Hey Ron, I posted at the site you were talking about. I wrote on the pwn board a day or two ago about that thread on Dave's board. I hope you weren't saying my prices were bad. I was way higher then all those guys. I wasn't sure if you were saying mine were good or bad. I go a little lower on the mobile homes but I found I can't go higher and get any of them. I charge 50 cents a linear foot for those but on a house I double that for a 1 story. Most mobile homes I charge between $90 and $120. It gets me about $60 an hour on those. When times get bad and I go a week or two with no work then I tend to try and grab what I can to keep stuff coming in but when I am busy I kick a lot of the little stuff to another guy in town here and he gives me his big stuff. He does small stuff and can't handle big jobs. As far as using my surface cleaner goes I cahrge between .05 and .10 cents a sq. ft. it all depends on the amount of sq. ft. being done. Decks are the hardest thing around here to sell people on. They want you to do them for the same you do concrete. Most of my lost bids are on decks. I see alot of guys around here doing mobile homes for $40 so I think I am not low. My primary business is brick washing for a few masonry companies aroud here. I get between .40 to .55 a sq. ft. for washing brick. That price is just for the labor. All materials and the lift is extra. However those other guys saying they make $35 an hour and washing ranch houses for $50 and 2 story houses for $100 that is crazy. There are times I can make $120+ an hour washing brick and then there are times where I get a really bad job and have all kinds of problems and I only make $30 an hour. I have my break even at about $30 an hour. That is where I walk away from a job and cover all expenses and that is it. I figure every year I need $600 for insurance, $2000 for advertising, $1500 for pw maintence and replacement(of course I don't replace a pw every year I am figuring over a longer period), and $1500 for truck maintence. I don't count my truck insurance as a business expense since I had the truck before I started pressure washing. I do count it at tax time though. I also don't include my cell phone. This is another thing I don't count since I would have that whether I pw'ed or not. Again I do still claim it on taxes. I do count that it costs me $1500 a year of wear and tear on my truck that normally wouldn't be there if I didn't pw. That is about $5600 a year I need to cover every year. I also have my chems, gas, and other stuff but that gets covered by the job. That $5600 needs to covered no matter what. I guess the more you spend on chems is kinda in realtion to how much work you are doing. I am still new to this and am working on adjusting prices. This was my first full time year but 3 rd overall. I remember when i first started doing residential work. I was making like $15 to $20 an hour and thought it was cool. As I went along I realized the added expense of everything. I know that from what I made this year I need to do some adjusting. My goal this coming year is to make $50,000. This would be just me operating the show. I kinda figure that I get to keep about half of what I make. So $25,000 still isn't alot but I don't consider it that bad for working only 7 months out of the year. I am looking into the snow plowing for next year. A good wage for my area in a factory is about $10 to $12 an hour. That is about $20,000 to $24,000 a year gross. So take home that would be about $14,000 to $17,000. If I can take home $25,000 for 7 months of work I think that wouldn't be too bad. I would like more of course but I know I have to start somewhere. I guess a long term goal would be to make a $1,000,000 a year but I know that probably won't happen. I hope to be able to back on here at the end of next year and say I made $100,000. I made about $32,000 this year. I had tons of deductions so that has helped with not owning much taxes but I know next year will be way different. I guess I am kinda rambling on and on. I am definitely not a home depot guy. Ipaid about $4,300 for my last machine. Not something you find at home depot. I have about $15,000 wrapped up in my equipment not including my truck. I consider myself more then a weekend warrior. But like I said i am still learning. I am open to all suggestions. One more point I would like to add. A lot of pricing depends on where you are at. I live in a Dutch conserative community. It is hard to get people to pay good around here. I still do ok though. that is why most of my work is in brick washing. To me that is where the money is. The money I get for washing brick .40 to .55 a sq. ft. is a lot higher then I have seen a lot of other people washing it for. i seen someone say they wash it for less then .15 a sq. ft. There is no way I could see someone doing it for that much. Anyway go Giants!!!!
