Okay, you can definitely start with a Jeep and as long as your trailer is roadworthy then it should be fine. You can always upgrade those things as you go.
Not trying to shoot you down here so please don’t take it that way.
You’re likely going to need $10,000 or so in order to get equipment that will be reliable enough to actually run your business. That doesn’t even include marketing money. Can it be done cheaper? Yes. It will require a lot of time and good negotiation skills to build a decent rig for cheaper than that. If you want to go the home depot pressure washer route then by all means have at it. But in the time it takes you to clean a driveway with one of those machines your competition will do a driveway, the house, the roof, clean the gutters, etc.
Everyone has to start somewhere but there are definitely minimum starting requirements if you want to actually be profitable in your first three years of business.
I understand, and as with all things I figured that it would cost more to do a professional job or quicker. But I’m looking to work on a new source of income and I plan on taking every penny I earn doing it and putting it back into getting better equipment. I figured with a $400 power washer I could find some jobs and save money from them. I know it may be harder work and take extra time but that’s really the only option I have as I can’t really acquire $10000 right now in my position.
But anyway, if I had to pass on some advice from recent experience, I would highly recommend a belt drive 4gpm/4k psi unit to start with and a small-ish 35 gallon buffer tank. Everything else can be built upon that basic foundation.
I went through two direct drive machines last year when I started and really wanted to toss them in the woods after a while.
Yep. Call it $2,000 for a 4/4. Then a decent surface cleaner is ~$500. That’s a quarter of the budget that I proposed for the two most basic pieces of equipment that any contractor would need. The rest would be:
Reels: $600
Hoses: $400
Direct Application Method: $500-1500
Insurance
Signage
Backup Replacement Items (unloaders, hoses, fittings, etc.)
Cost of Licensing and State Required Entity Formation
The list goes on and on. To do it right you’ll easily spend $10k.
Keep in mind that you can buy all the equipment that it takes but you still need to have money in the bank to actually run the business. Fuel, maintenance, chemicals, etc. all add up very quickly. That should all be included in startup costs because you can’t get through a single job without those things.
No freaking kidding. People never understand that the little things will nickle and dime you to death. They aren’t all completely necessary but at some point they become that just for the fact of time savings and how much easier they can make a job.
Last time I checked PressureTek the 4/4 belt drives were $1750. Add a backup unloader and tax and you’re at $2,000.
If you’re buying 50’ sections of hose then you’re losing money. Buy the 100’ sections and you’ll save $15.
He can’t very well do a decent job on a driveway without a surface cleaner can he?
He can absolutely start out with just house washing but that limits his potential income. Having the ability to do driveways and roofs/stucco/brick will greatly increase that potential.
As I stated earlier, yes, it can be done for cheaper but on average that is about how much it costs to break into this industry with any real aspirations of being profitable. A year of insurance will cost him more than the machine you’re talking about buying. $10k is a conservative number, really.
That is a massive problem. He barely has enough to purchase a business license and form an LLC but you’re on here arguing semantics over whether he could build a reliable rig for a few thousand less than what most here would agree is a realistic amount. Yes, it can be done. You have decades of window cleaning customers and profits to rely on to start your business. He does not.
If you’re dead set on moving forward instead of buying a homeowner unit I would line up a bunch of jobs and rent a 4 or 5.5 gpm washer until you can afford to buy a decent machine. You just need to do more reading through old threads on here to know where we’re coming from on using a homeowner unit. It will limit you on what you can do. Use a 5.5 gpm to wash a house and then borrow a friends and wash another. Come back here and tell us you still want to buy a homeowner machine.
As @DisplacedTexan mentioned there are also a lot other expenses that you don’t think about.
You should definitely spend the winter researching and roll out this spring. Maybe you can use tax return money to invest in more equipment, insurance, or some marketing right before the season starts.
Take a look at different trailer builds on here. That will help you see what kind of equipment you’re eventually going to want.
That’s not too shabby. I’d prefer to buy from PT but for a young guy just starting out it may be a viable option. I just know with PT I have a better chance at getting valuable help if I have a problem with the machine. I’m sure Southside is similar.
Don’t let our back and forth scare you too much. You can absolutely do this if you set your mind to it. Yes, it will be expensive but when done right you can make your money back in a matter of weeks or months. There are a number of things that you can skimp on to get started. Equipment and marketing are not one of those. I wish I had invested more in marketing from the start but I am doing alright at the end of my first year. I think my build and startup costs added up to roughly $12,000 and that was with VERY little marketing.
I think finding decent insurance is half the battle. We went through three companies before settling with Liberty. Pressure washers must be insanely dangerous lol.
Pressure washers in the hands of untrained and uninformed users are very dangerous and can do immense amounts of damage in a very short time. Just ask the guy who used a red tip on the brown hardiboard siding at the lake house I gave a bid on.
