Does it have to be this complicated?

[NEWTODBIZ]

hi,
I've been reading over your posts. Geez, this stuff seems to complicated for me. I do lawns on the side and was wondering if a guy could make some extra cash with a plain old honda pressure washer, doing driveways, fences, sidewalks. I did my own house without soap or anything and was damn impressed with the results. Am I a retard? Probably so. Tell me why or why not. How much money could I charge on average to do a 20'X75' driveway for example?
Thanks a lot!
Be easy on me I'm a rookie!

 

[Dixiedrifter]

I'm a rookie too, but I went out and got my equipment after reading this board and I spent a pretty penny on it, but it is well worth it.

You as a professional pressure washer needs equipment with lots of flow, plain and simple. Time is money to a pressure washer, and in most applications we don't use very much pressure, but we need lots of flow to wash away our chemicals.

Chemicals by the way do most of our work. On a 1500 square foot house, I call roll up in the drive way and roll out with a check in our hands in an hour and a half. Its a spray on spray off deal.

On wood decks and what not, you can cause A LOT of damage if you use more than 500 PSI.

If your planning on doing driveways and other flat work, you will need lots of flow plus lots of pressure, and the most important thing for flat work, HEAT. And oh yeah, don't forget your surface cleaner. Those are a must too if your dealing with flatwork in any quantity.

Not trying to discourage you, but IMO the ideal set up for a contractor is a 5.6 GPM skid mount unit with a burner which cost somewhere between $4-6K.