New to the industry in Phoenix

Hey everyone,

My name is Louis and I’m from Phoenix, AZ. I’m new to the pressure washing industry but spent a lot of time studying, reading, and obsessing over everything that is pressure washing. I spent a couple of weeks without even creating an account on here and spent quite a bit of time watching Youtube videos so forgive me for the relatively small amount of read time that my account reflects.

First of all, thank you to everyone who answers questions and provides a plethora of info on this site. Finding this place via Reddit made my life much easier to learn compared to scraping up bits of info from elsewhere.

A little bit of info about me since I do plan on posting going forward: I’m 26, work full time in a managerial role in the auto glass industry, and go to school full time (full time at my school is 1 four hour class per week) thanks to my GI Bill. In the last couple years after getting out of the Marines, I’ve had the desire to start my own company and after reading a bit about pressure washing, I think it’s something that I can do well (with practice of course).

Given that I have to keep my current full time job to support my family, my current plan is to do this on my weekends and ideally one job per day after work. To alleviate the potential issues with booking jobs that I face if I’m solely the one doing the work, I’ll have my brother in law assisting by doing some of the jobs that I won’t be able to, specifically ones during the week before 2:00.

I’d also like to thank @Patriotspwashing for the business plan he used for his company. I used that along with what I know about business and created a framework for this venture. A part of that was a list of things I would need at a minimum to get into business. I would truly appreciate any feedback based off this list:

4k PSI 4GPM Pressure Pro E4040HC Pressure Washer
20" Hammerhead Surface Cleaner
M5 Twist Downstream Nozzle
Turbo Nozzle
GP High Draw Injector Kit
Ptec Downsteam Nozzle Kit
Flexzilla Garden Hose (100ft)
Pressure Hose (100ft)
Suttner 2315 Trigger
36" Insulated Stainless Steel Lance
3/8 Ball Valve
Purple Power Degreaser
Elemonator (Chem)
5 Gal Home Depot Bucket X2
5 Gal Chem Tub
1/4 QC x 2
3/8 QC x 2

My budget for all of this as a max cost of entry was 2.5k. With all of the above added up plus SH and some small things like some brushes I’m looking at roughly 2.3k. Is there anything else that I am missing? Also any suggestions for things to swap out?

Also, I will be starting out using the bed of my Silverado. The first thing I will be getting once I am certain this is sustainable is a trailer. To help with any feedback, I believe the majority of the work I will be doing as far as houses go is soft washing. Nearly everything in my area is stucco.

Again, thank you for any feedback!

Edit: I have literally no idea how my username is what it is. I created my account using a username I frequently use but it somehow changed to this at some point. Oh well.

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You don’t really need an insulated wand if you have no heat. Save up and get a good surface cleaner. How ever much you budgeted for injectors and couplings, quadruple it. Need an xjet if you have a lot of stucco

Ah I knew I forgot something. I actually have an XJet on a running Excel file for the cost of all the gear. I went with the 20"" Hammerhead Surface cleaner. I want to say that I picked it based off something you posted though I could be entirely wrong there.

Click on you name then look in the upper right and you will see a spy looking icon; if you click it your original screen name will appear. That being said it looks like good staring point for equipment if possible I would go with 200 feet of high pressure line. If you are using a buffer tank your pressure washer needs to stay near your vehicle so you need the extra pressure hose to move around more.

I use the eagle wash. Whatever you get, make sure your 2315 will plug into it. If not, you are stuck with a ball valve behind your gun. That’s extremely inneffecient and added weight

Thank you, no idea how I didn’t notice that I had hit that. Yeah I was thinking 200ft would be a better option. I’m actually not going to be using a buffer tank, at least not initially.

So you male quick fit everything into the gun, rather than ball valve and separate gun for wand/surface cleaner etc?

Yes …

One minute mark

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That’s actually pretty interesting. Have you found any downsides of doing that rather than having a ball valve/separate guns?

There are no downsides

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I hate my ball valve. Absolutely hate the damn thing.

You still may want to consider a small buffer tank, say 50 gal, or you’re going to have to shut your machine down everytime you get off the trigger for more than a min, and you will a lot, or it will overheat your pump. So you’re constantly shutting down and having to restart machine w/o one.

You won’t need much SH where you’re at. What we on the east coast use on an average hw you could clean the entire city and not use 5 gal. Talk to some local suppliers and others in your area about soaps in your area… Not real sure that you’d ever use an xjet, so would postpone that until you talk with some locals.

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Thank you for the feedback. So you think that since it’s mostly just dirt thats built up over time and the monsoon season we have it’s basically just going to be a lot of rinsing off homes? That was my thought but obviously without much real experience in this I wasn’t sure how much use SH and an xjet would come into play.

I’m thinking I’m going to primarily focus on flat work and basically soft washing houses with the exception of chemicals in general besides post treatment on flat work. We have rather unusual weather during the summer during monsoon season so I imagine my busiest season will be shortly after that due to all the dust storms we get that happen in combination with rain which just gets everything dirty.

CMon MAN! I love you dude, but your dislike for the ball valve exposes a lack of exposure. My friend, dip youor feet into ball valve nirvana and you will never look back. I promise you! ALSO, young Phoenix, you want to invest in a Mossmatic Swivel that will save your wrists constantly. PEACE OUT! OH, go with @Deyneran and get at least 200’. I often need 300.

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I used ball valves for years before I discovered how great life is without them. Hope you are doing well and kicking bad body bugs to the curb

I rarely use a ball valve anymore unless I have to switch from house washing to concrete. Losing the ball valve on 70% of jobs was pretty freeing actually. Lol

I’ll tag along with William on the best wishes and good vibes your way!

Thanks my Brothers. Preparing for chemo AND radiation in about a month. Standard treatment of care includes the removal of my bladder. I intend to die with my bladder intact. Hopefully in about 35 years.

I have long appreciated the support and friendship of you, Bill, Rick, and others here at this forum. You folks have made my business AND my life better, for which I’m eternally grateful.

Ps, My swivel and ball valve is one apparatus and only weigh a couple of lbs.for crying out loud. Because we surface clean and switch out frequently, my ball valves are used constantly.

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Get the doc to radiate that dang ball valve ,:slight_smile:

Added the swivel to my order and also went with 200’ of hose. Thank ya!

1 Like