Just clean the oil stains???

J

Joseph Floyd

New member
There is a diner that asked me for a quote to do a quick cleaning of the oil spots at the parking spots. It looks like they haven't been cleaned in a couple of years. New manager wants it cleaned. He said he already did the sidewalk and dumpster corral with his "little pressure washer". It must have been a Home Depot cold water unit. 35 parking spots and only 17 are significant. Any ideas on pricing? The guy may be able to help line up some more work. And he missed all of the gum, anyone have an opinion getting the gum up as a freebie? Toss it in and see if he throws more work my way?
 
OMG !!!! Really just the oil spots... Well What I would do if you really wanted to do the job .. Get some advertisement signs and put on his property while your cleaning.. To get the gum up , Hot Water and A 5 degree gum nozzle or a 10 degree will work fine.... ...
 
How would you price tough? Like you are actually cleaning the whole thing for real? .03 to .06 per sq foot? I know the guys is pinching pennies, hence the Home Depot washer. I've got to say I've been gearing up for every possible question: reading, studying, went to a round table, took Allied Training course - No one ever mentioned this scenerio...
 
If you run your business on people that might be able to line up more work for you,you'll starve.
Instead of doing the gum as a freebie,pick out an area to do a demo and clean only the gum in that spot.
As for the parking spaces assuming they are concrete $4 to $6 just for grease spots $8+ each.
If the parking spaces are asphalt pass on them.
 
Joseph Floyd said:
There is a diner that asked me for a quote to do a quick cleaning of the oil spots at the parking spots. It looks like they haven't been cleaned in a couple of years. New manager wants it cleaned. He said he already did the sidewalk and dumpster corral with his "little pressure washer". It must have been a Home Depot cold water unit. 35 parking spots and only 17 are significant. Any ideas on pricing? The guy may be able to help line up some more work. And he missed all of the gum, anyone have an opinion getting the gum up as a freebie? Toss it in and see if he throws more work my way?
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11 to 15 a piece. the reality is where the dirt is going. If you have to go along way your going to charge more. if you vac it up and can control it, No worries.
 
Ron - what would you say is the difference between an on site retention area that does not even appear to be fed into sprinklers or the likes, and spreading the water back in the grass to bioremediate?
The job is 10 minutes from the house and the PWT is about 12 minutes away from there. With the treatment plant so close capturing and disposing will be fairly straight forward. I'm just remembering all that you said in Atlanta and this fenced in retention seems like bioremediation don't you think? Oh and the area is 250 foot from the nearest road and sanitary sewer.
 

I'm cautious when someone tells me they will line up work for me. Also when someone wants a quote on a "quick" cleaning. When someone tries to diminsh the work involved by using words like "easy" "quick" "small job" I hear " I don't want to pay you very much."
Then consider he is trying to clean a dumpseter area with a cold water home depot water unit. I hear cheap, cheap, cheap. Good luck.
 
Thanks Bobby. I get the feeling the guy just came down here and is trying to cleanup a whole lot issues that pre-date his employment here. And I can kind of appreciate that. I know it is a gamble and I'm kind of worried about the whole cheap part too. I'm just thinking it my be a foot in the door and provide me if nothing else with a few pics to put in a portfolio and perhaps one day on a web page.

My main concern now is the price and the environmental end of his drainage setup.
 
Here are pics of the drainage area and one of the parking spaces. I just checked the county maps and there is nothing under it according to them. I'm think that this would contistute bioremdiation, as long as I channel it all into that area. Or am I just overly tired and not thinking of something? Any thoughts?
 

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Thanks to those you that responded. I just thought I'd let you know that I didn't get the job. I went in a bit lower than what Ron suggested and even a $264 I was still "to high". After saying that the guy had a look on his face like he was waiting on me to lower the price. So I told him, he had my card if he would like to be cleaned.
 
Joseph Floyd said:
Thanks to those you that responded. I just thought I'd let you know that I didn't get the job. I went in a bit lower than what Ron suggested and even a $264 I was still "to high". After saying that the guy had a look on his face like he was waiting on me to lower the price. So I told him, he had my card if he would like to be cleaned.
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Why didn't you say it was a Waffle House.They have a budget of like $85 a month for pressure washing sidewalks,parking spaces,rear entry and dumpster area.Oh and the stores around here want the exterior windows and awnings thrown in as well.
 
I wouldn't waste time on a prospect like that in the first place. Nothing but trouble. Go look for someone that appreciates your service and is willing to pay for it. For every bad customer you drop, a space is opened up for a good one!
 
Squirtgun - I seem to remember a few guys telling someone asking for help pricing a Starbucks that he shouldn't be so specific about who he was bidding on. I presume that was because the whole world can look at this board. Unfortunately that means asking for help means I'm also giving my competitors weaknesses to exploit if they choose. In the future though I will be more specific. Especially with guys like you. It seems that Scrappy holds your advise in high regard. You were kind enough to give me advise based on the information I provided and I apologize for not supplying all of the details.

Thanks again for you input and I guess I'm going to pass on Waffle House since that wouldn't really cover the cost of doing the parking lot alone as dirty as it is.
 
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