New young person confussed!

[muddymike2003]

Hey, I just had to sign up with this site, it's great help!! but I do have a few ?'s... first of all I have a lil residental power washer like 2400 psi or something and 6 horse power honda engine, i know it sucks but im 15 and like to do it for fn so i thought i might as well be working for some $$$, never can go wrong with that!! I need to know, what chemicals do you use and do you have to? I already did a big stone porch, long drive way, walkway, and sidewalk for about 10 hours and made 100...is that any good for a newbie? I have been doing $10 a hour for just powerwashing w/o chemicals. I read the "Pricing Defined!" by Cody, and it helped me out a lot and now I want to charge by sq. foot. Wut do you guys think my sq. rate should be; I hear 5cents and 10 cents but what is the normal? Also do you guys have any tips? Any advice would be very helpful!

Thanks, Mike D.


P.S. Sorry if their is a lot of typo's in there but its almost three and cant stop reading all these posts

 

[Dan Flynn]

Try 50.00 per hour and up.

 

[A1PW.LLC]

Hey Mike,
$10.00 a hour is way to low. But you are just starting out. So I might be able to do the same job for two hours with my equipment. That would make it $50.00 a hour. A surface cleaner will save you alot of time. That's why you need to charge by the square ft. not hour. But if you do like going by the hourly rate. Whatever you want to make a hour add the exact hourly rate for your equipment. Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[Dan S]

Dont forget to buy Insurance....... anybody can do a 10.00 hour job .

Heck my 14 year old can throw one of my machines in the back of the pinto and go to work .but what if he ruined somebodys property ............. we charge 60-70 for an hour for a reason!!

 

[OrangeCrest]

A Pinto? Dang Dan... With all that snow out there, I would think that the salt would have toasted that by now

 

[muddymike2003]

Thanks for the input, I know I should have insurance, but down here in Texas you are suppose to be at least 16 to have a job and I know how well they would like that, but I'll look into it; and is there anybody who knows what the going insurance in Texas? I live over in Houston btw. Thanks for the reply's. I'm starting to think I'll go with per sq. foot instead. So far it's all going well, I have done about 4 houses total.

Thanks a lot, Mike