Education is a Powerful Thing
The purpose of this blog post is to educate, no more, no less. What prompted this post is the frequent phone calls I receive from distressed customers that have had their house cleaned by a “professional” and they have either done a less than acceptable job, or much worse, damaged their home permanently. What I have written is my own opinion based on years of my own experiences. I do not speak for other business owners or the pressure washing industry.
It’s every human being’s God-given right to be able to work and provide for their family. There is no shame in the hustle to start a successful business; as a matter of fact, it’s a commendable and a noble endeavor. Starting a business is not for the weak or fainthearted.
However… Starting a business is not simply a vehicle to earn revenue so you may quit your day job. A service providing business has an immense responsibility to educate one’s self and employees to protect the customer. Serving the public for a fee is a burden that should not be taken lightly, especially when working on someone’s most prized possession- their home.
The Pressure Washing/ Soft Washing industry is relatively easy to break into. Not much capital is required aside from the cost of a business license and equipment. There is no certification or qualification required, which in my opinion, should be remedied by some sort of regulatory oversight similar to building contractors, electricians, plumbers, and HVAC professionals. Each one of these industries must meet certain criteria and, in some cases, take courses to pass certification exams. We, as exterior cleaners, have nothing like this in place. Any Joe off the street can go to Home Depot, buy volatile chemicals and a pressure washer; Then spray them on your house potentially damaging it, your plants or harming your pets. Responsible owners of an exterior cleaning company should and must utilize their own initiative to take courses, attend schools and invest in the right types of liability insurance. I can tell you firsthand that this rarely happens and you must know how to protect yourself.
I want to give you a few things to look for when interacting with a potential pressure washing service provider. Hopefully this insight will help you make an informed decision.
1. Owner’s/Employee’s General Appearance and Demeanor: Do they look professional? Can you tell that they take pride in their appearance and how they communicate? If they don’t look, act, and communicate like a professional there is a high probability their work will be commensurate with their appearance and behavior. Trust your gut.
2. Vehicle Appearance/Presentation of Equipment/Online Presence: Make no mistake about it, there are many trustworthy businesses out there that have no markings on their vehicles or their equipment. I am simply highlighting the fact that if a business has very visible advertisements on their vehicles and equipment, it’s a safe bet they have invested in the fact they will be around a while and care deeply about their reputation. If they have no or very little online presence such as a Google listing or social media pages, it limits your recourse if they take advantage of you and they know it.
3. Information Sharing: Do they seem short on words or sort of aloof? Any professional will tell you that they love educating people about their trade. We could sit and talk about it for hours. We take a seemingly simple question and give you 15 different answers and scenarios. The point here being is, if it seems odd that they aren’t giving you the information you require, chances are they don’t know the answer and have a limited knowledge base.
4. Very liberal with Promises and Guarantees: One of the most well-known facts amongst professional cleaners is there is no such thing as a guarantee that something will come clean. The closest a contractor can come to promising an outcome is green/black algae on vinyl. This is the most predictable substrate to clean if there isn’t excessive oxidation damage. We never know how a surface is going to behave until we are cleaning it. It may come out perfectly or it may not come out at all. We just never know until we utilize all of our knowledge and tools at our disposal during the job. It is our responsibility to manage your expectations by under-promising but over-delivering.
5. Cheap Cost: Here’s the truth, professionals charge more because we know that our value far exceeds what we charge you. We have the foundation underneath us to charge a fair and reasonable fee for our service. If something goes wrong, we will not disappear. We will be with you to see whatever happened to an agreeable end. In a way, you are paying for peace of mind. That peace of mind is knowing that the technicians working on your home have been vetted and trained to provide the best service available. I can tell you that a competitive price for a basic softwash on a 2,100 square foot vinyl home is at or North of $300. If you’re getting prices of $175 and below, this is a huge red flag. Either they have no experience or they do have experience but are basing their business on volume and not quality care. Trust me, you do not want to hire a volume-based company. To them, it’s all about how many houses they can complete in a day, not how well they have completed the job.
Now I will arm you with some appropriate questions to further weed out Chuck in a Truck, Bucket Bob, or the beer money bandits.
How long have you been in business? Less than a year (Red flag) 2-5 years (Amber) 5 years+ (Green)
Who taught you how to do this type of work? Listen for key words like course, academy, or industry events. If they answer with anything else, you’ll have to come to a conclusion yourself. This is way too subjective for me to comment on. Again, trust your gut.
What are you going to do to protect my property, plants, and pets? Listen for the words: cover, tape, plastic, Tyvek, and saturate. If they simply say, “we’ll wet down your plants” that’s a pretty good indicator they will show up and just start spraying. Trust me, you don’t want that. Property protection is extremely important to ensure your house is fully functional when the job is complete.
What are you going to do if something in/on my house doesn’t work after you finish the job? Every professional cleaner has a handyman, electrician, plumber, and a HVAC guy on speed dial. Let’s face it, we are spraying a tremendous amount of pretty strong soap and water on your house. Common sense dictates that precautions must be taken to protect your outlets, cameras, and lights. If precautions are not taken, you are assuming an incredible amount of risk.
Who do you have liability insurance with? If a common insurance company is cited (Aflac/State Farm) it’s a red flag. Common insurance companies won’t cover us. We have to go through very specific insurance companies to ensure you, the customer, is fully protected. Mine, along with 90% of the industry, is Hanover or Prudential.
Do you have your business license on you? You would be surprised at how many businesses are operating without a license. If your property is damaged by an unlicensed business, you have zero recourse. They could destroy the outside of your home and there isn’t much you can do about it besides spending thousands on repairs or legal fees.
In conclusion, I’ll tell you that hiring the right company is so incredibly important when having your house pressure/soft washed. I wish I could accurately describe how disheartening it is when I see businesses in our area not having any idea how to go about cleaning something safely all the while charging you for it. Do you know how I know this? Because random pressure washing business owners call me to ask how to clean something or how to remedy something they have already damaged.
I hope you choose Patriot Exterior Restoration to care for your property, but what’s most important to us is you are not taken advantage of and you understand pressure washing your home is serious business. If you have any questions at all, please pick up the phone and call me personally. I will do everything in my power to assist you or at least point you in the direction of someone who can.
These are actual pictures of damage we were called to fix.