# Is this a good deal?



## lapainter (Jun 2, 2014)

Hi all, I'm looking at a pressure wash rig that a old friend owns. A little background, we own a small drywall and painting company. We can't grow mainly because of labor issues. I won't go in depth on that just can't find any help that I can send into someone's house and trust. Anyway my friend and I started talking and he told me I'd throw away my other tools once I got the washing business going. So, I'm researching everything I can find on the business. ( I've washed with small rigs before but nothing large scale.) His rig consist of a 2012 dodge 1 ton diesel with 112,00 miles. 2 Mi-T- I 5000 psi 5 gpm washers, 2 flat surface cleaners a 600 gal water tank and bunch of chemicals. The truck has 2 electric hose reels with 300' each and a electric hose pipe reel with 200 ft water supply hose. The washers have 125 and 150 hours on them. Just looking for opinions on this rig and the business in general. He wants $35,000. No existing contracts, he quit the business for other business interests. Thanks for any insight


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## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

That Ram alone is worth just about what he is asking. To me the price sounds close after looking up some of these and guessing the condition.

I'm just getting into washing myself, hope to make it full time vs painting this year. We have 3 rigs I plan on working.


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## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

I'm sure others with much more experience will chime in soon.


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## slinger58 (Feb 11, 2013)

lapainter said:


> Hi all, I'm looking at a pressure wash rig that a old friend owns. A little background, we own a small drywall and painting company. We can't grow mainly because of labor issues. I won't go in depth on that just can't find any help that I can send into someone's house and trust. Anyway my friend and I started talking and he told me I'd throw away my other tools once I got the washing business going. So, I'm researching everything I can find on the business. ( I've washed with small rigs before but nothing large scale.) His rig consist of a 2012 dodge 1 ton diesel with 112,00 miles. 2 Mi-T- I 5000 psi 5 gpm washers, 2 flat surface cleaners a 600 gal water tank and bunch of chemicals. The truck has 2 electric hose reels with 300' each and a electric hose pipe reel with 200 ft water supply hose. The washers have 125 and 150 hours on them. Just looking for opinions on this rig and the business in general. He wants $35,000. No existing contracts, he quit the business for other business interests. Thanks for any insight


There are a few members of this forum who have made similar statements. 
PressurePros and DaveMac have posted about getting out of the coatings business altogether and doing pressure cleaning only. And I can see that with a proper setup, it is more profitable than painting. The one thing I see that will be different is you'll have to sell a lot more PC jobs than you would painting jobs to stay busy.


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## Tonyg (Dec 9, 2007)

So, it sounds as though everything is on the truck? Do you not have a truck/van of your own?

You could put together a brand new trailer, 5.6-8gpm pump with a burner, all the hoses and fixins for 10-12k


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## Rbriggs82 (Jul 9, 2012)

slinger58 said:


> There are a few members of this forum who have made similar statements.
> PressurePros and DaveMac have posted about getting out of the coatings business altogether and doing pressure cleaning only. And I can see that with a proper setup, it is more profitable than painting. The one thing I see that will be different is you'll have to sell a lot more PC jobs than you would painting jobs to stay busy.


That's what always held me back from pursuing washing full time. The pipeline of leads you'd need to stay busy and the leg work for all those leads is daunting. 

Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk


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## lapainter (Jun 2, 2014)

All great input... thanks for that. We work out of trucks but none are wrapped or lettered as we mainly sub for gc's. I did think about assembling a trailer for cheaper but think I would skimp on things trying to save money and then not push the business as hard. The new truck is wrapped with logo and lettering. I guess I feel like it would be jumping in with both feet and it would force me to aggressively market which has always been my weak point. In my research I've found only a small number of companies in a 100 mile radius with setups similar to this capable of this sort of production. BUT, I still can't help but think of the volume of work needed to keep busy. My buddy keeps telling me that volume won't be a problem if I push it but even though he's my buddy he is still trying to SELL the rig. Anyway, I don't mean to ramble I'm just trying to look at all the possibilities both negative and positive. Thanks all.


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## Tonyg (Dec 9, 2007)

Then to me it boils down to the truck. If you really need another truck and you have 35k laying around then it sounds like a decent deal. 

The margins are better in the PW business and once you establish a repeat clientele and referral stream you can do well. For me commercial was low margin, out before dawn, year round work regardless of weather but it provided a small fixed income. I only had about 10-12 restaurants that I would schedule them the same week every month or quarter. Residential repaints the rest of the time. Residential PW is much more seasonal but much higher returns. Homeowners were much more loyal than managers or regional directors that are interchangeable and somewhat disposable. 

I would seriously recommend that you consider setting up your own brand new rig for 1/3 of the cost and start supplementing your current revenues and sales. I guarantee you will be happier with a rig and a truck that you put together and you can easily wrap an enclosed trailer or sign an open one and you can always take the other 20k to expand, hire a couple of fireman to work the PW, or maybe just pay your mortgage.

Call Bob at PressureTek and have a conversation about what it would take. I think you would be surprised. For me diversification was key (painting/decks/commercial PW/residential PW). I just found that I enjoy painting much more.


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## stelzerpaintinginc. (May 9, 2012)

You'd have to have quite a bit of capital to start with such an extravagant rig. Make sure you're setting aside enough $ for marketing. For the past few years, I've been slowly transitioning more from painting to washing, and now to roof cleaning. Up until this last setup that I bought pre-assembled, I built everything myself. Made a ton of mistakes. Learned from it. At least if/when something breaks down in the field, I'll have a good chance to be able to fix it. 

You might consider starting with a much more modest setup. You may find an open trailer is a better fit for you, or you might end up wishing you had an enclosed rig. Parking and storage will play a factor as well in your decision.


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## lapainter (Jun 2, 2014)

I appreciate the comments, gives me great outside views on it. I have a way of getting tunnel vision when it comes to these type things. I think I'm gonna consider putting together my own rig. This way I won't be in quite so deep and can grow it slower without the pressure of needing as much lead generation. Thanks


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## DavidGeller (Feb 25, 2021)

So, it sounds as though everything is on the truck? Do you not have a truck/van of your own?

You could put together a brand new trailer, 5.6-8gpm pump with a burner, all the hoses and fixins for 10-12k


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