My largest bid ever was turned in today

C

Chris Tharpe

New member
I got a refferal call from another board member here, thanks Jason, informing me that a local property was looking for someone to clean their concrete. I called the nice gentleman back and we mulled it over for a minueI went over there yesterday did a quick measure and came up with roughly 544,440 sq.ft of concrete to be cleaned. This place is horrible the concrete is from the late 60's and has never been cleaned. I followed Chris Chappel's advice on this one and gave him 2 different prices. One with gum removal and one without. I came out to a grand total without gum removal of around $40,000 and with gum removal it is more near $70k. This place is extremely bad looking and the concrete is black from mold all over. It will be a tough job to do because a surface cleaner is not such a great option on roughly half of it. I presented it to him today which he requested to be emailed. I got a reply of Thanks Chris, that proposal is very good looking and professional. We will be in touch when we know what we choose to do.

Do these types of jobs come across everyones desk on a yearly basis or is this just something that fell in place at a good time. I feel really good when i get a 15 day account at 950.00 but this will take the cake for me and make for a good start to 2009
 
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Good luck that would be a great way to start the year.
 
Good going, glad you got it all worked out and the bid submitted.

While they are mulling it over, I would make an inventory of what you have on hand and what you will need like pressure hoses, supply hoses, chems, extra surface cleaners, nozzles, etc....

I would make a list and mentally get ready for all kinds of scenarios to see if you forget anything and kind of mentally clean sections and guesstimate how long it will take you for sections to get an idea of how long it might take to do the whole cleaning.

Do you have enough helpers for the job? I might be available. hahaha

Good Luck!




_________________
Superior Power Washing<O:p</O:p
Chris Chappell<O:p</O:p
Cleaning Concrete Driveways Sidewalks and Walkways in Corpus Christi Texas
 
I was informed that there were 2 others that already bid the job. When i got a reply back from him regarding my bid he was taken by surprise by the professional manner everything was put together. I take it that the other 2 guys used the basic quote dupicate paper from Office Depot. We will see how it goes and who knows i may or may not get it. It would be an experience at the least and a terrible headache to deal with especially if the other things i am working on fall into place
 
Sounds like a good job. Hope you get it.
 
Christopher said:
Good going, glad you got it all worked out and the bid submitted.

While they are mulling it over, I would make an inventory of what you have on hand and what you will need like pressure hoses, supply hoses, chems, extra surface cleaners, nozzles, etc....

I would make a list and mentally get ready for all kinds of scenarios to see if you forget anything and kind of mentally clean sections and guesstimate how long it will take you for sections to get an idea of how long it might take to do the whole cleaning.

Do you have enough helpers for the job? I might be available. hahaha

Good Luck!
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I have been racking my brain on this one all day, I have one helper every day, Jason wants in on the job, and I am unsure about the rest. Before i start this job i will have to have my new equipment im trying to get on a trailer and ready to go. At that point I would have 1 8gpm hot, 2 5.5gpm hot, 2 4gpm cold (rinsing) all on one gooseneck. Each hot unit will have 300ft of hose, I would only need 150 because we would park in the middle and be able to reach both sides of this pretty easily from there. The problem is going to be water supply although there are faucets around every corner; we will have to run 3 or 4 garden hoses to the tank to keep up. I already have problems sometimes with the 8gpm and 1 4gpm running at the same time and i have 660 in capacity for a buffer since were still doing 2 car lots.


After thinking about everything it would be easiest to use a wand on half of it rather than a very small surface cleaner to clean a small portion of it then have to hit all th nooks and crannies or maybe a turbo depending on how the concrete would hold up. I am really having problems trying to figure out how to get the other monthly and bi-weekly accounts we have while still doing this job. In the quote I stated we would work M-F 8-5 and were scheduling 20 working days to complete this. The problems arise when we have 15 fuel stations, 14 restaurant visits, large hospital bi-weekly, and hopefully adding 88 more visits if things go as planned. That makes me unsure on what to do even if we do not pick anything else up between now and the. I think this is a great problem to be having within 9 months of being in business however it will still be a nusance. In my bid packet i included a service agreement stating the details of payment, up front and terms after job completion, then went into the cost of performing the job to justify the up front portion of payment. I already figured in 4 hands including myself, quite a bit for chemicals if needed (hot water usually does the trick) fuel, and miscellaneous for unforeseen costs. I think i have that part down pat so far but there are going to me little problems that creep in unexpected. I just may have to have my helper handle the night work and I will concentrate on the day work untill this job is completed. I would like to have 1 person on the ground at all times watching the buffer tank, fuel levels, keeping hoses from getting caught up, and so on. The having 3 people operating hot water units. I will be working on the prep over the weekend and next week to ensure I have all my ducks in a row
 
mobilewashpros said:
I have been racking my brain on this one all day, I have one helper every day, Jason wants in on the job, and I am unsure about the rest. Before i start this job i will have to have my new equipment im trying to get on a trailer and ready to go. At that point I would have 1 8gpm hot, 2 5.5gpm hot, 2 4gpm cold (rinsing) all on one gooseneck. Each hot unit will have 300ft of hose, I would only need 150 because we would park in the middle and be able to reach both sides of this pretty easily from there. The problem is going to be water supply although there are faucets around every corner; we will have to run 3 or 4 garden hoses to the tank to keep up. I already have problems sometimes with the 8gpm and 1 4gpm running at the same time and i have 660 in capacity for a buffer since were still doing 2 car lots.


After thinking about everything it would be easiest to use a wand on half of it rather than a very small surface cleaner to clean a small portion of it then have to hit all th nooks and crannies or maybe a turbo depending on how the concrete would hold up. I am really having problems trying to figure out how to get the other monthly and bi-weekly accounts we have while still doing this job. In the quote I stated we would work M-F 8-5 and were scheduling 20 working days to complete this. The problems arise when we have 15 fuel stations, 14 restaurant visits, large hospital bi-weekly, and hopefully adding 88 more visits if things go as planned. That makes me unsure on what to do even if we do not pick anything else up between now and the. I think this is a great problem to be having within 9 months of being in business however it will still be a nusance. In my bid packet i included a service agreement stating the details of payment, up front and terms after job completion, then went into the cost of performing the job to justify the up front portion of payment. I already figured in 4 hands including myself, quite a bit for chemicals if needed (hot water usually does the trick) fuel, and miscellaneous for unforeseen costs. I think i have that part down pat so far but there are going to me little problems that creep in unexpected. I just may have to have my helper handle the night work and I will concentrate on the day work untill this job is completed. I would like to have 1 person on the ground at all times watching the buffer tank, fuel levels, keeping hoses from getting caught up, and so on. The having 3 people operating hot water units. I will be working on the prep over the weekend and next week to ensure I have all my ducks in a row
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Hey man keep it simple, 3 men can do that job with the right equipment in a week
 
after reading what I said I realized that is may have come accross the wrong way, what I was implying was just not to over do the preperation for the job, that is a large job but you dont have to get so many others involved. Try and do it yourself, beswt thing I saw was the new equipment, this would be a great stepping stone for his business, he can end up with 2 employees and 3 machines, then he can really go after the business he wants.


Good luck Chris ;)
 
I agree with russ. If its all at one location and the equipment you listed I would think 8-10 days max. A couple big guys or Maximos and your 8gpm you could do it in no time. If its solid enough you could go with a 0 tip like Jim and run with it. In the senario you presented I would hook the two 5.5 to a big guy or maximo and run the hot water. I would have another guy running the same on the 8gpm and one more to rince with the 4 gpm. As far as water I hope you have a big tank and water hook ups. And QC's at the reel so your not winding hose up every 30min.
 
Thanks for the motivation. I am sure we can get it done within a couple of weeks however I planned on having 20 days just in case it takes us longer. I would rather overshoot the job and have it done in half the time rather than the latter and having the customer upset because it is not done on time. On about 257,000 of it we can use a surface cleaner but the other part of it will have to be done by a wand that will be the time wasting part, I feel that 3 guys can do it efficiently and one to handle the hoses, water and fuel. This will give me a good reason to get that large spare diesel tank for the bed of my truck.
 
One thing I have run into when running long stretches of hose on big jobs (300' to 600' of supply hose) is that the longer the hose, the more the flow slows down.

You might think of splitting up the equipment onto 2 rigs just for better water flow. Yes it would be easier to have everything on one trailer but when you have to run 4,5,6 or 7 supply hoses to the tank, you will be running from far away to do that where if you split them up like start one rig on each end and work to the middle, or from the middle out you will not be running hoses from so far out and just have one guy looking up once in a while to make sure water is in the tanks.

You could have the helper use a pair of binoculars to watch both at the same time, move hoses, fetch water or gatorade, etc...

Email me some pics, I would like to see this and maybe have some more ideas for you.
 
I agree with russ dont over think the job. you have the equipment to get it done. I find alot of newer guys tend to over think big jobs until they get a few under their belt. with the amount of machines your going to run you should be able to do at least 50,000 sq ft a day.
 
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