[Alex Wingrove]

Hello everyone first post in this section

I advertise lightly for my services which include patio and drive cleaning,

I had a customer leave me an email the other day asking for her patio to be cleaned, i left her a rough price because i have only ever done it once before, combined with con clean and gutter and fascia, so it worked out well.

Basically been looking at pressure washers, do  go for a 13hp 3000psi 15l/h and hope to get more work later on in the year as more ads come our, or buy and iferor machine and use it for this job and maybe a few more that come along.

Its a patio so i just clean it and clean up after, that sounds about right to you who know what you are doing?

Thanks

Alex


Oh yeah and i have been looking through previous posts, it annoys me when someone comes along and just asks

[Richy L]

if i was you, I wouldnt bother with a little machine. It'll take forever to clean a patio. My machine is similar to the one you are looking at 3500psi, and i wouldnt want to use anything less powerful.
It will only be worth the money if you advertise for it, leaflet drop, and go canvassing. because if you're spending all that money you want to get a good return on it.

Where are you thinkinf of buying one from?

[martin19842]

hi there

that must be 15 litres a minute.

there is a theory about kit in general,

think about what your going to do with it, and then buy  a machine from the next rung up the ladder, this then allows you to expand later,

that said, if you buy a bigger machine, then you will write off a larger amount in value in your accounts.
a lotr of people look at plant cost in different ways.

example

piece of kit costs £6000 say, with a 3 year write off staight line depreciation, not taking into account first year allowances, then your offset is £2k per year.

therefore you need to achieve at least that amount of work to cover your annual plant cost.

i hope that makes sense.

the other way to look at is, buy the largest piece of kit that you can afford, then this gives you a larger potential client base, therefore potentially more work, and more money.

in our case, we use a smaller machine as we only get ad hoc jobs, no advertising, and then when we get our specialist larger jobs, factury unit, walls, roof, etc, we either bring a larger trailer mount machine in, or sub it out.

regards

martin

[Jonathan Spencer]

hi first of many posts I hope

I was thinking the same roughly the same thing.  What is the minimum cost (or spec) I should be looking at to clean patios/driveways.  I do not have loads to spend so looking for the most economical.  I currently windowclean part-time and looking to add a bolt-on so to keep working when it is this wet.  Any advice will be much appreciated.

Oh one last thing I do not get my driving licence back for a year  .

Jonathan

[martin19842]

hi there,

isnt a more seamless bolt on, fascia, soffit, gutter cleaning, and conservatory cleaning.

the other suggestion may well be commercial window cleaning, fascia cleaning etc.

if we are in for an economic tightening this year, thenwouldnt the sale of an additional service such as mentioned be easier to convert than, the introduction of a new seperate service.

also marketting for more window work, must be financially more cost effective than new marketing and additional new kit.

just a thought

regards

martin

regards

martin

[Jonathan Spencer]

Hi Martin

Thanks for your reply it is just that I have noticed a lot of the driveways around my area look like they need doing and it can be done in the rain.

I will probably take your advice and concentrate on the windows I just get frustrated when it is this wet.

Regards

Jonathan

[Richy L]

although a lot of drives NEED cleaning, it doesnt mean someone will pay you to clean them. Most people dont care enough. I would say i have a success rate of 1% maybe less when it comes to canvassing pressure washing.
I get far more work from fascia/gutter and con roof cleans than pressure washing peoples drives.

lets face it, for pressure washing you need to fork out about £3k for a half decent machine minimum, but for fascia/ gutters/ con roof cleaning all you need is a WFP and elbow grease. You dont even need pure water.

I would only look into going into pressure washing if you want to do more commercial work pressure washing which is NOT easy to find!

[Alex Wingrove]

IM not necessarily looking to gain more pressure washing work, but the only advertising i do at the moment is from the not in slips i put though the door and a few parish mag ads,

got my yellow pages ad in for may, so work will trickle in from that, this job is priced between £60-80 havn't given them a def price, but they accepted,

looking to get the machine from ebay, seen some 3000psi ones for just under 400.

and i do fascia gutter and cons, i earn quite well out of them,

[steve doyle]

I personally would prefer to buy a better quality second hand unit than a new poor quality one. Ive seen lots on ebay that look good specs for £300 ish but i suspect they will fail pretty quickly (imports from china?) . My set up is a tech-clean. if you could find one of these on ebay and any decent fsc (whirlaway etc) you are half way their.

If you go down this route i think you could have a good basic  set up for a little over £1000 maybe less. This will get you going without commiting masses of cash. But this kit doesnt come up so often (usually oct/nov best time) so you need to take your time to put together a set up at a low price.

For the chap with no license, forget it till it comes back, the proper equipment is not portable, you need a van. Using a small carry type  pressure washer will take you a day to do what we do in 20 mins, you simply wont make any money at it  

[Alex Wingrove]

that last statement surely has to be an exageration, im not looking to spend 1000's on something that i dont think i will be concentrating my time on,

i wanted something that will work well, thats why i looked at the portable ones, you really think they are not worth spending the money on?

[steve doyle]

not sure we are talking about the same thing, to clarify;

Most/all of us pressure washers on here use an engine based pressure washer (approx 13hp, 15ltr per min)
We also use flat surface cleaners 16 inch+
 
The cost new of this gear is about £1000-£1500 for the pressure washer (engine and pump on a wheeled trolley) and £300-800 for a flat surface cleaner (rotary cleaner).

This is what i see as a basic set up to do the work your talking about.

are we both on the same page, is this the sort of equipment you are looking at or are you thinking about a plug in electric one?

steve

[Steve N]

Hi,
You can start with a honda 5.hp and turbo nozzle and do a good job, or a 13.hp with rotory cleaner and do the job much faster, if you can only afford a 5.hp then go for that.
I do agree, don't buy the chinese honda look-a-like machines for this kind of work they don't have the power and won't last long.

[Richy L]

it not all about the psi mind. The flow rate gives the nest aidea to what the machine can do. Mine is a 12 or 13ltrs/p/m machine. which is good enough for any job i do

[myvanwi]

What does WFP mean in window cleaning circles?

[Richy L]

water-fed-pole

[myvanwi]

So you dont use ladders at all now when cleaning conservatory glass and facias/guttering. How much do you charge, is it per hour or by job? Thankyou for answering my question.

[Alex Wingrove]

i was planning to buy one of them Honda look a like things, they seemed quite reasonable

i wanted a petrol/diesel one purely on cants always have access to customers supply,

secondly this isn't my main income, and i don't want to go and spend 1000's on something i might never get a return on

there isn't any options available around the 300-400 pound mark?

[steve doyle]

I dont think you should buy what you have been looking at, i think you would end up wasting your money when it breaks. The only thing i can think of is to find a smaller 5hp+ quality machine but second hand. You might get one just within your budget. Other people on here might have another idea?

As far as getting the work you are half way their if you have an existing customer base so you should expect a reasonable response when you add the service. Take a couple of before and after pics on your first jobs and keep them in a folder to show customers


steve

[drive surgeon]

a friend bought a fake honda machine off ebay and it was sent with no details and it would not start, was a fake one from china but was from a uk seller, stick to genuine products.

[drive surgeon]

how do you guys clean gutters, do you get all the leaves and crap out?