system).
- buy 1" ID PVC suction hoses to replace current 1"ID braided hoses that are hard to bend
I still have a tremendous amount to learn. Home Depot, NorthernTool, and Amazon keeps zapping my money for the “small” items. And last night I had a silly thought in regards to fittings/small items, “why not get stainless steel everything?”
September 2020 picture:
December 2020 picture:
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