am I doing it right - Certified SoftWash Roof Cleaning

Samuel Alan · Sophmore Member

am I doing it right

AC Lockyer · Administrator

Samuel,

1. a 9/12 pitch is pretty steep. Are you sure its 9/12. Dowload Pitch Gage onto your phone. Its an ap.
2. If one side is dirtier than the other but both sides are fully involved, you charge to treat the same.
3. We treat the entire roof always!

Hope this helps.

AC

Chad Eneix · SoftWash Systems Authorized Professional

I would echo AC's comment, do the whole roof. I usually give people three explanations for this, and they almost always appreciate and understand them;

First, half of what you pay for is getting two licensed, insured, and trained technicians and a truck there, with professional chemicals and equipment, and all set up and ready to work. It won't really save that much money to just clean half.

Second, if one half of the roof is very visibly dirty, in fact infested, the other half has organisms on it as well. They may not be visible yet, or that half may not appear dirty compared to the other half, but they are there, and will continue to grow. They will also reinfect the side we clean, and it will get visibly dirty again faster.

Third, we are a professional company, and take pride in our reputation. We don't like to do jobs half way, or associate our company with a job that is only partially complete.

John Aloisio · SoftWash Systems 5-Star Professional

Samuel,

By your calcs, I think you are a little high. That roof is just under 2700/SF with a 9:12 pitch. Like AC & Chad said, we rarely do a half a roof. Almost never. If we do, we do not give our warranty. Attached is a pitch multiplier chart to use when figuring out how much area is really up there. Hope this helps you and anyone else who wants to download it.

Chad Eneix · SoftWash Systems Authorized Professional

Samual,

My Pitch Gauge Calculator gives me a little over 2800. The chart that John sent you is from one of AC's modules, I think. I do find Pitch Gauge to be a little rough, and more often a little on the high side. I do use it consistently though, and I feel that consistency from customer to customer, as well as using an actual tool or chart makes your estimates more legit and defensible.

John Aloisio · SoftWash Systems 5-Star Professional

That one I posted is what I use from Roofgenius.com

Samuel Alan · Sophmore Member

did Dowload Pitch Gage onto your phone it was a 9/12. I have know glue what to charge? 475.00 for half his said H""" know to much money for that. I'm getting my sh at 3.50 gal and my ch 3.99 bag. know one here does this business of roof cleaning. a crap load of pressure washer. My mind is all messed up from all the cancer drug. So I want to be the first here. Just trying to thank of away to make this work. What to charge is my problem?

Samuel Alan · Sophmore Member

I know I probably need some modules but can't do that right now how about some used ones I know I'm probably being a pain in the butt I just had a lot on my mind lately I've been waiting the results of my CT scans my liver scans my kidney function is down so I know I'm just ranting but I'm just trying to make this work

AC Lockyer · Administrator

Samuel Alan wrote:
did Dowload Pitch Gage onto your phone it was a 9/12. I have know glue what to charge? 475.00 for half his said H""" know to much money for that. I'm getting my sh at 3.50 gal and my ch 3.99 bag. know one here does this business of roof cleaning. a crap load of pressure washer. My mind is all messed up from all the cancer drug. So I want to be the first here. Just trying to thank of away to make this work. What to charge is my problem?

Sorry to hear about your illness. Prayers sent!

A non-walkable 2,800 square foot roof should be about $750.00 to do in your area. I would only give a 30% discount to do half of the roof. Why? Because you dont have half the travel or half the set-up,

Hope that helps,

AC

Shaun Harton · SoftWash Systems Certified Applicator

Very helpful info guys. Thanks

Troy Layman · Lead Tech

One thing that AC said in the past against only doing 1/2 a roof sticks out in my head. If you do half the roof and later in the season or the following year the other side of the roof starts showing stains, it is going to reflect badly on you, your company and work because chances are nobody besides that individual homeowner will know you only did half the roof. To the neighbors and potential customers it may well look like your cleaning job only lasted a few months or so and reflect poorly on you.

Troy Layman · Lead Tech

The spreadsheet I had created to double check myself and my math gives me the same information John has on his document, which gave me a total square footage of 2,698 before rounding up.

Pitch Multiplier 1/2 Roof full roof
1/12 1.003 1083 2166
2/12 1.014 1095 2190
3/12 1.031 1113 2226
4/12 1.054 1138 2276
5/12 1.083 1169 2338
6/12 1.118 1207 2414
7/12 1.158 1250 2500
8/12 1.202 1298 2596
9/12 1.25 1350 2700
10/12 1.302 1406 2812
11/12 1.357 1465 2930
12/12 1.414 1526 3052
13/12 1.474 1591 3182
14/12 1.537 1659 3318

John Aloisio · SoftWash Systems 5-Star Professional

That was the exact SF I came up with too, Troy.

Troy Layman · Lead Tech

Thanks for the confirmation John! That square footage is in the updated version of my "SH Mix and Roof Sq Footage Calculator" I had posted on my "Please allow me to introduce myself" page. I added SH/CH augmentation and was cleaning up the square footage calculator but never found the time to finish tweaking it fully to repost.

Quick quesiton - do you all go through the effort to subtract the square footage from the normal roof area where a dormer is, then come back and add the actual square footage of each dormer? Or do you figure the couple extra square feet isn't worth the time and effort since it slightly fudges to the customers benefit? I was doing the full measurements but thought I'd ask.

John Aloisio · SoftWash Systems 5-Star Professional

I always use a 7% waste factor, so that makes up for any little things like that.

Chad Eneix · SoftWash Systems Authorized Professional

I also do not go through the effort to add or subtract for small variations such as dormers. Pitch gauge has a "cut level" factor of 1-5 it uses to calculate the square footage. It then gives you a with waste and without waste figure. I use the without waste figure.

I almost never measure all the little variations in roof shape, either. To me, all houses are a basic box- a square, rectangle or "L" shape around the overall footprint of the building. This means I am a little on the high side for some roofs. The precise, exact square footage is less important to me than the overall size of the roof. We are not buying shingles, we are treating and cleaning an area. Homes with more complicated design shapes usually mean more ladder movement, more other complications, and more time. For commercial jobs or very large buildings, I obviously measure more precisely.

Remember, you are not really selling square feet of cleaned roof, you are selling two trained technicians and professionally equipped truck for a certain period of time. You are actually trying to estimate this time, and put a price that is fair, honest, and profitable on it.

For instance, if I do not factor in for a 10' x 10' alcove where there is no roof, I would off by 100 square feet. However, that design feature more than likely also makes for an extra couple peaks and/or valleys, an extra facet or two of roof material, extra gutter with more corners and downspouts, and likely more hose and ladder movement. Also those design features are often where there are porches, more complicated landscaping, extra windows to watch out not to spray, etc. I may also add on for difficult access, height, excessive dirtiness, etc.

When you are pricing jobs, I feel as long as you have a consistent, systematic method that you use, your prices will be consistent and fair. It also helps if you are using some industry-specific, third party table, software, or method.