Most asked for pressure washing jobs?
If you are looking to add pressure washing to the list of services your lawn care business offers, you might be interested in knowing which pressure washing jobs are most commonly needed? This was brought up in a discussion on the Gopher Lawn Care Business Forum.
One lawn care business owner asked “I wanted to get into pressure washing. How do you go about it? I’d like to do sidings, driveways, outdoor furniture, maybe even windows. What product do you use with your pressure washer, or do you just spray water? I couldn’t imagine it being a tough job, sounds fun!
Pressure washing
What kind of problems can you run into? Creating small floods & soggy grass? How do you charge? etc… I guess I’ll offer this service starting Monday! I got two pressure washers waiting for work.”
Another responded “pressure washing has been a small gold mine, there just are not many companies here offering the service and with vinyl siding and so many trees, dirt, grime, mold etc are an issue pretty much everywhere we go.
How I got into it was to advertise the service, response was amazing so I bought the equipment, then added a 2nd and 3rd unit when we were running 5 business days behind.
We use mixture of Simple Green when we spray. I buy it from Home Depot or Canadian Tire, they have 5 products depending on what you are doing, works amazing.
We charge by the job, there is no generic way to calculate but I average around $65 an hour. A 10 X 16 ft deck with say 10 stairs and a railing will generally run $225 and take the guys about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Siding is the choice and the fastest job. A single story home say 34 X 26 ft will run $400.00 and take about 4 to 5 hours.
Do an internet search and buy what is called a turbo tip. These things will remove anything. They have a quick connect much like an airline has. We use them for really tough jobs.
A 2,500 psi power washer will be a little slower but will do an excellent job on siding and most decks. I don’t think it will remove paint. We have to use 5,000 psi for that and the white tip…..the paint just flies off then.
Residential pressure washers, those that are rated 1,500 PSI are a waste of time. We pick up a lot of business from people that have spent a day trying to clean with one then calling us. We have two power washing units. One is3,400 psi and the other that is 5,000 psi. Each are gas powered and require 4 gpm.
We don’t get many driveways. The #1 request is for siding followed by decks. The 5,000psi unit will remove paint from siding using the proper attachment. We charge $125. an hour for that service, we get a few jobs. Good luck, it’s excellent money.”
