I bid a house wash and deck wash a few days ago and found out today from the homeowner that he received a substantially lower bid. So I asked him what the bid was so I can stay competitive. He said the house wash was the same at $250… but the deck came in at $150.
My bid on the deck was $350. It is composite with vinyl rails. The deck measures about 250sf plus 11 steps up and rails. It is filthy with black and green everywhere. Much worse off than the house. In my opinion almost twice the work of the house…
Am I off base here?
I use surface cleaner (whisper wash classic) on composite decks. Speeds up things big time. All is left is spindles and rails. Which is OK. So yeah I’d probably price the same as the other guy did.
Alex @ Nothside Power Washing
Sent from my iPhone using Pressure Washing Resource
your over a dollar a foot for cleaning composite… most guys don’t calculate railings separate and are cleaning wood decks for .90 a sq ft… Composite is super easy to clean…
Don’t sweat it. My price would have been only slightly less than yours, but my house wash price might have been higher. But I’d agree that it shouldn’t take twice as long to do a deck that size. We mop on a roof wash strength mix and use our jrod rinse tip to clean it off. I have a hunch that high pressure on composite allows future mildew to go deeper into the material making it much harder to clean next time. Talking about this stuff to my customers sells my premium services at competitive prices. I don’t get away with over-charging, but I don’t think I lose alot of jobs to companies that are slightly cheaper than me. Focus more on setting your services apart from the competition and less on being undercut by the competition.
Contractors far wiser than I have stated the possibility exists of marking up composite
decks using a surface cleaner. Just wanting to pass on this info.
Bill Sullivan
Bill’s Window Cleaning.
902-471-8008.
