New Wash

[mjwalsh]

Hello,

I am looking to purchase my first wash in the coming months. Any suggestions on how to get familiar with the equipment and processes?

rminielly,

You posted within the self serve category. I think that is a factor considering so many who responded also have the non-wand style more automatic "more lazy obese customer oriented" car wash bays along with their self service bays. So for the albeit crass obese remark ... it was partially giving myself a bit of a pep talk on trying to trim down & increase my metabolism etc!

Ditto on Waxman & others who encourage to the idea to work as an understudy for a long enough period of time ... if at all possible. It is so easy to fall into a "know it all" mindset without actual "hard knocks experience"!

 

[Randy]

So you want to get into the Self-Serve car wash business. Take a look at the mess we had yesterday, this is getting to more common. It took us 3 hours to clean up the mess, the pictures don’t show the shredded ice cube size Styrofoam that was everywhere, out in the street, in the neighbor’s property and it was even down in the parking lot drain. A Self-Serve car wash is nothing more than a transfer site for the dump and a place for society to wipe there a$$.

 

[Damoni88]

So you want to get into the Self-Serve car wash business. Take a look at the mess we had yesterday, this is getting to more common. It took us 3 hours to clean up the mess, the pictures don’t show the shredded ice cube size Styrofoam that was everywhere, out in the street, in the neighbor’s property and it was even down in the parking lot drain. A Self-Serve car wash is nothing more than a transfer site for the dump and a place for society to wipe there a$$. View attachment 420 View attachment 421 View attachment 422

Omfg!!! I literally would come unglued if that were to happen to me. Like probably end up in jail unglued. Im sorry that happen to you. People just flat out dont give a f#@$. Its sad cause we spend our time and our money for these sorrya$$ muthaf!@#$% to come tear our s!@# up. This one got me hot!!!

 

[slash007]

I've seen my wash look like Randy's sometimes after just an hour. People are truly animals. Some days it's not bad at all, but others make you hate people.

 

[MEP001]

I've found that the more they see me around the car wash cleaning, the less stuff like that happens.

 

[Rfreeman]

I've found that the more they see me around the car wash cleaning, the less stuff like that happens.

I agree 100% my previous lot helper lived half a mile from the wash and would go up there to just hang out and take out the trash and regulate crap like this.....when he was working for me I never got dumped on. Now my guys have time to go by once a day and sometimes we find a similar mess.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

I'd hate to jinx myself but I've NEVER had any issues like Randy has posted at my wash. Actually, the other day was the largest item left - an old coffee wicker table that I just tossed into the dumpster. Before that it might have been the occasional grocery bag of garbage left behind. I guess it all boils down to your AO.

 

[mjwalsh]

I've found that the more they see me around the car wash cleaning, the less stuff like that happens.

I agree. That is why one of my goals is to have enough going on at our facility to generate enough income after other expenses to sustain 2 or 3 employees besides the owner. Easier said than done. We do lock up at night but it is not gated like I have heard some car wash owners have ... so by our vacuums we have occasionally seen some messes ... hopefully it does not get out of hand ... as bad as what Randy has described & shown.

The worst was when we caught an unbelievable tar mess left in a bay by a developer-contractor's crew. The overhead doors needed to be closed which made the sticky mess on the polycarbonate way worse. The bosses turned out to be a couple of about 30 year olds who "thought they were big shots". Long story short they pretended like there was no wrong doing by their company. It took some doing to get the city attorney's office to finally get on them. It was very stressful to have that kind of "lack of proper support" ... even with 100% thorough evidence. How some people can be so oblivious to what they wrongfully inflict on others is not always easy to work with. Just cause the jackasses are not conscious of what they did should NOT allow them to not be held responsible for the "completely out range clean up & even permanent damage costs".

If an owner or staff does not confront them .... I think that omission can be even more dangerous than the bit of skilled confrontation that is needed!!!

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

I agree. That is why one of my goals is to have enough going on at our facility to generate enough income after other expenses to sustain 2 or 3 employees besides the owner. Easier said than done. We do lock up at night but it is not gated like I have heard some car wash owners have ... so by our vacuums we have occasionally seen some messes ... hopefully it does not get out of hand ... as bad as what Randy has described & shown.

The worst was when we caught an unbelievable tar mess left in a bay by a developer-contractor's crew. The overhead doors needed to be closed which made the sticky mess on the polycarbonate way worse. The bosses turned out to be a couple of about 30 year olds who "thought they were big shots". Long story short they pretended like there was no wrong doing by their company. It took some doing to get the city attorney's office to finally get on them. It was very stressful to have that kind of "lack of proper support" ... even with 100% thorough evidence. How some people can be so oblivious to what they wrongfully inflict on others is not always easy to work with. Just cause the jackasses are not conscious of what they did should NOT allow them to not be held responsible for the "completely out range clean up & even permanent damage costs".

If an owner or staff does not confront them .... I think that omission can be even more dangerous than the bit of skilled confrontation that is needed!!!

What is your income threshold to justify adding a F/T or salaried employee?

 

[Waxman]

That's another reason to keep prices nice and high; I'm convinced I get less mess this way, esp. in the bays.

 

[Car_Wash_Guy]

That's another reason to keep prices nice and high; I'm convinced I get less mess this way, esp. in the bays.

Yes sir. My wash is the nicest in town and I charge for it. Everything works as it should and I deliver a good experience to the customer.

 

[MEP001]

I'd hate to jinx myself but I've NEVER had any issues like Randy has posted at my wash. Actually, the other day was the largest item left - an old coffee wicker table that I just tossed into the dumpster. Before that it might have been the occasional grocery bag of garbage left behind. I guess it all boils down to your AO.

The first wash I was fully in control of was the same way. I had to go out of town for a week and had a friend of mine, another wash owner, take care of things while I was gone. When I got back he said he didn't understand why it stayed so clean. He didn't have to clean up at all the whole time except to empty the trash cans and rinse a couple bays. I told him I don't know, that's how it always is. Later he had me take care of his wash, a 7-bay SS in a much more rural area. I started at one end and had barely made it to the fifth bay across before I looked over and the end I had started on was already trashed. That's when I realized why he was dumbfounded about how mine stayed so clean.

 

[water guy]

I've found that the more they see me around the car wash cleaning, the less stuff like that happens.

That's True

 

[sparkey]

So you want to get into the Self-Serve car wash business. Take a look at the mess we had yesterday, this is getting to more common. It took us 3 hours to clean up the mess, the pictures don’t show the shredded ice cube size Styrofoam that was everywhere, out in the street, in the neighbor’s property and it was even down in the parking lot drain. A Self-Serve car wash is nothing more than a transfer site for the dump and a place for society to wipe there a$$. View attachment 420 View attachment 421 View attachment 422

Exactly why I got rid of my trash cans. I don't have issues like this anymore, I find a little trash laying around maybe twice a week, but its less than a couple hand fulls.

 

[Alpine Dreams]

Exactly why I got rid of my trash cans. I don't have issues like this anymore, I find a little trash laying around maybe twice a week, but its less than a couple hand fulls.

I am considering this right now. I recently removed 2 trash cans and now I have 2 left.

 

[rminielly]

I have three washes and a full time job. If I open a fourth location I will probably quit my regular job. Although my full time job has State insurance and retirement which is hard to give up.

I have clean up men at each location that go 3-4 times a day picking up trash, washing bays down, ect. They notify me immediately if something is not working and I go that day and fix it.

I have full-time job that I would like to keep so I might be forced to hire a few clean up men. How much do you pay your crew?

 

[MEP001]

I know one guy who is buying or leasing any wash he can get at a reasonable price. He found someone who will come in twice a day, every day, to dump trash and sweep up for $10 each time. I know others who pay a part-time attendant at the wash four hours a day every day about $1200 a month which comes out as a better rate per hour.

 

[APW]

I have full-time job that I would like to keep so I might be forced to hire a few clean up men. How much do you pay your crew?

I pay each guy $500 a month and if I wash more cars I pay them bonuses because they have to do more work. It varies anywhere from $500 to $800 a month.

 

[Bandit]

Why

 

[rminielly]

I pay each guy $500 a month and if I wash more cars I pay them bonuses because they have to do more work. It varies anywhere from $500 to $800 a month.

Thanks for information. I'll be sure to this in mind when I choose to hire someone.