Las Vegas Environmental Garage Cleaning Event hosted by Jim Gamble 2013

We also had to go back and clean the DMV entrance in Las Vegas. We finished most of it on demo day, but we still had to go back and complete it.

In both cases there was no charge, but a simple thank you for allowing us to use the space for a demo.

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That was some hard, petrified gum there at the Las Vegas DMV, like what we have here in Texas when the gum has been baking in the sun for years.

Even with 312 or 315 degrees hot water, the gum still took a long time to remove, about as much time as using Tony Shelton's Landa hot water skid. Everyone at the event got to try out both machines if they wanted to. Tony posted pictures of this event numerous times throughout PWI over the past years, even recently. Everyone I talked to at this event had a great time!
 
Do you have info to share or just innuendo?

I was just curious who cleaned up the demos, since it was said that NCE never left behind a mess afterwards.

The exterior windows were being cleaned by Ambassador window cleaning, a local Charleston company, during the event. There was quite a bit of glass. During the demos, one of the vendors sprayed soap across just about all of the front of the building - just hours after they were cleaned. Many in the crowd pointed this out, but the guys running the demos laughed about it and shrugged it off.

The concrete demos, including stencils, were done right at the front entrance as well. There were bleach stains from the powdered bleach demos too.

I think Ambassador was called back out to fix it. Which probably worked out great - since they won the hot water skid that year. The reason the hotel was cleaning the windows in the first place was the following day they were having an awards ceremony with the military. With political officials, military officials, and news crews coming, I'm sure they wanted it to look it's best.
 
Micha do you finish and Detail properly now? http://www.thegrimescene.com/forums/flatwork-buildings/10850-another-before-after.html

I really think your Funny

Lol. You know Wesley called not long ago and apologized for all that?

For that job, I gave the customer exactly what they wanted, and then some. They did not want to move items off the concrete, they asked me to work around them. The items were locked down with chains and locks, no way I could move them myself. I may have missed a piece of gum or two. It was at night. Again, this store had not been cleaned in years. I called the operations manager after Wesley told me they were not happy with the service. The operations manager was 100% happy with the cleaning.

But you knew that Ron. You and Jeff L. were the two guys who called me while all that was going on and really put my mind at rest. Telling me not to worry about it. There was another guy who called me too.. a local guy. I'm glad he called because now we're good friends. I may not have met him otherwise. So yeah, it's funny that you bring this subject up in this manor.
 
I was just curious who cleaned up the demos, since it was said that NCE never left behind a mess afterwards.

The exterior windows were being cleaned by Ambassador window cleaning, a local Charleston company, during the event. There was quite a bit of glass. During the demos, one of the vendors sprayed soap across just about all of the front of the building - just hours after they were cleaned. Many in the crowd pointed this out, but the guys running the demos laughed about it and shrugged it off.

The concrete demos, including stencils, were done right at the front entrance as well. There were bleach stains from the powdered bleach demos too.

I think Ambassador was called back out to fix it. Which probably worked out great - since they won the hot water skid that year. The reason the hotel was cleaning the windows in the first place was the following day they were having an awards ceremony with the military. With political officials, military officials, and news crews coming, I'm sure they wanted it to look it's best.

Are you saying the garage top deck being left like that is OK because a vendor at an NCE event failed to do what they were supposed to?

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No. I never said that, nor implied that.

I don't understand the reason for the post then. Was it just to pick out one event out of dozens that NCE put on where somebody didn't follow procedure to discredit NCE?



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I don't understand the reason for the post then. Was it just to pick out one event out of dozens that NCE put on where somebody didn't follow procedure to discredit NCE?



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Of course that was his intentions.


Text me anytime for question 480-522-5227
 
I don't understand the reason for the post then. Was it just to pick out one event out of dozens that NCE put on where somebody didn't follow procedure to discredit NCE?



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Nope. Simply pointing out that sometimes demos don't get cleaned properly afterwards. That's the point you were making too, right?

Whether it's NCE, this event in Las Vegas, or any event, when this happens it really makes the industry as a whole look bad. It really irritates me.

We're supposed to be professionals and the "cream of the crop" of the industry - and then we leave properties looking like that?
 
Nope. Simply pointing out that sometimes demos don't get cleaned properly afterwards. That's the point you were making too, right?

Whether it's NCE, this event in Las Vegas, or any event, when this happens it really makes the industry as a whole look bad. It really irritates me.

We're supposed to be professionals and the "cream of the crop" of the industry - and then we leave properties looking like that?

For some reason no one believes it.


Text me anytime for question 480-522-5227
 
Nope. Simply pointing out that sometimes demos don't get cleaned properly afterwards. That's the point you were making too, right?

Whether it's NCE, this event in Las Vegas, or any event, when this happens it really makes the industry as a whole look bad. It really irritates me.

We're supposed to be professionals and the "cream of the crop" of the industry - and then we leave properties looking like that?

That is absolutely right.

Stuff like this looks bad on all of us.

And that is the difference between people who claim to be the "cream of the crop" when really they are the "bottom of the barrel".

Scott Stone would have cleaned the entire top floor of that garage by himself the day after everybody was gone if he had to. Just like Chris and I had to do with the DMV and the car dealership where we demo'd coil cleaning.

This is how you finish cleaning after a demo. This was the remainder of the units on the car dealership we demo'd at the 2009 Las Vegas Roundtable put on by NCE, Matt from Colorado Pro Wash and myself.

 
How about instead of arguing about who is right or wrong and who said what, is it possible to find a solution? I mean, with all this division the regulators can run right over you guys. I think that the problem is the orgs are trying to be all encompassing and it is not working. If you model after the window cleaners or the hood cleaners, you do not see this kind of division. Yeah there is some but not like here. Maybe there needs to be separate orgs for commercial pressure washing, residential pressure washing, fleet and equipment washing, parking garage cleaning and so on because even though they are all spraying water, they all have different things that they have to deal with.

A guy washing a truck has to deal with the grease and oil run off where a guy washing houses does not. A parking garage has different problems and solutions than a sidewalk or a deck.

Maybe instead of trying to attack everything at one time you need to settle on one aspect and get that ironed out with regulators. Maybe start with something easy like residential cleaning and get those BMPs in place before you tackle the more complicated commercial cleaning.
 
How about instead of arguing about who is right or wrong and who said what, is it possible to find a solution? I mean, with all this division the regulators can run right over you guys. I think that the problem is the orgs are trying to be all encompassing and it is not working. If you model after the window cleaners or the hood cleaners, you do not see this kind of division. Yeah there is some but not like here. Maybe there needs to be separate orgs for commercial pressure washing, residential pressure washing, fleet and equipment washing, parking garage cleaning and so on because even though they are all spraying water, they all have different things that they have to deal with.

A guy washing a truck has to deal with the grease and oil run off where a guy washing houses does not. A parking garage has different problems and solutions than a sidewalk or a deck.

Maybe instead of trying to attack everything at one time you need to settle on one aspect and get that ironed out with regulators. Maybe start with something easy like residential cleaning and get those BMPs in place before you tackle the more complicated commercial cleaning.

Thanks for that well thought out response Pat.

The problem is there are two prevailing views that are polar opposites. Two entirely different philosophies.

On the one hand you've got guys who believe some or all of the following:

1) We don't need to be afraid of competition, the market and quality of work will set the prices.
2) We don't need to be afraid of local contractors. There's enough work to go around.
3) We don't need the government to scare us into caring about the water quality for our kids, we already care about it and do our work accordingly, responsibly and within the law
4) We don't need to turn in other contractors to gain more business because our quality stands on it's own, and they will eventually fail anyway.
5) We don't need to make environmental rules tailored to the way we work to push others out of business. Somebody might come along with a better idea later and we can all prosper from it.
6) We don't need to continually try to raise our prices. We get paid fairly for what we do.

On the other hand you've got guys who believe some of all of the following:

1) Competition must be crushed any way possible because they keep making them have to improve to keep customers.
2) Local Contractors are the enemy. They have to be banned from coming to any schools they might teach or any other learning situations.
3) The government it there for them to use as a tool to destroy other contractors (like coming down from San Francisco and Texas and calling in a report to the Las Vegas Code enforcement that hazardous waste and chemicals are at my house, yes, I have the report right here, normally I would have told them to get off my property, but this time I invited them to look for themselves, and of course, there was nothing there to find)
4) They believe that no contractor could ever be environmentally responsible because they themselves are not. Satellite photos and the lack of manifests for waste tell the whole story. It is impossible for them to believe that every one is not like them. That is why they always call us liars, because they can't fathom the idea that someone could function in this world without lying.
5) They believe that prices are always in need of rising. Nevermind the fact that the country is broke, millions are out of work and suffering, It's too hard to buckle down, reduce expenses and streamline procedures, it's much easier to use the government to scare the crap out of customers to make them pay what they already don't have.

There are other differences also.

The fact is, Pat, this is what is wrong with our entire country. For decades we have tried to work together, Democrats and Republicans. No one would take a stand and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! One side is right and the other is wrong. If we had done that years ago our country wouldn't be in the mess it is in.

We don't need to work together as an industry. We need to draw battle lines, put ourselves to work fighting for what we believe in and may the side that is right win.

You mention the window cleaners and hood cleaners. There have been some virtual bloodbaths in the Hood cleaning fights. Maybe you just don't know about them. I don't know so much about the window cleaners, but I know the roof cleaners are divided also.

Your idea about dividing up into all the different types of cleaning has a lot of merit. You are right, they are all very different.

The one thing the UAMCC is doing that has never been done before is relying on local contractors to deal with local problems. When they need help, the UAMCC plans to be there to try to help them.

That is a far cry from going to cities where there are no problems and introducing new problems like what happened here with Jim. He went to the EPA guy in Carson City and they presented a false, (as usual) perception of what cleaning a garage really is. Most of what comes out of garages is tire rubber. There is some oil, but the black stuff Jim shows on his videos is mostly tire rubber, easily taken care of with simple filtration. Yet he presents it as some kind of arsenic just waiting to kill everyone within miles.

This time it backfired and the Permit issuer would not allow him to clean the garage. That is exactly what should have happened and is poetic justice for his misrepresentation of the facts.

The problem is, Robert and Jim plan to do the same in Tennessee, Pat. And Mississippi, and Florida etc, etc. They are a rolling wrecking ball for the industry that puts food on our table. And for no good reason. Our impact on the environment is already minimal and most contractors worth their salt are already doing what they need to in order to keep the environment safe. That is why we have the wash water control training. It's not that difficult.

No, we don't need to work together. Some of us need to come together and crush the forces that would starve our families in order to make 24 cents a foot and take yachts to a ballgame just to make themselves feel important.

But we don't need to resort to their tactics. All we need is a few good contractors willing to give up some of their time to help others.
 
3) The government it there for them to use as a tool to destroy other contractors (like coming down from San Francisco and Texas and calling in a report to the Las Vegas Code enforcement that hazardous waste and chemicals are at my house, yes, I have the report right here, normally I would have told them to get off my property, but this time I invited them to look for themselves, and of course, there was nothing there to find)

Tony, can you elaborate on this... What's the deal with this?
 
Someone "called in" a report last week on me saying that I "Have Hazardous chemicals stored at the property" and "hazardous waste" and that I "might be running a business out of a private residence"

There were a few things that were strange right off the bat:

1) This neighborhood is full of Home occupation permits, one if which, for ten years, is mine. There are some with semi trucks, pool cleaning companies, office cleaning companies, construction companies, and various others within a block of my house. The fact that I have had marked trucks parked in my driveway for the past ten years might have been a clue to my neighbors that yes, I am in fact, one of those who have a home occupation permit. So, like the inspector said, it's extremely rare to get the complaint that "they might be running a business out of a private residence" and it usually comes from new residents from California who can't understand the concept that a home occupation like we have is legal. But we have no new residents in our neighborhood.

2) Less than 10% of the complaints come by phone. Most complaints come by internet where they THINK they will be anonymous (but are not). This one came by phone. Also very unusual. This complaint, as reported, came from an out of state number which is almost unheard of in these situations according to them. It is being researched as we speak by them.

3) The only truck I have in view of the public is the coil cleaning truck. Most of my neighbors know that we are a "green" company because we clean with only water. No one outside our industry would have any knowledge of transportation of waste or even have any idea that it would be possible for us to pick up waste even if we wanted to. We do not have a waste tank on any of our rigs. Our reclaim rig is always parked in the back behind the wall and people have no idea what that thing is anyway. Many of them think its a big barbeque.

4) There was no mention of my lift being parked in the driveway. Usually when a neighbor calls in and complains they will mention something they think is an eyesore. I did get a call once during the election when I had the McCain sign up 60 ft on the lift and they told me to take it down after the election and park it back where I park it now. The lift was not mentioned in the complaint.

So Steven, you tell me. Ten years, four businesses, never a complaint like this. The same week Jim and Robert are here I get a complaint about "hazardous waste", a term which no one in their right mind would associate with coil cleaning which is all my neighbors ever see.

Welcome to Jim and Robert's future for our industry.
 
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