I have been asked to provide a quote for a very large condominium community to pressure wash all buildings (12 I believe if i counted correctly), clean all the outside windows (1,032 panes, 2 story buildings) they also have 10 large carports and several garage structures. I am also going to include the flat work which consists of many, many sidewalks, stair cases, and a pool area. Also theres 2 dumpster areas I’m including as well.
I’ve been trying to figure out a number low enough to get the job but high enough to make it worth it. I took as many photos as I could just to give a general idea of the work. Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.
How many days will it take you?
How much do you want/need to make per day?
I power washed a condo association last summer. I did $1500/day solo (apart from paying my dad $75/day to tape outlets and locksets, and help me setup each morning). This is in the northeast.
I found out after submitting the quote that I was a good 30% cheaper than any other bids. Chances are I would have been out of their budget if I priced any higher, though. They waited years before finally hiring anyone to power wash there.
I personally don’t regret pricing it as low as I did. Best one and a half weeks I’ve ever had. But I knew I was setup for high production. 8gpm pressure washer with a flowpro.solutions remote meant washing two buildings per day.
As far as figuring out your time frame per building:
How many units per building?
What kind of help do you have lined up? What will you pay them?
The scope of work you’ve described sounds like something that I wouldn’t really want to tackle solo. The longer you’re under foot of the homeowners, the more complaints for stupid little stuff you’ll have to deal with.
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Thank you for your response. Sorry I’m just now seeing it. But ok, so here’s the really nice part about this job…. I actually live in one of the condominiums. So basically I would be waking up and already be at work. I’m not sure about the desired daily amount, but it could be an option. There number of units per building varies but there are 85 units total. Plus 36 garage/storage units. 9 medium/large carports. I believe there are 18 total buildings, varying in sizes, plus a clubhouse, a pool area, and obviously a lot of sidewalks going throughout the entire complex. 2 dumpster areas. I’m not only bidding for pressure washing either, they also have never hired anyone to do that, but apparently they do the outside windows every couple of years, I asked how much they normally pay for that and she said she couldn’t recall exact amount but somewhere around 5k. I counted 1,032 panes, I figure at $5 a pane=$5,160.
As far as the pressure washing I was thinking of going the route of average rent payments per unit… which, again, varies, but I figure it to be around $1,250 per rental. Until I saw the sky view of the complex I thought there were 12 buildings, so I figured 15k. But then theres also the carports, garages, clubhouse, and I was going to include the pool and walkways in the bid just as some additional options if they so choose.
I would be doing all of it alone for the most part, but again… I live here, so… I mean, you can’t really beat that.
In the image I posted here, the condos are circled blue, the garages/clubhouse=red, carports=yellow, pool=purple.
I have a pretty powerful pressure washer and basically every attachment needed to do all second story work from the ground. I imagine the pressure washing, if all areas in the bid were to be accepted would take me at least 1-4 weeks. Thats with all the flat work. If only the buildings and carports and garages, maybe 1-2 weeks. The windows, maybe 1-1 1/2 weeks
I hate to say this, but I think you might be getting in over your head on this one.
“At least 1-4 weeks” is way too broad an estimate to work off of. You need a specific idea of how many buildings/structures/walkways etc you can wash in one 8 hour day.
You will want to outline your game plan so that condo owners know where you will be working on which days, and they can prepare by having their windows closed and locked, (and their screens removed if you’ll be doing windows with waterfed.)
Also, define “pretty powerful pressure washer”. How many GPM? That’ll be your biggest factor for efficiency.
The fact you live there is a nice bonus. But if you don’t give accurate expectations and communication, you will end up with a lot of ticked off neighbors.
Just my 2¢
Oh, and here’s a great play-by-play of what a well organized project looks like:
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This thread should be locked. Theres absolutely nothing that could be added to it at all.
Well done.
That was a great post, Anatomy of a TownHose Project, …and I don’t even do pressure washing / house washing…
