What are time saving ideas that you all implemented and that make a nice difference in efficiency?
I’m a time and numbers guy. If I walk backwards pulling house off the reel and it takes 36 steps I make it 35 to get back. I pull tape and stick on my shirt while I’m walking so when I tape door locks and pull stations in breezeways I don’t have to stand still and pull tape. I take naps at red lights. I’ve never taken a lunch break while I worked at any job, but I’ve eaten sandwiches one handed, and fruit cups and banana on a regular basis while I worked. Never soap anything twice that doesn’t need it. Don’t soap windows, it’s just making for more rinsing. I just fell asleep and dropped the phone behind the bed while typing this so I guess it time to stop
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Im sure a lot of people would say the same things that they put in one of the “game changer” threads. Stuff like a crm, a remote controlled soaping box, etc… I think Innocent, uses significantly less soap than most to reduce rinsing time. Some people like to use their bleach stronger than needed especially on roofs to prevent having to treat twice and decrease dwell time. On certain houses with bad gutters I’ll go ahead and bring the brush out from the start so I’m not spending forever on those
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I guess the two biggest are upgrading to 8gpm and my homebuilt remote injector box.
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Yes i’m looking for the less obvious stuff.
Timesaver for me was Remote Injector, less soap in my house wash mix for faster rinsing, and hose reels.
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Time savers?
Right off the bat—the Schertz Box. That thing is worth it’s weight in gold to me and the dude that makes them is a straight up guy.
In no certain order:
Ball valve
Hose splitter
12v system
Replacing brushes regularly (you’d be amazed how much time is wasted by using worn out brushes)
Buying SH in bulk (hard to do when you’re new and the schedule looks like buckshot)
Buying triplets of literally everything (down time sucks)
I’m sure there are others that I’m overlooking but those just stand out to me.
One thing I’ll say for the newbies and the veterans alike is that crunching numbers and counting steps is great and I try to be as efficient as possible but also don’t let yourself get caught up in the minutiae. Set aside time every day, whether it’s morning or night, to just relax and decompress. Don’t do business or think about business every waking moment or you’ll get burned out. Keep your hobbies and do them. Grinding is good for the soul but so is taking a load off and just being at ease for a while. Life’s too short to spend all of it worried about making money.
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Brushes. When gutters are bad, a quick wipe with a brush is much faster than hitting them 2-3 times. Also, if I have an area on a side that’s really green but the rest isn’t, I spray the whole side, then hit it with a brush right away, then a quick second shot of HW in that area. No need to have extra dwell time or a second coat on a whole side for one really bad spot.
I never stop moving during dwell times, always be doing something productive. Getting stuff moved around and ready for the next side of the house. Double checking windows, moving customer crap if needed, etc. Work two sides at once. When I get to the last side, I put the HW mix on, then while it’s dwelling I start cleaning up. Only leave out what I need to rinse. Brushes, ladders, chems put away etc.
Don’t clean houses that have a privacy fence that splits the side of the house and doesn’t have a gate on both sides…. Seriously, what did they save, $50 not putting a gate on both sides. What a pain!
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Wisdom
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So annoying those townhomes where you have to go around 4 neighbors all the time. And then they all have dogs in the yard and you need to relock the gates every time. 
Be careful with this. Disturb oxidation and you’ll end up brushing the whole thing and that would not be fun.
I do the same things for the most part. I’m always moving during dwell. It is 1000% faster to whip out the brush and run down the gutter than it is to soap three times.
May have been $50 back then but now it’s more like $3800 so who’s the smart one now???
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Make a habit of having your customers bring their pets inside while you’re working on their property. I don’t know how Canuckian laws are but, in the States, pets, job sites, homeowners and contractors makes the perfect recipe for a lawsuit. Most people will be perfectly understanding and accommodating and the ones that aren’t are not the type of customer you want anyhow.
My hobbies are none negotiable. If my phone appears to be turned off it’s just out of reception in the middle of the ocean fishing.
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You’re braver than I am. I don’t go any further than knee deep in the ocean. I’m not getting eaten by no damn great white. If I’m knee deep and see a shark I promise you you’ll see me run on water. But I love watching offshore fishing videos on YouTube lol
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The worst I’ve had is getting charged at a few times by a hammerhead a couple years ago while out snorkelling, I was in a cloud of blood bagging a fish i had speared 2 minutes earlier, the hammerhead didn’t phase me that much as they tend to charge at you and turn back last second, what phased me was the school fish and hammerhead just disappearing witch I thought was strange, as i was swimming backwards to the boat to cover my back, three 8 foot bronze whaler sharks appear following the trail of blood. It all made sense why every fish in my vicinity vanished. Adrenaline rush I tell ya. I’ve honestly ever seen maybe 6 great whites in my life, they aren’t very common out in the water, definitely an experience seeing such a fish.
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NOPE!!! I’m good!
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That ain’t no damn fish. That’s a straight up dinosaur and I’ve seen Jurassic Park amigo.
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Your not wrong there!
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Findlotsize
