Hey PWRA Members,
Introducing myself all the way from Fiji!
I’m Rob and have recently taken the initiative to start up a waterblasting/powerwashing services business in Fiji. Now I know what you may think; (that Fiji is a small place, indeed), however there are thousands of residential properties that just have not been washed in years for lack of services.
In addition to this, there are hundreds of resorts/hotels that would love to get some power washing in - as I have mentioned before - there isn’t a company here to do these services! There’s also government buildings/monuments, airports, buildings in the CBD etc. etc.
Whilst I do wish to get into the commercial sector in the near future, I wish to start off in residential & marine. I might add that I have machines to service only the residential sector and I have a view to invest in commercial machines/upgrades.
I joined this community for some brotherhood and support in startup questions, machines, finance, tenders and more. Note that we use the metric system here, so a standard measure for me would be sqm (meters) but I can always convert 
Firstly, a few questions;
- Is it better to charge per hour or per square foot/meter?
- Would commercial prices generally be higher than residential?
- Has anyone ventured into marine waterblasting I.e. Boats?
- Can anyone share advice and experience when they first started in the industry?
Well that’s it from me for now! I look forward to getting to know you all, and I thank you in advance for sharing your knowledge & experience with me.
Cheers!
Rob
If I were you I’d start with some market research before you go buying equipment. The Chamber of Commerce (https://www.fijichamber.com) is your friend. See if you can get in touch with someone there and find out if there’s a demand for the service you want to provide. Talk to people you know personally, including business owners and managers, and see if they have considered having their homes or businesses washed.
As for the other questions, the magnifying glass at the top is where you need to go. I used that exclusively for quite a while before I ever joined the forums, and learned quite a bit, including the fact that the people on here who you really want to pay attention to have already answered most introductory questions more than once. Read for a good two or three days and I promise you’ll figure out which people I’m talking about.
Keep in contact Rob,
My email is peter.h@cleanupcrewcleaners.com.au
I would love to end up in Fiji and work together ( If we click)
We’ve been pressure cleaning and soft washing buildings for 15 years.
With no understanding of WHS in Fiji all I can say is we clean some big stuff over here. I’m sure e can work that out.
Your questions:
We never charge by the hour. Our gear so far is 21 lpm and to 5800psi. We have a few 15lpm 4000 psi units. We do not compete with handymen with a Karcher.
We subcontract to some of the big guys and it is per sq metre. We did a 1800 sq metre roof recently at $1.00 per sq metre. Cheap as, but we clean at 300 sq metres an hour so it worked out well.
We are going to heavily invest in a good soft wash setup shortly. ($15,000) But if we get it they have 300 roofs to clean.
Just look at a job and work out how long it takes and what you want per hour.
Commercial prices:
If it’s a decent job it is cheaper.
Do a $20 000 job and that means 40 roofs at $500 per roof. Chase the big work!
Has anyone ventured into marine waterblasting I.e. Boats?
Unless you are pumping some decent pressure, I wouldnt go there.
First start was bond cleans, many years ago. Don’t go there.
Email me your setup and we might have a deal, at least a holiday in Fiji.
Pete
