School does not have cleaning in budget...what to do???

[ckingclean]

Realisticaly, I'd wouldn't spend a ton of time on this, $10k is a huge amount for a school district. I would do some follow up calls, emails, etc. but that's about it.

I would take the $ from the materials cost and time you are considering giving away, and have some professional door hangers made up and get them out.

It would be a better idea if this were a commercial establishment, schools only have so much $ to pass around especially in this economy.

Well said. I too think this might not be such a good use of material and time. You can't think of your time as being free, because it is the most valuable commodity you posess.

If you want to do a free clean, do it on a smaller scale for someone who actually wants it. Then again if they actually want it, charge them!

 

[Don M.]

I get more than 550 for a roof 1/2 that size. Do you rinse your roofs?

Be careful of bringing the price down..it will haunt you, me, Curtis, and everybody else getting into roof cleaning. Look at whats happened to Florida.

 

[Scott D.]

The thing is I haven't price them. I even said I'd do a section for free and if they liked it then we could go further. But I don't doubt that it is out of their budget.

We are talking roof cleaning here, I can do a 3,800 sq ft roof in an hour with everything cleaned up.

But I have not tried emailing the school board president. I really do not want to clean the roof for free. I might be able to talk them into pay for the chemical cost. I dunno. I may just wait it out and see if they fit it into the budget.

3800 An Hour? Jesus. I am doing something seriously wrong.

 

[Don M.]

3800 An Hour? Jesus. I am doing something seriously wrong.

you and me both brother.

 

[cmturner]

Me three

 

[Larry Millette]

It can be done! We did a 9000sq ft in Largo Florida a week and a half ago. In 2 1/2 hrs. 3 1/2 if you count setting up breaking down and walking for a final inspection with the H/O. This Roof was not a real nasty one and is not always the normal time frame. Most Roofs we do that are around 2500-3000sq ft usually take us 1-2 hrs depending on the severity and degree of difficulty.

 

[Kyleb15]

Kyle are you mainly working up in Festus, you need to raise that $.15 I get at minimum .20 even in Bonne Terre, for white or two story I am getting $.25 haven't lost very many estimates.

Hey I remember you from back in the mineral area! No I am in Columbia now. I don't believe anyone is doing it up here. Most people in the midwest do not know about roof cleaning unless they are diy homeowners. How are you doing in Bonne Terre? The area is so poor and their aren't many homes around. Did you ever get Patsy's? I told them I'd do it for free for advertisement and they still passed!

I would approach the Superintendent of Schools, maybe by email at first. There are normally discretionary funds that could be put toward a job like this. Those funds are usually held by the Superintendent and released as needed. Of course, with the economy, those funds may already be gone.
If roof cleaning is not a commonly know practice in your area yet, it may just be an education thing. Thats what I am faced with. If you let the Superintendent know what the problem is and that it CAN be corrected, they may move forward.
If you decide to do it for "free", I would request banners in all gynasiums and/or at the High School football fields. I like the idea of the yearbook ad and your logo on t-shirts. An artical in newsletters and on the districts website wouldn't cost them anything more than they are already spending for those items. Television coverage is a win - win. You look good and the district looks good for working with you to address the problem.
No matter what, you have tremendous potential to get good press from doing this job. Human interest stories are pretty popular with News stations here, so getting a crew to cover this shouldn't be too difficult. It doesn't get much better than a small business owner giving back to the community on a fairly large scale. I think $5K - $10K is pretty large scale, especially for a small business. I admire you for considering doing the job for free in the first place.
Good Luck!!

My next email is going to the school board president to see what they have to say. It is fairly large scale and really late in the season here. But I am thinking about the future. So I may just wait tilll next year.

Realisticaly, I'd wouldn't spend a ton of time on this, $10k is a huge amount for a school district. I would do some follow up calls, emails, etc. but that's about it.

I would take the $ from the materials cost and time you are considering giving away, and have some professional door hangers made up and get them out.

It would be a better idea if this were a commercial establishment, schools only have so much $ to pass around especially in this economy.

Ya I have I don't think I will mess with the school until next year.

I get more than 550 for a roof 1/2 that size. Do you rinse your roofs?

Be careful of bringing the price down..it will haunt you, me, Curtis, and everybody else getting into roof cleaning. Look at whats happened to Florida.

I don't rinse usually. I'm try to keep the price low until I get my name out there, never below .15cents though.

3800 An Hour? Jesus. I am doing something seriously wrong.

Really I guess it depends on the layout of the house. 2 hours at the max for that size house unless i did something terribly wrong.

Me three

how long does it usually take you?

It can be done! We did a 9000sq ft in Largo Florida a week and a half ago. In 2 1/2 hrs. 3 1/2 if you count setting up breaking down and walking for a final inspection with the H/O. This Roof was not a real nasty one and is not always the normal time frame. Most Roofs we do that are around 2500-3000sq ft usually take us 1-2 hrs depending on the severity and degree of difficulty.

Ya like you said there are many factors: size, wind, pitch, layout, foliage, where the downspouts go, how can you reach all the spots of the roof. Many things, I guess the 3800 in an hr was the perfect scenario.


You midwest guys, are you going to try and push it through the winter? I am going to keep trying to get business, wait till I get a warm day and then do a couple. I have one to do right now but I'm waiting for thursday when it is supposed to be 56. Hopefully the homeowner will pull some more business for me! He didn't ever ask for a price! Just for me to do the job.

 

[Don M.]

I don't rinse usually. I'm try to keep the price low until I get my name out there, never below .15cents though.

What are you going to do when you get your name out there, raise prices?

 

[cmturner]

Yeah I finally got Patsy's to go with it, I will post some pics in a few days when i get the chance. We stay really busy actually, but roof cleaning isn't our main line either. I stay real busy with windows and power washing, I did one mailing for roofs earlier this year and was very happy with the return on it, I actually only had time this year to do one mailing to beable to keep up. The yellow pages have did pretty well for us down here too. I bet Columbia would be a PRIME location. You are a college student right? I would go after some window cleaning accounts, you could set up some real good consistent money without a whole lot of time involved. Then people can see you out and about on the window accounts, see your name and ask about the roof cleaning.

 

[ckingclean]

He didn't ever ask for a price! Just for me to do the job.

Be careful in this scenario. Give him a price before you start the work, that way there's no misunderstanding.

I've had people tell say just go do it and then freaked out when I gave them the price!

 

[Kyleb15]

Yeah I finally got Patsy's to go with it, I will post some pics in a few days when i get the chance. We stay really busy actually, but roof cleaning isn't our main line either. I stay real busy with windows and power washing, I did one mailing for roofs earlier this year and was very happy with the return on it, I actually only had time this year to do one mailing to beable to keep up. The yellow pages have did pretty well for us down here too. I bet Columbia would be a PRIME location. You are a college student right? I would go after some window cleaning accounts, you could set up some real good consistent money without a whole lot of time involved. Then people can see you out and about on the window accounts, see your name and ask about the roof cleaning.

What kind of mailing did you do?

Be careful in this scenario. Give him a price before you start the work, that way there's no misunderstanding.

I've had people tell say just go do it and then freaked out when I gave them the price!

Well of course I give him the price before I start the work. In fact the guy that said that wants his gutters cleaned and also referred me to someone else in the neighborhood.

 

[Kyleb15]

A few pics of that school, it is much larger on back too. This is but a 1/4 of it.

 

[Peerless]

how did it go?