[gwrightson]

I have recently been thinking of adding another service to go along side my c/c business , I already do pressure washing , the odd stone/slate flooring but was thinking more along the lines of a mobile shot blasting unit. Now I know the safety aspect of things are likely to be a lot more complicated ie. stingent/stricter  . I have done a little research and the units can be utilesed to use sand / glass and other cleaning agents , the items that can be cleaned are limitless really.

Has any one any experience, or thoughts on this .

geoff

[Shaun_Ashmore]

http://www.contractortalk.com/f95/

worth joining?

Shaun

[clinton]

Geof

There is a guy on the cleaning side that does this i think not sure mind you just seen it on a web site

[Tony Gill Carpet Smart]

Nice MOPED Clinton

[Mike Osbourne]

That's a bit harsh Tony, although he does need it cut.

[Ryan Smyth]

Mike

Ryan

[clinton]

Tony

Mike

I got that one straight away

[Ryan Smyth]

How much would you be talking for a portable set up with everything you need?

Ryan

[Mike Osbourne]

Sorry Clinton 

I don't know if anyone else saw it but that engineering connections series presented by the Hamster had him sandblasting something and it looked like a H&S nightmare. Good fun though.

[clinton]

Mike

[Mike Osbourne]

I like the idea of add ons, particularly if they earn more per hour. Can't see the point in spending lots on training and equipment if it's at the same rate, unless you think you can turn up at a big house and clean the carpets, the rugs, the leather sofa, the patio, the tiles etc and that's your day.

[clinton]

Mike

And the cooker

[Mike Osbourne]

There's this trade off between one stop shop which is attractive to some and the jack of all trades vs specialist angle.

For instance with leather restoration I'm sure someone whose marketing was as a specialist would get work over the generalist, but they haven't already got their foot in the door.

[clinton]

Mike

You mean if someone just targeted the leather they would get more work just concentraiting on one line

[daysdeepclean]

I like the idea of add ons, particularly if they earn more per hour. Can't see the point in spending lots on training and equipment if it's at the same rate, unless you think you can turn up at a big house and clean the carpets, the rugs, the leather sofa, the patio, the tiles etc and that's your day.

You make a very valid point, I fancy plumbing now, having watched Rogue Traders

 

[Mike Osbourne]

I saw that. There was a guy charging by the half hour and did the job in no time but dragged it out for another hour. Con Man!

Yet if he just had an hourly rate that was twice as much as the others and did a cracking job no one would have a problem. In an emergency, who's ringing round for the best price like they do with us?

[clinton]

Mike

True or we could say even painters and decorators

We could if it was a flood and charge top money for it

[daysdeepclean]

I really don't know how people think they can get away with conning customers. Bad publicity travels a hell of a lot faster than good publicity.... Get caught out once and your business and reputation is destroyed.

A mate of mine was ordered by the courts to pay back £13,000 to a custy he was land scaping for.... His business has gone down hill.... fast!

[Rob_Mac]

Mike

There are times when doing larger works that you may be asked to add services, because they are happy with the standard of the initial service.

I have been fortunate to keep adding to our initial service, on our supermarket cleaning. We started pressure washing but it soon became obvious that a much larger service could be offered and would possibly be expected.

Whether we are drain jetting, removing chewing gum or pressure washing a store roof the principles of health and safety remain the same and as long as I hold onto  being the safest contractor working on site I am happy that we will continue to be offered ongoing works. I can see that there is certainly a market for niche and single service providers but similarly if I only offered one service I would see a lot of work going elsewhere that I am capable of covering.

I see a lot of things going on on the sites that we work on that could be construed as dubious, to say the least, we would never pressure wash an area unless it was barricaded and a safe working area could be set up, this is not always the case.

I have been on a site and had a heat gun lance (for the removal of lines on a carpark) pointed directly at me as it was fired up. I was 100yds away at the other end of the car park. When it fired up it hurt my ears because it was so loud.

I have add ons that are all very good revenue streams, drain jetting, chewing gum removal, graffiti removal, all of them could be stand alone businesses and the drain jetting/cctv survey will become an independant service next month.

Sand blasting I have looked into and it seems to be about the size of the compressor used to create the  air flow, in my opinion it is no more dangerous or more of a risk to anyones health and safety than pressure washing an area of graffiti.

Look at tow compressors on ebay, new ones are very expensive and a minimum cfm of over 170, that is the first part, then get onto the Hodge Clemco website and see their gear.

If you want a decent service I am selling a chewing gum removal set up on Ebay at the moment. We all know what a problem that is!!

Good luck

Rob