New carwash information

[Nick193]

Hi everyone I am new to the forum and am looking to build a carwash.

Some background on me. I own a site construction company and have been doing construction since I was 16. I have ran a 5 bay SS carwash in the past and am now looking into building my own carwash. I am located in upstate ny rochester area and have a location picked out. The land is 3 acres with a daily traffic count of 19,870 and a speed limit of 40 mph. There is a mix of residential homes medium income, business and shopping centers.

I plan on building a 6 bay carwash 2 IBA and 4 SS and a second building on the property which will likely be a sub shop or something of that nature.

Some questions that I have are what is a good target % for a IBA to pull from the traffic count? The proforma I got from a supplier here shows .24% for IBA and .08 for the SS. In my opinion I think the IBA % is a little high. What is a good % to shoot for?

The equipment I am looking at is PDQ and wash world. If I went PDQ it would be the "new laserwash" and if I went wash world it would be the the razor. Does anyone have any negatives on any of these IBA?

Thanks
Nick

 

[dirty harry]

I've heard nothing but good things about the new Laserwash

 

[tobaccofarmer]

I would seriously think twice about building new self serve bays? I feel self serve is on its way out as most people are way too lazy to even think about getting out of their car and washing it themselves. Also inbay automatics are more profitable when they are not part of self serve? But more importantly is the question about competition and what exactly they are? more autos, more self serves, exterior tunnels, full serve, flex serve? what does the market already have? Another thing I would cut any pro forma from equipment guy in half atleast to be real? laserwash and washworld are the two best choices but dont let equipment and or equipment salesman be the main focus until you have crunched all numbers based on industry not equipment guys. I would recommend hiring a consultant since its your first project it cant hurt.

 

[tobaccofarmer]

also what does the .24% mean? explain what they mean? also how many wash days do you have in upstate NY? I mean your in an area where the wash days are much less than say arizona? And with much less wash days its hard to make up the bad days when you can only wash 8-10 cars per hour. I feel inbays are not great in parts of the county when you need to wash alot of cars fast, and then you may have 5 days of no washing because of weather? Any other input here would be great! remeber sunshine is key so Im curious to see how many days of sunshine your area has per year look that up also? I just did and its not good 51 days a year for rochester compared to say Denver with 300? I wouldnt even consider a carwash with 51 days of sunshine. With 3 acres build self storage and then you dont have to worry about sunshine or much else for that matter. just my two cents

 

[Nick193]

I would seriously think twice about building new self serve bays? I feel self serve is on its way out as most people are way too lazy to even think about getting out of their car and washing it themselves. Also inbay automatics are more profitable when they are not part of self serve? But more importantly is the question about competition and what exactly they are? more autos, more self serves, exterior tunnels, full serve, flex serve? what does the market already have? Another thing I would cut any pro forma from equipment guy in half atleast to be real? laserwash and washworld are the two best choices but dont let equipment and or equipment salesman be the main focus until you have crunched all numbers based on industry not equipment guys. I would recommend hiring a consultant since its your first project it cant hurt.

The competition within a 8 mile radius consists of 2 tunnel washes and one single IBA. Around this area it is common to see 4-6 bay washes set up with 2 IBA and the rest of the bays SS.


The .24% means you multiply the traffic (19870 x .0024)x365=17406 cars a year going through one IBA bay. Does that seem feasible?
Most of the washing in this part of the country is done in the winter time when we have salt on the roads. The salt makes this a big market because everyone wants to get the salt off of their cars during the winter.

 

[captain cw]

that could be a realistic number for the autos. I don't believe that self serve bays are dead. Mine are still doing very well. In some areas over saturation and operator apathy has hurt them. Every market is different.

 

[packerscw]

I would recommend looking to buy a self serve and updating it. Not building a brand new one..the industry is hurting right now

 

[Waxman]

Sounds like alot of competition.

 

[tobaccofarmer]

I also believe that is a feasible number for auto but most are not doing that for a long list of reasons. I agree with the buying a neglected self serve and remodeling/updating it. Just around here seems like self serve is on its way out unless its a predominantely mexican area! Are there 3 dollar expresses in any of your areas? free vacs and 3 dollars is hard to match?

 

[tw1012]

comp

I'm new, just bought my first carwash at the beginning of the month. I thought I would give you a comp on that traffic count formula.

My traffic counts in 2009 were 30,000 cars a day. This area has grown so I'm sure they are higher now. I am currently doing about 350 cars per week on two laserwash bays with prep and dry guys.

That equals about 18,250 cars per year.

Using your formula I should be doing about 26,280 per year at .24.

These guys work hard and the business is growing but I don't think I will ever hit 26k cars per year.

 

[tobaccofarmer]

TW1012 is that both machines combined 50/day or 50 each machine for 100 day? At 50 day both machines how can you afford prep/dry guys?

 

[tw1012]

Wash

I bought it cheap from a bank. Plus I'm overstaffed, I am anticipating more business and would rather have a higher payroll than bad service right now.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I can't imagine prepping and drying at an IBA. I know you didn't ask, but I'm afraid you are creating a monster that you may never be able to get back in it's cage.

 

[tw1012]

The monster was already out. The bank that owned it had the workers running it that way before I bought it.

They were doing 50 cars a week before they increased the service.

It's in a higher end neighborhood. The customers are requesting more services which we are providing at an alacarte basis. They are not very cost sensitive they just want the service to be high quality and speedy.

Just so I know what to expect what kind of worms can I expect to come out of this can?

 

[briteauto]

Hi everyone I am new to the forum and am looking to build a carwash.

Some background on me. I own a site construction company and have been doing construction since I was 16. I have ran a 5 bay SS carwash in the past and am now looking into building my own carwash. I am located in upstate ny rochester area and have a location picked out. The land is 3 acres with a daily traffic count of 19,870 and a speed limit of 40 mph. There is a mix of residential homes medium income, business and shopping centers.

I plan on building a 6 bay carwash 2 IBA and 4 SS and a second building on the property which will likely be a sub shop or something of that nature.

Some questions that I have are what is a good target % for a IBA to pull from the traffic count? The proforma I got from a supplier here shows .24% for IBA and .08 for the SS. In my opinion I think the IBA % is a little high. What is a good % to shoot for?

The equipment I am looking at is PDQ and wash world. If I went PDQ it would be the "new laserwash" and if I went wash world it would be the the razor. Does anyone have any negatives on any of these IBA?

Thanks
Nick

Nick,

Rochester is saturated - you have W.E.T. putting in lasers everywhere, Delta Sonic, Buckmans etc. I would take the advice of one of the other forum members and look into buying an existing wash - that way you will not be adding to the over-population in a city and county with dwindling numbers as people continue to move out of upstate NY.

 

[dogwasher]

Nick, are the other tunnels near you a $3 dollar wash? If not now they will be so beware!

 

[pgrzes]

LOOK FOR EXHISTING WASH!!!!!! The industry is in dissarray. You can probably buy any exhisting wash in the north east right now for .35-.40 on the dollar right now. With high gas prices and bad economy, oh yeah the weather for the last 3 years in the N.E. has been horrendous. In the S.E. portion on Pa. pretty much every wash is for sale, Sold or been foreclosed. Be realistic with your numbers, just because you think you can wash 10 cph in a iba, how many hours of how many days are you REALLY gonna do that???? Dont let the equipment dealer tell you how many you will do. He is telling you what you wanna hear. My SS has been carrying my express tunnel for the last 2 years, so I think ss still has a market, but you need to be in it. again BUY EXHISTING. I have a 7 bays ss and 50' express I will sell CHEAP!!!