So i got my first commercial job. It’s a 2 storey office building. The manager needs the exterior cleaned of the green algae growing on the walls. In the parking garage moth stains. Needless to say I’m a bit nervous and i want to do a quality job. My question is should i sof wash this or pressure wash? I also have to rent a lift. I would appreciate some advice from you more experienced guys out there. Thank you.
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Shouldn’t need a lift for that building.
It’s just troll bait anyway. How you gonna bid a job, get it and not know how to do it?
Thanks for responding. Like i said it my first commercial job. I never done a building this size before. I mostly do roofs and driveways. I’m new to the business and thankful for friendly advice. This kind of fell in to my hands and i never say no to business. But like i said i want to provide quality work.
Have you had your Snicker bar today… 
It’s all good brother. Not everyone is as astute as you. Which is why i asked for responses from more experienced guys. Thanks for the response. Cheers!
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I agre, definitely don’t need a lift for that. What kind of equipment you got?
Pressure washer, soft wash pump setup, 40ft extension ladders. Going to pretreat the walls using soft wash then rinseoff. Garage to remove moths by pressure washing . Got some extended reach wands too. Maybe i don’t need the lift. Thanks for your response.
Just saying, its probably not the smartest idea to show the name of the building. If I were in your area I’d be calling them first thing tomorrow morning to let them know they hired someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, and I’d offer them my services in lieu.
That’s scummy as hell. Honestly, regardless of how clueless the OP may be, those types of shady and underhanded tactics should not be welcomed in this board. Shame on you.
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I don’t see it as shady at all. It’s shady to bid on a job that you don’t know how to do. What if this guy damages the building? Would that be a preferable outcome?
Would you hire a roofer to re-shingle your house if you knew that he’d only ever put up aluminum roofs? Would you, as a property or building manager, not be concerned that the person you’ve hired to clean for you doesn’t even know if he should use high or low pressure?
Idk about y’all but it irks me when I drive by a commercial building and see some dude at the top of a ladder with a Lowe’s machine trying to pressure wash off the mildew or when I pass someone’s driveway that has wand or surface cleaners marks all over it. It gives us a bad rap.
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Bud. Just stop. You’re trying to justify your scummy tactics and regardless of what you say you’re just wrong. The OP came here looking for advice on how to approach the job so that he can limit his mistakes so your argument makes no sense. You can’t control what other people or companies do but to try to ruin someone’s reputation or take food off of their table because you don’t like how they do something is scummy.
The fact that you don’t see it as shady tells me everything I need to know about you.
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You can make all the straw man arguments that you want but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re wrong.
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I couldn’t give less of a ■■■■ what some stranger on the internet think about me.
I’m in this business to make money, not friends.
Cool story, bud. Tell it again.
If my competition gets a job over me, that’s “taking food off my table”. I’d rather that not happen.
The OP is literally halfway across the country from you and yet you felt the need to chime in about how you would use scumbag tactics to take away his business. That’s got to be one of the most childish and reprehensible things a contractor could ever do.
Congratulations, you have successfully outed yourself as a scumbag.
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I get seeing it as a scummy tactic, but honestly, if I owned that building, and an established pressure washing company called me just to give a heads up (without throwing a bid on it) that someone I hired to do the job was on a forum asking how to wash it, you’d better believe I’d start second guessing and asking questions. Not to mention appreciate the tip. Not saying the op isn’t capable and wouldn’t mess anything up. He may be well adept at softwashing. He may have been up front with the pm who hired him that he had never done bigger commercial jobs before, needed to research, and the pm didn’t care. Most pm’s don’t care, they just want it done yesterday. Only real mistake he’s made so far is if he already gave the pm a bid without fully understanding how long it will take, and what all’s involved. That’s how underbidding yourself and hating life happens. Got several customers who hired me after the cheap guy threw his wand in the air and said screw this 1/3 of the way into a job.
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Make sure you have your chemicals lined up and method of delivering those chemicals. Thats stucco, and I believe Im seeing rust too on it. Stucco will mean rinsing pressure only, like Id go no more than 1000psi myself because of the rust it could be thin.
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And I completely agree that he shouldn’t have given a bid on a job without knowing how long it will take or the best approach to complete it successfully. We are on the same page there.
Where I don’t agree with @pressureguy is when he said “If I were in your area I’d be calling them first thing tomorrow morning to let them know they hired someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, and I’d offer them my services in lieu.”.
People come onto this forum looking for advice. They don’t come here expecting to be backdoored by shady “contractors” such as @pressureguy. If that type of behavior is allowed around here then I’m in the wrong place and I’ll gladly show myself out.
There is a right way to do things and what @pressureguy is stating that he would do is not it. The correct way would be to set up a meeting with the PM and offer to give a bid and educate the customer about the proper processes that should be followed in order to ensure no damage is done to the property. The wrong way to do it is exactly what @pressureguy has stated he would do which is to go right inside and start slandering his competitors in order to inflate his appearance.
This is my first full season in business and I have already gained two customers from one competitor in my area. One was a customer of his for 15 years and the other for 20. He has gotten complacent and started letting things slip. When I gained those customers they both asked me if I knew of him and I said no (obviously I know who my competitors are) because there is nothing honorable about talking down about your competition.
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