Getting into Commercial work

[tegrey]

We are primarily residential. I would like to progress into strip malls or small commercial work. How do I go about this? I have a 5.6 gpm unit and trailer rig. Is this suitable for large work? What special insurance do I need. I carry $2,000,000 in liability and WC. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank You.

[Doug Dahlke]

Hot water is necessary. I don't have a lot of commercial now but the PM I do have contracts with require it.

[PressurePros]

Terry, are you looking primarily at flatwork? With that size machine a 20"-24" will serve you well. You can actually push a smaller surface cleaner a bit faster so it compensates for having less swath. On strip malls you are going to encounter a large amount of gum. The best way I have found is to use a 10 degree tip with hot water and "pop" off each piece.

[aquaman]

We run a 750,000 btu hotsy burner powered by a 3 cylinder Izuzu engine. One of our engines has over 30,000 hrs on it and haven't had a single problem with it. We have all our equipment in insulated 17 ft van bodies equipped with 600-800 gallons of water. Our burners are specially fitted with digital temperature control keeping our water within 3 degrees. We have full remote control soap injection as well. We charge according to our equipment costs. More equipment gets paid more and does the work significantly faster. Customers also like to see a big show for some reason. Our trucks are polished as well.

[tegrey]

Ken,
Sounds like Hot water. For sure.
Aquaman,
You must have an elaborate system. Having clean professional is a must. We try getting our vehicles detailed periodically.
I assume to do small malls, means nights / weekends? That means a separate crew for us. What is the most complicated problems you might run into? Thank You.

[aquaman]

Ken,
Sounds like Hot water. For sure.
Aquaman,
You must have an elaborate system. Having clean professional is a must. We try getting our vehicles detailed periodically.
I assume to do small malls, means nights / weekends? That means a separate crew for us. What is the most complicated problems you might run into? Thank You.

We do malls, highway trucks, houses, equipment, ice thawing, graffiti removal, car lots, drain line cleaning. Our units are very diverse. We also have sweeper units the last few years and together they work very well to expand the business. We wash the buildings then sweep up the mess afterwards. We now wash for customers that we never had access to prior to having sweepers. We sweep for nearly every customer who we wash for. Our biggest problems we run into is getting people to work full time for $20/hr to start. I guess weather can also be an issue sometimes.

[aquaman]

I see the units most of the workers down south run and I get a chuckle out of them. Sure they are enough to get the job done for the most part but they take longer. I have competition up here that runs around in trailers with small water supplies and they pretty much get laughed at by customers. They just don't look set up properly to some customers. Most of the time the customer will ask themselves why they don't just by a $1000 washer and a trailer equipped with a tank and do the job themselves. I find if you are well equipped to do the job properly most customers don't mind paying the extra to know it will be done properly the first time.

[JL Pressure]

Terry you really have to have the right equipment and show a professional front I think. I can't tell you how impressed sometimes some of the HOA's & PM's are when they see us roll into a complex with a trailer set up and looking good

For getting the commercial work, a lot of it is a long haul deal, you have to start somewhere, you have to get that 1st job and then the 2nd & 3rd. Research the boards, I have learned don't go for the one time cleaning, do a demo, and push the monthly, quarterly or biannual cleaning. I see it takes some time to become established and actually make enough money to survive. You are lucky you have an established biz, so you will survive while building your commercial side

You have to target what you want or what you think types of commercial work need your services most. TARGETING its a long haul like I said, every month or so someone should be getting something from you. I have PM's that I have targeted for over three years and never got a call from them and then quite often I finally get "The Call" Its happened this year

Look around and see who needs you then GO FOR IT

[tegrey]

Jeff,
Here is our equipment. I know we are not set up for very large projects. Our goal would be to do small strip malls and businesses. I do like the maintainance programs. Just like a paper route, only PWing and quarterly, etc. This could be a great way to increase business without advertising. This may be a good seminair to hold for those interested in commercial? I will investigate further. Thank you for the advice.

[David O'Connell]

You'll definetly need a bigger tank, not all places have a good water supply.
Thats for sure.

[tegrey]

David,
What tank size do you recommend for residential work? Small commercial? Thank You.

[David O'Connell]

We have a 250 gallon tank on one truck & a 130 gallon tank on another.

[tegrey]

David,
I'm assumeing I will need to upgrade to do larger commercial work? For strip malls and small commercial, how will my rig work? Can I get by or do I need to grow my equipment to an 8gpm and or Hot? Thank You.

[Aspen Contractors]

Terry,
It really depends on the job IMO. We have 3 trailer units now. One with a 185 gallon tank, one with a 225 and one with a 550 gallon tank. I also have one 210 gallon spare tank, three spare 225 tanks and one other spare 550 gallon tank in case I run into a job that requires that much water. I have actually removed everything and had both 550 gallon tanks on one trailer for a specific job that had no water at all. As for the powerwasher units, the smallest I would tell you for flatwork would be 5 gpm and of course with hot water. The more gpm the easier it will be though.
Hope this helps out...


Rob Huffman
Aspen Contractors

[tegrey]

Rob,
Thank you for the info. I won't come to Maryland to look for Commercial work though! LOL I do have two daughters born there though. Silver Spring and Olney. I lived in the DC area for three years. Amazing town!!

[Aspen Contractors]

Terry,
Theres a ton of commercial to do. Its just that I started business on the commercial side (have some strange contracts-think outside the box) and now after all this time I am starting to get into residential. The smaller trailer with 185 gallon tank is great for residential. I mainly use it as a float tank in that scenario. I am still learning my new phone but even found someone that had a gooseneck with a 1500 gallon tank on it. I swear I think it had three machines on that trailer. Almost wrecked my van....lol. Talk about a head turner and DEFINATELY and advertising machine.
Small world...one of my employees had grown up in Olney. I did the rodeo circuit for 12 years so I know all of Ohio...even have scars from a broken arm in Ashtabula.

[David O'Connell]

Terry,
It really depends on the job IMO. We have 3 trailer units now. One with a 185 gallon tank, one with a 225 and one with a 550 gallon tank. I also have one 210 gallon spare tank, three spare 225 tanks and one other spare 550 gallon tank in case I run into a job that requires that much water. I have actually removed everything and had both 550 gallon tanks on one trailer for a specific job that had no water at all. As for the powerwasher units, the smallest I would tell you for flatwork would be 5 gpm and of course with hot water. The more gpm the easier it will be though.
Hope this helps out...


Rob Huffman
Aspen Contractors


I agree with Rob...

You'll need a bigger trailer for the hot box for sure.

The smallest I'd go would be
5.5 gpm
200 gallon water
hot box
20" cleaners

We use 16" a lot with the 8.5 gpm. Man they are flying. No need to pass anything twice.

We have
2 16"
2 20"
2 30"
1 24"

[tegrey]

David & Rob,
You are working fools! LOL That is a lot of equipment. I guess if I told you of the painting equipment we have I could maybe impress you, a little LOL. As for PWing, I believe we might start small, businesses then go for the BAD Boys. Malls, parking decks? Who knows for sure? The main thing is we know where we make a profit. When we take on a new endevor, we research and develop it into our program. Building a business is not easy as you know. I need to look and maybe revise our 5 year plan. This is our Bible for business. I really appreciate your helping me under stand a little more about commercial work. If you guys go the RT I hope to meet and talk more about this. We will attend the MB, NO, Ky. tables. I hope this BBS becomes a place to be. Growing our business is the way to go. If I can answer any coating questions, Please feel free to post away. I'm sure there are many individuals out there waiting to answer them? Thank You.

[precisionpower]

Terry, are you looking primarily at flatwork? With that size machine a 20"-24" will serve you well. You can actually push a smaller surface cleaner a bit faster so it compensates for having less swath. On strip malls you are going to encounter a large amount of gum. The best way I have found is to use a 10 degree tip with hot water and "pop" off each piece.


Fenner, I have never used a 10 degree. I always use a 15 and have no problem, but maybe I'll try the 10 degree the next time.

[PressurePros]

Yeah that extra 5 degree narrowing really make a difference. LOL. Smart azz. It was supposed to be 15 degree.

[precisionpower]

Yeah that extra 5 degree narrowing really make a difference. LOL. Smart azz. It was supposed to be 15 degree.

No, I wasn't trying to be smart. Seriously, I thought you used a 10 degree tip.

[PressurePros]

I figured you were just breaking my stones. :got-hooligan:

[FLORIN]

i did to Ken. Was just about to ask where u get your tips from

[The Cleaner]

David,
What tank size do you recommend for residential work? Small commercial? Thank You.

This is what you need for commercial work, this rig has been in every state from FL to NY and there is nothing we cant clean with it!!

[PressureWashE]

Very good information in this thread!

I am going to be targeting commercial right off the bat, I already have 4 gas stations lined out for bi monthly cleanings and a cvs pharmacy for once quarterly cleanings.

I thinking of starting with the following set-up:

Trailer mounted:
24hp Honda 8gpm 3000psi hot water system 2 wands at 4gpm 3000psi

Downstream injection chemical setup

one primary 425 gallon and one secondary 200 gallon tank in truck bed

2 25 gallon chemical mix/feed tanks, so i can have 2 diffrent chemicals being fed if needing into both wands.

and a 24 inch surface cleaner

i think that should be good to start with

John

[Aspen Contractors]

There are alot of factors in answering this question. Depends on how big the commercial job it is? If its a small gas station you can get away with a 5gpm hot water...even some restaurant sidewalks, dumpster pads etc can be done with a smaller set up.
Now with the set up Nick (BTW nice set up Nick) showed pics of he can come in and do it in half the time. Time is money...
But hot water is definately a necessity with commercial.
As for the biggest problem I would have to say expecting water spigots to be turned on and they werent. I always ask or put it in the contract whether or not they will provide the water...charge more if they dont.

[031999]

Terry,
We all have to start somewhere! To get started go for the jobs that have water hookup near by. If you get a job that has a lot of gum they are going to expect you to get up evey little spot and don't forget the gum rings that are left. First use a good degreaser. Allow it a few miniutes to work in to the surrface. Then use your surrface cleaner if you have one. You should be using hot water @ 200 degrees with at least 4000 psi @ 5 gals per. min. or it will take you longer to do the job! If you don't have a water hook up near by you will not be able to do the job properly and that will cause you to lose confidence and credibility. You need to understand It's not how many accts. you have; but rather how many you can serve well! you reputation is far more important than taking on a job you can't handle.
Good luck,