How Do You Choose a Pressure Wash Company in North Alabama?

Let’s face it, if the pressure washing job you have were easy, you wouldn’t be hiring someone! You would pull out the trusty Honda pressure washer that was a Christmas Gift long ago, blow the dust off it, scavenger hunt for the accessories, yank it to life (maybe), and tackle your project. But no, the job you have is daunting. Green slime resembling a favorite child’s toy clings to your house like Spider-Man. Gutters so full they are sheltering their own ecosystem. Years of scum covering your vehicles to the point you actually don’t remember the real color – and your mechanic won’t even work on them. You get the picture. This is no longer a pressure washing task but a life-changing event. You need a professional – but who?

Off to Google you go and let your fingers work their magic. It becomes clear there is a wide variety of pressure washing companies. You will probably find:

• Joe’s (or Bubba’s or Jose’s or Viktor’s) Economy Pressure Washing – these are the guys with two salvaged 55-Gallon drums strapped to a trailer with baling wire. These reclaimed drums are supplying water to a Home Depot pressure washer duct taped to the back of said trailer. They don’t understand concepts like downstream injection and multi-stage washing. They might not understand how to tackle your problem, but they’ll do it for $100. You get what you pay for!
• Jimmy’s Jet Wash – This is Tim the Tool Man on steroids. They believe if a little pressure is good more must be better “Grunt, Grunt”. They have a pressure washer connected to a General Electric Aircraft engine. This thing will saw through the boards on your deck or fence. These guys have one solution that is looking for a problem.
• The Professional – These are people like Sparkle Wash that know many times it is better to let the detergent do the work, use heated water (yes that is a thing in pressure washing), or use complementary approaches, or if necessary, raise the pressure and blast debris away. Companies like this will come to you and evaluate your project and recommend the best practices. They may also recommend multiple approaches for particularly troublesome jobs.

 How do you know the difference and how do you select?

Certainly there are factors like pricing and Google Reviews to go by and many people make selections solely on these factors. What reviews don’t necessarily consider is the type of job YOU have. A company might be 5-star but have only done concrete washing and never tackled antique 19^th century antique brick that adorns your mansion. So, reviews are a great start but not the be all and end all. Similarly, pricing can be a bit confusing. Obviously running a “special” for $159 for any pressure wash project sounds good on the surface. But to make any money the pressure washer must blast through many jobs a day. So, you get six minutes of attention, damaged heirloom hydrangeas, and days of buyer’s remorse.

Here are some things you can do to help select a professional:

1. Understand your job scope. Knowing what you want done and, more importantly, what you want protected will help you ask the right questions of the contractor.
2. Have the contractor come take a look at the job. If they won’t and just give you a price over the phone, think twice about them. At Sparkle Wash North Alabama we seldom give quotes over the phone. If we do, it is because we are on the phone with the customer and have satellite picture pulled up or we are reviewing pictures of the fleet or whatever.
3. Ask the pressure wash contractor how they would tackle your job. The answer should never be one size fits all or dismissive. For example, Sparkle Wash North Alabama quoted a job for a new construction project that was covered in that insidious Alabama red clay. When asked if we could clean it, our response was yes – first we use standard floor machines, if there was residual red staining, we progress to hot water, if we needed to further escalate, we would include a special detergent with the hot water. That was a reasoned plan that escalated the solution from least cost to most cost. Get comfortable that the contractor has a plan and know that they LISTEN to you.
4. Ask about bundles. No this isn’t Flo from Progressive. But some contractors offer price reductions for additional services while on site. I would rather set up once and do all the things a customer needs than come back multiple times and charge full price each time. So, it is a win-win if you have a large project.
5. Have a budget in mind and negotiate. Estimating jobs is an inexact science. It is somewhere between algebraic manipulation and throwing fish bones on a leather drum carved with runes. When you get an estimate, your eyes may pop at the cost. Ask what can be done within your budget. There is usually a compromise that works out for both customer and contractor. Additionally, there could be discounts available. Sparkle Wash North Alabama offers discounts for Veteran’s, Seniors, and some non-profits. Ask about these programs.
6. Find out if the contractor has a support network. There are times when a cleaning problem is truly daunting. If your pressure washing professional has resources to consult about your job, it is a knowledge multiplier and should give you more confidence the job will get done to your satisfaction.
7. Ask about the detergents (if any) that are used. To understand how to tackle a cleaning problem a professional must know the nature of the problem and what mixture of modern, eco-friendly, chemistry will resolve it. If the pressure washer picks up the bottle of Dawn and reads the label when you ask the question, you might want to re-think hiring them.

If you take some time to understand what you need and ensure your contractor has a plan to accomplish it, the results will always be better. In most cases this will not necessarily lead you to the least expensive, but the best value for your situation. A real pressure washing professional must be intelligent, have lots of tools to utilize, have a support network, and scientific in application of cleaning. Sort of like Batman, without the cape, and cowl – but we do have cool cars. Now – let’s gets some detergent on that green slime!