Time to introduce myself

Let me start out by saying that this place is great. It’s like a huge family with a ton of information. I really appreciate all of you. I’ve spent the last few months taking in everything I can from here and youtube.

So, I plan on starting my build within the next 2 weeks. I’ll be servicing NE Ohio and I want to be up and running for residential/light commercial in march next year.

My current situation is that I work in a steel mill as a production supervisor. I’m not really starting pressure washing to pay the bills, my finances are pretty good. I would eventually like to replace my income and be self employed. I have helped my wife build her massage business and have learned a lot about local marketing and know it’s importance.

I am looking for some opinions on how I should start up. I have 8 to 10k to get everything running. I had gotten a single axle 10ft trailer to build on, but decided I wanted to go dual axel. I sold that trailer this past weekend and currently looking for the replacement.

So my question is, if this were your situation, knowing what you know, how would you spend that money to get started?

Also, I’m a marine corps vet, if there are any vets out there looking to mentor in this slower time of the year, I would be eternally grateful.

Thanks again everyone!

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Resist the urge to spend it all on crayons, I know how much you Marines enjoy them… :wink: lots of love from an ex Army Doc.

Hey man welcome! I’m a neophyte myself and everyone here has been great. You might get better advice if you listed what areas you planned on servicing… ie, residential house washing, roof wash, flat work, commercial, all are going to have equipment requirements.

The search bar been acting wonky lately so heres a link just in case Minimum temp for SH effectiveness - #4 by Max1

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I guess I served that one up for you Greenman. Thanks for the replay. It’ll be northeast ohio, mainly the akron/canton area. I plan on doing residential house and flat work. Light commercial flat work if the opportunity arises. Maybe roofs eventually, but I’ve been seeing a lot of insurance issues talked about here recently, so probably not to start.

Really a ton of good advice here on the forums. And the guys that really know what they are talking about will probably be around shortly.

But off the top of my head.

5.5 gpm and 3500 psi is a good place to start, 8gpm if you can swing it and have the water supply to keep it fed.

A reasonable sized surface cleaner 20-24 seem to be the most common.

2 is 1, 1 is none mentality on thing’s like parts, fittings, guns, wands, they will fail at the worst time.

Make sure you have insurance.

Read up on the chemical side of the business, half the bookmarks I’ve made since I’ve been here have been chemical related.

One bit of advice I’ve seen again and again is to buy good equipment, but to just get started. You can then branch out offered services as you learn and grow.

Again I’m super new, I’m still getting my stuff settled for a start next year so keep your salt shaker handy for any of my advice.

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@Greenman that was well said my friend

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If I may add…don’t be tempted to save money on your machine, at a bare minimum get a 4gpm/3000psi belt drive. Don’t get a direct drive, they don’t like to pull water out of a tank.

My thanks, feel like a bit of a poser, since I’m giving advice on a business I haven’t ran yet. But it’s all stuff I wanted to know the answers to when I came here.
It’s funny I didn’t even know how MUCH I didn’t know when I came here. The last month has been a education that’s saved me from countless heartache and wasted funds.

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Agreed! I’m pretty sure my first post on here was asking about a 4gpm/4k machine. Had my little heart set on a Cat pump lol. Funny how much you can learn in a few months by listening to the pros and reading reading reading

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Im in the same boat is @Greenman. I dont have a business. Im not a professional. Ive got some equipment that im still testing and playing with. I can search read about what i dont know. I just started at the top of the forum and read down. If i saw something ive never heard of, Id search it and read most of the post on til i had a good understanding. Sort through the BS post for the good info and you can learn a lot. If you can think it, there’s a post for it.

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Belt drive. Is a must. But also when you go buy make sure pump to motor sizing is correct. Nothing worse then spending a lot of money just to have stuff wear out in 6 months. But while we are talking future problems. Get a sharpie and write down tip size, psi, gpm on the unit when you first get it so you dont forget. Another must in my book is a separate bypass. If you get a pump with a bypass built into the pump head it can cost 100s more vs a bypass alone.
Drain valves in you supply line are nice too so you can drain before it freezes out side. Dont let your pump head freeze. Some people use antifreeze I drain.

There’s posts about stuff you can’t or shouldn’t think about. Naked cats for instance.

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Thanks j.allen, that is all great, especially the sharpie advice, never even crossed my mind.

I was hoping someone would touch on the naked cat subject… often overlooked.

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@12_B good to see you back. Been a bit. Busy times?

Man, I wish you well, but the new cat giving advice needs to stop. Ignore 90% and read a lot

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You joined about an hour ago. Get to know people here before you start throwing out advice.
Advice here is given on credit. Earn some first
Btw belt drive is not necessary a must gear boxes are fine in most cases and direct hydraulic and electric are also used I’m thousands of equipment world wide.

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That’s cool. Just in my experience belt drives tend to be the cheaper option repair bill wise. But I guess new guys dont need opinions. Good to know.

Thanks, I’ll make sure to stick to experienced advice.

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And run antifreeze or similar through your machine atleast, we winterize heel to squeal, A simple drain with give you problems, especially in Ohio @Newguyohio

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You got me there. I totally forgot about the naked cats and the blue dot disaster. @qons We just rigged back up after rig moving and we’ve been wide open for the last week. Busy isnt the word

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