Exhaust Cleaning

Hello All,
just recently started my pressure washing business in Stockton, California and I am curious how the pricing range is. Is there a pricing book for what to charge? I have been doing heavy equipment at $50.oo an hour and doing single story homes at $160.00 a house does not enclude driveways or walkways. For a double wide driveway I charge abt. $65.00 to $75.00 per driveway. Am I that far off on my pricing? SHOULD I go by square footage house and stick to that. I want to get some regular monthly accounts like exhaust hoods. any advice from anyone?

Go up and use the Search and put in key words-look up all the info. you need. Doing exhaust hoods just a a filler is not a good idea. Flat work and homes are like day and night to hoods.

Rich
Cleaning Kitchen exhaust hoods should not be considered a side line. Cleaning Commercial Kitchen Exhaust Systems reqiuire following the NFPA guidelines. Also there is a move to have ALL Kitchen Duct Cleaners Certified to meet the NFPA 96 Standards. Before embarking on your new adventure you might what to contact your local Fire Department to see what requirements you may need to meet to satisfy them.

Although I am a Canadian AHJ the NFPA 96 Standards apply to both countries. Please feel free to contact me if I can be of any assistance.

Stan Sauve SCO
Fire Prevention Officer
City of Calgary
Email....stan.sauve@calgary.ca

House Prices

you should find out what your competition is charging. We wash houses all day around my area for $300 for a average rancher. $250 min. and that's vinyl siding. driveways just depend how dirty they are, if it's green on the driveways we charge more, if it's green on the vinyl it cleans off easier.

I agree with every post here, including the one advising you to search before you ask a question that may have been asked lots of times already.

Most basic residential work has a base value of ten cents per square foot. This varies area by area, but is a good rule of thumb. From there you ADD for tougher jobs or conditions (never subtract until you hit commercial jobs with tens or hundreds of thousands of square feet). For example, most contractors charge $1 per running perimeter foot per story for house washes. If you break that down, that is exactly 10 cents per square foot (8' wall and a 2' overhang in every running foot). BTW, never deduct for the area of doors, windows, etc. The same applies to driveways.

From there, if the work requires more expertise (a specialty), different tools, more expensive cleaners, or adding a sealer - you have to charge much more.

Most residential cleaners I talk to are targeting overall earnings in the $100 - $150 per hour range. To accomplish this, they buy the right tools and work hard every hour to get the job done properly in the least amount of time. New contractors never hit those sorts of hourly earnings until they get good and fast, a process that usually takes months of trying.

If you are thinking about under-pricing your competitors as a good strategy going into the business, I recommend that you think that through. Undercharging is seldom a wise business approach.

Under-pricing steals customers from legitimate contractors who are trying to make a living (making you their "enemy" instead of a friendly competitor). It is the easy way to get into any business, until someone comes along and steals those customers from you at an even lower price. You can't win at that game.

Take the time to learn everything you need to know about cleaning and charge accordingly. The customers you get will be loyal to you if they admire your work and respect your qualifications and believe your prices are fair.