How commercial pressure cleaning is bought
Commercial pressure cleaning comes in two shapes. The first is scheduled work: a shopping centre's entries and car park every month or quarter, a strata complex's driveways and bin areas once or twice a year, a cafe's outdoor dining area on a regular cycle. The second is one-off work: a builder's clean before handover, a building washdown before a repaint, or a clean-up after an event or a spill.
Scheduled work is bought like any maintenance contract. A strata or facilities manager asks a few contractors to quote, picks one, and keeps them while the complaints stay low. The facilities managers page covers how they choose and what they ask for. One-off work tends to go to whoever a builder, painter or property manager already knows, which is why referral relationships are worth the effort. A painter who needs walls washed before every exterior repaint can send you steady work without ever signing a contract.
How the work is priced
Most commercial pressure cleaning is priced in one of three ways.
- Per square metre. Common for car parks, driveways, paths and other large flat areas, because the buyer can check the figure against a site plan.
- Per visit. A set price for a defined area on a schedule, such as a centre's entries every month. Easy for a manager to approve as a standing order.
- Per job. A quote for a one-off clean, such as a building washdown or a builder's clean.
Spell out what is included: whether you treat oil stains and chewing gum, whether you apply a sealer or a mould treatment, whether the water and power are yours or the site's, and how you contain and remove wastewater. That last line matters more than most owners realise, and the next section explains why.
Runoff: the rule that catches pressure cleaners out
Stormwater drains run to creeks, rivers and the sea. Wastewater from pressure cleaning carries detergent, oil, paint flakes, sediment and whatever else was on the surface, and the states we checked all treat letting it into a gutter or drain as pollution.
- Queensland. Toowoomba Regional Council explains that wastewater from pressure cleaning is a prescribed water contaminant under the state's environmental protection rules, and that it is unlawful to let it enter roadside gutters or stormwater systems. Its advice is to redirect downpipes to a garden or a holding tank, protect drains with sandbags or a portable bund, and pump captured water onto lawns or gardens so none reaches the drain.
- New South Wales. Council fact sheets on roof cleaning treat letting wastewater into drains, gutters or waterways as an offence under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997, and give the same advice on bunding and pumping.
- Victoria. EPA Victoria fined a construction company nearly $4,000 after it used high pressure cleaners on a newly built driveway and the wash water ran into stormwater drains leading to the Werribee River. The EPA also issued a notice under the general environmental duty requiring the company to train its staff and contractors.
Check your own council's rules, because the detail varies. The point for selling is simple. A strata manager or centre manager carries some of this risk, because the work happens on their site. If you can say in one or two plain sentences how you stop wastewater reaching the drains and where it goes, you have answered a question that plenty of quotes leave out.
Safety and checks buyers ask about
Expect the usual paperwork: your ABN, public liability with a current certificate of currency, workers' compensation if you have staff, and a site induction at larger sites. Roof and high wall work brings working at heights into it, and buyers will ask how you manage that. Safe Work Australia publishes a guide to managing the risks of high pressure water jetting, which is worth reading if you run higher pressure gear.
Two surfaces deserve a line in your quote. Toowoomba's guidance says not to use a pressure cleaner on windows or on asbestos-contaminated materials, and older buildings can have asbestos cement roofs, eaves or fences. If you don't clean those, say so, and if a site might have them, ask before you quote.
How to win the work and keep it
Pick a kind of site and get good at it: centre car parks, strata driveways or builders' handover cleans. Then find the people who look after those sites near you, and write to each one about their actual site, not pressure cleaning in general. A before and after photo of a similar surface does more than a list of services. The builders page explains how builders choose the trades they bring back.
Offer a small first job, such as a bin area or a building entry, so the manager can see the result without committing to a contract. Then send a short report and photos after every scheduled visit, and mention anything you notice, such as a trip hazard or failing sealant. That is what keeps you on the list when the contract comes up again.
Curlew writes to the strata managers, centre managers, builders and painters in your area on your behalf and passes on anyone who wants a quote, though it can't promise replies.