Commercial Flatwork....help!

[Mike@Everclear]

Hey guys,

I mainly do residential work....almost 99% up until now. I have been asked to bid on two commercial flatwork accounts...one monthly and the other bi-monthly.

I need you to share as much as possible in reference to bidding/performing this work.

Do you have a minimum charge if the square footage is not too high? I can't see unpacking my truck/trailer for any less then $100.

Any tips you can provide would be greatly appreciated.



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Mike Hughes
Everclear
Souderton, PA

 

[Dave Olson]

Hello Mike,

I think that the miminum equipment you should have to do flatwork is: 3000 psi, 200+ degrees, 5 gpm, surface cleaner, rotary tips. Of course you need degreasers to remove stains. You will also need to have lights, much of our flatwork is done at night.

To give you an idea about price. We did our local Kmart for several years (high traffic areas of front doors and dumpster area. They just stopped our service ($125 per mont

!! A local bank(doing drive thru's)has extended the service interval from 3 to 6 months. A 24 hour fast food want to pay only $100/month for (drive thru, all sidewalks, dumpster area) clean & remove gum.
We cannot do it for that!

Dave Olson



<FONT COLOR="#000080" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">[This message has been edited by Dave Olson on March 05, 2000 ]</font>

 

[Mike@Everclear]

Thanks for your insight, Dave.

As a footnote, I have two 3000psi@5.5 GPM hot water machines, and a surface cleaner. Thanks again

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Mike Hughes
Everclear
Souderton, PA

 

[Craig/PowerWashUnlimited]

Mike,

Not in any way argueing daves post, i am sure it is very different in all areas. We do flatwork for many different restaurants. Prices in my area range from restaurant to restaurant. Some we do monthly, some we do bimonthly. Almost all the places, we do the dining areas outside, the walkways, drive thru (if one) and dumpster area. All of them take less than 1.5 hrs per visit. We go in, spray down degreaser, agitate where needed, then use between 125 and 200 degrees, hardly ever go up to 250 degrees. None of the restaurants i do go for less than 175 bucks a cleaning, and to hear them tell it, they couldn't make it without us. We schedule 6 months at a time, and work in special circumstances as needed, i.e. when they get inspected by corporate level folks, or health inspections. As Dave said, banks are hard to get money out of, no pun intended, they just are. We use 18" and 30" surface cleaners and rinse with wax additive that helps on the monthly cleanings. Hope this helps.

Craig

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Craig Knight
Power Wash Unlimited
www.powerwashunlimited.com

 

[Russ in Chicago]

Commercial work is alot more competitive. Prices are very inflexible. If you don't do it for a certain price, many others will. The key to a successful commercial-based business is VOLUME. Margins are tighter, so to offset you must increase the volume. Residential is less competitive ONLY because there is so much out there, and residential consumers are more easily swayed by the "quality" pitch. My advice: it's nice to have the regularity of the commercial work, but decide whether it's worth the evening/weekend hours, lower margins, 60 and 90+ day wait on your money, etc... if you find a bunch of customers like Craig has, go for it. IF you find the ones I'm used to dealing with, stick with your residential, you'll be much happier.

 

[Terry Buchamer]

Hi Mike I can only tell what has worked for me, and that is 1) quote on a hourly, or you can quote by the sqft and remember that if you are doing drive thrus they can go for as little as$8-$25 a shot, commercial is very competitive. If they want it monthly or by-monthly, you can give them better pricing as it wont take as long to do if you do a by or semi type of cleaningI dont know how big of an area this is so compare hourly VS sqft priceing.

I hope this helps

Terry

Originally posted by Mike@Everclear:
Hey guys,

I mainly do residential work....almost 99% up until now. I have been asked to bid on two commercial flatwork accounts...one monthly and the other bi-monthly.

I need you to share as much as possible in reference to bidding/performing this work.

Do you have a minimum charge if the square footage is not too high? I can't see unpacking my truck/trailer for any less then $100.

Any tips you can provide would be greatly appreciated.