How many decks per year?

Reider

Reider

New member
Although the wood side of our business has its own unique setbacks and problems, it is definitely growing and has very good potential to take us to the next level or as a stand alone division. Listening to Everett at the NOVA event intrigued me and has my wheels turning a bit more than usual. I am curious as to how many decks others actually do each year. Now I am located in the Mid-Atlantic area, and every area and year is different, but I welcome responses from all over just to compare.

So approximately how many wood restoration jobs does your business complete each year?

I'm also interested in the number of crews you have and are the crews 2-person, 3-person, etc.
 
My business has changed over the years from more decks,arbors,cedar houses etc to more fences this year due to the subdivisions requiring us to stain/re-stain the fences.Since we use the Gray Away exclusive it has also help us out tremendously and was planned that way since day 1. We wanted to be known for being exclusively with 1 stain "that the H.O can't buy off the shelf" that we could trust.

Now with decks you don't hear from those customers for a couple of years and some even longer.Some customers may try to get more life out of the stain and wait too long before re-staining but eventually most call back. Decks are great repeat business who also give great referrals!

I don't have numbers of how many restoration jobs I've done this year mostly alone had a helper for a few months if i was lucky. I know from the amount of stain we bought this year application wise was around 800 gallons or so.

You can be successful in wood restoration if you keep at it and just be fair,consistent and reliable you will have customers for life.
 
Reider said:
Wow Shane! 800 gallons this year for a mostly solo operation! You sir are a staining machine.
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Yeah it's a good bit of stain this year with as few 4K long fences!

How many wood jobs were you able to do this year Jason?
 
Haven't figured out total jobs of each service but I set a goal to do some different advertising geared to bringing in higher end customers. We ended up adding about 200 new customers to our already solid base of maintenance coat/existing customers. It was a great year for Deck Restoration Plus. We use vans and 2 man crews but on large jobs there may be 3-6 people on a job, especially log, cedar, and other wood sided homes. My personal opinion is that if you are going to get into wood, specifically decks you need to have a 3 year plan and investment because that is when the maintenance coats really start rolling in while still adding new business. If you treat every customer like they were the only one you have you will have a GREAT business built on a solid foundation. Glad I got your wheels spinning and it was nice meeting in MD.
 
Seymore_BlEaCh said:
Yeah it's a good bit of stain this year with as few 4K long fences!

How many wood jobs were you able to do this year Jason?
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I completed 19 decks and 1 fence this year. These numbers should have been drastically higher, but I turned down a lot of jobs out of stupidity and fear.

In case you don't already know, I currently have a full-time teaching job. I used this as a crutch or excuse for not taking on more jobs due to "lack of time", even though many were willing to wait. I know being afraid of success and avoiding the steps necessary to reach that success is crazy. The sad thing is many of us with preexisting full-time jobs do this to ourselves.

Another problem (which Everett brought to our attention at the NOVA event) was that I fell into the trap of listening to others tell potential wood contractors to walk away from anything acrylic. So that is exactly what I did.

So here I am shaking my head at myself in disappointment because of stupidity and fear, which is very uncharacteristic of my personality and actions of the past. 2013 was a good year, but could have been a great year. 2014 will be much different and I am taking the steps to ensure it is successful and an outstanding year.
 
Everett Abrams said:
Haven't figured out total jobs of each service but I set a goal to do some different advertising geared to bringing in higher end customers. We ended up adding about 200 new customers to our already solid base of maintenance coat/existing customers. It was a great year for Deck Restoration Plus. We use vans and 2 man crews but on large jobs there may be 3-6 people on a job, especially log, cedar, and other wood sided homes. My personal opinion is that if you are going to get into wood, specifically decks you need to have a 3 year plan and investment because that is when the maintenance coats really start rolling in while still adding new business. If you treat every customer like they were the only one you have you will have a GREAT business built on a solid foundation. Glad I got your wheels spinning and it was nice meeting in MD.
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200 new customers on top of your existing base is absolutely outstanding Everett. Thanks again for making me think and self-reflect at NOVA.
 
Wood is great avenue for business. We've been at it for 17 years now with 8-10 employees on average. It amounts to a solid 5 crews for our 9 month season. The key to making it work in wood is building your brand, reputation and systems. ANYBODY can power wash and stain a deck but very few will do it with forethought on how to keep that customer long term. When you get a system in place that successfully works your per sq ft rates go up, labor rates come down and repeat and return business increases dramatically. We too see a lot of customers hold out to that 4th or 5th year often but they're returning and that's what counts.

A two man crew would typically tackle around 80 decks over a season.
 
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