Repair services / companies

[CashFlow]

Hey team!

I'm considering the purchase of a self service wash in the NJ/PA area. I have a corporate gig, so the car wash would serve as an investment.

I'll clearly need a team to run the business for me on a day to day basis. Finding someone to clean up should be easy, but I suspect finding someone to make ongoing repairs (plumbing, electrical etc) will be hard to find.

Do you have any recommendations on services companies or freelancers who service NJ or PA? If not, what's the best day way to find someone to make ongoing and urgent repairs?


Thanks you.

 

[Greg Pack]

In all honesty most of the maintenance of SS washes is done by their owners. You need to take a close look at profitability if it cost you $100 for a tech to hit the ground for every minor repair. Having said that, an aggressive PM program would probably keep the SS wash running pretty reliably. I'm talking about replacing all the hose s , trigger guns,etc. annually before they break, etc., replacing all vacuum motors on the site at the same time when the first one goes down, etc. You would pay more in equipment replacement costs but would save on labor from service calls and have minimal downtime.

I've had the best luck with older retired or semi-retired guys as a custodian. Many of them are willing to do minor repairs and have picked up various skills over the course of their life that they can use at a car wash. You need to find someone you can trust because a coin jam can be a fairly frequent problem that may require access to where the money is stored. A retired HVAC guy would be awesome and have the perfect skill set to do maintenance at the wash.

 

[OurTown]

Is this a self serve only wash or does it have automatics? If it has automatics then I would start with finding a distributor for the brand. You might even find a distributor for the self serve equipment if it's a self serve only wash. Don't be surprised if they charge over $100/hour (possibly well over that) port to port and are a four hour round trip. There are many different skill levels required for a wash. Maybe you can find someone that is willing to clean up and do all but the most difficult or highly skilled repairs. Pay them well. Not $12/hour. Think $20 plus.

 

[CashFlow]

I appreciate the candor and feedback. It makes a lot of sense. Especially replacing items as they break not patching and paying fair and competitive hourly rates.

The business in mind has 4 self serves and 2 automatics.

 

[Burky]

I have a similar situation, 4 SS and one IBA. Wash is a side hobby for me as I fly private jet for a job. I have a retired gentleman that does the day to day, collects money, clean up bays etc. Without him I would not be able to do it. I pay him accordingly. Think well above $20 and worth every cent. I also recently found an electrician that is willing to do some of the more complicated repairs strictly on an on call basis. It’s been fun so far. Get a good surveillance system that you can access from your phone. At least 20 cameras for a facility that size.

 

[CashFlow]

@Burky How did you find an electrician familiar with a car wash?

 

[Burky]

@Burky How did you find an electrician familiar with a car wash?

He is not familiar with the car wash industry, but will be after a few months I was there with him today explaining PLC, contactors, solenoids, VFD, HMI, 3 phase etc…

 

[CashFlow]

lol. That's a whole lot more than what I know.

 

[Burky]

It’s all fun! I’m in southeast PA. If you want me to stop out at your place sometime I might be able to do that. I enjoy the industry.

 

[CashFlow]

Thanks buddy! That's nice of you to offer. Right now I'm just in conversation to buy a place (don't own it at the moment). I'm trying to estimate how much it's going to cost to actually hire people to run the wash on a day to day basis.

 

[OurTown]

Hopefully this wash you are looking at makes a nice profit because that gives you so many more options when trying to find skilled repair people. Are we to assume the current owner does everything himself? (Or herself) Even though you are just looking at it I would take Burky's offer of looking at it.

 

[OurTown]

Also you will probably need to learn a lot of things even though you might not repair them yourself. It reduces the stress level when you know things. I remember being stressed over everything that broke at first. Now most times I can figure out what's going on pretty quick.

 

[CashFlow]

Yup, @OurTown. The owner currently does everything himself.

I agree, having even a basic understanding would help eliminate some degree of stress. I've asked the owner for the finanicals. I just have to figure out what the cost of hiring would be so I can deduct that as an expense and calculate my take home profit.