Power Washers Network of the Carolinas

During these difficult economic times many Charlotte area residents have witnessed friends and family losing jobs, losing their homes, and suffering through some tough times. Our company, while fortunate in many ways, has also seen its share of customers with a real need to have their homes cleaned of mold and mildew that is threatening their health and safety. Unfortunately, many cannot afford to have services like these as they have been hit hard by the current status of our economy.

"You get what you pay for"  is the thought that comes to mind too often these days.

Our economy seems to be dictating budget cuts everywhere, but definitely in exterior care and maintenance. Choosing the lowest priced contractor to perform work is not necessarily the most financially responsible decision to make for the long run!

When a less than qualified person is selected to do work on the exterior of your home or business, the damage that can result can be immeasurable.  Not only is a poor job costly to repair, but, will it turn away business in the meantime?

The PWNC mingled and networked with over 120 professionals relating to the pressure washing industry this past weekend in Myrtle Beach, SC.  National Cleaning Expo produced yet another power packed event over Friday, Saturday &  Sunday.

The PWNC introduced our new trade show booth and spoke with over 35 professional power washers in the North & South Carolina area, some veteran and some new to our industry.  Look for our newest participants to appear on the PWNC website as well as in this blog and on Facebook!

This was sent to Beverly Perdue, Lt. Governor of NC in late February 2008 - No response has been received as of the date of this posting.

I am writing on behalf of the PWNC (Power Washers Network of the Carolinas) to get your position on the water crisis currently affecting our state of North Carolina.

As a part of an industry whose lifeblood runs with the availability of water, we are a not only a group of professionals but also, taxpayers, homeowners and families. We as a group are concerned about conservation of water, particularly where proper management of this precious resource is concerned.

The pressure washing industry was chosen out of many to be one of the first professions to have our livelihood restricted without anyone clearly understanding exactly how much we give to our cities and towns. Pressure washing should not be regarded as a luxury but a necessity to keep our homes and property clean, safe and healthy environments in which to live and work. While car washes are allowed to continue operating and numerous other businesses who utilize hundreds of thousands of gallons of water a day inside, how many of those companies actually provide vital services for the community in which they reside? Does it affect your health to have dirt on your car? Is it a matter of safety to have your hair washed at a salon? I personally, as a concerned citizen have to say NO.

From the side of my profession, does it affect your safety when buildings are tagged and unable to be cleaned? If graffiti is not removed immediately, the potential threat of gang activity increases with each day it is left unattended. Would you take your child to an outdoor café for ice cream if the sidewalks surrounding the tables had spilled food or drinks on the ground? Are you going to enter a store if the concrete at the entrance is littered with chewing gum and stepped on cigarette butts? The pressure washing industry provides our cities, towns and neighborhoods with services that are needed as much as they are desired. If people want to have a clean car, doesn’t it stand to reason that they want the rest of their world clean as well?

One last benefit to pressure washing, and possibly the most important…… Pressure washers alleviate many of the problems associated with contaminated run-off. If impervious surfaces are not cleaned regularly, atmospheric pollutants, heavy metals and a host of other environmentally unfriendly particulates are left to accumulate. When it rains, these contaminates are carried by the run-off to various places including storm drains or other water places. Two things occur afterward – US waters are more polluted than necessary or water has to be treated more aggressively in order to bring it back to an acceptable level. The industry that cleans these surfaces and prevents this “downstream contamination” should be considered one of the most important conservation efforts available……yet, we are the first disposable industry when water becomes in short supply.

I cannot begin to, nor will I even attempt to voice the arguments that other industries have. I do, however, speak for the industry known as Pressure Washing and the contractors who live in and work in the Carolinas. We are doing our part to conserve water, to protect the beauty of North Carolina and also to continue to run our businesses in this State. We are not a huge number in the grand population as an industry, but we are a part of small business in the Carolinas and we are not disposable.

Thank you for your attention,

Celeste Gothorp

PWNC

www.pwnc.org

Graham, NC

Statement from the PWNC (Power Washers Network of the Carolinas))

One of the missions of the PWNC is public education. For many years, the pressure washing industry has been misunderstood. It is important to note that there is a distinct difference in both quality and performance between professional power washing companies and their part time counterparts who often enter the industry for a temporary period of time out of economic need.

As water is one of our primary tools, our industry has become an environmentally conscious profession as a natural business progression. Environmental studies show that continued national growth, increased industrial pollutants, and a growing population continue to contribute to our contaminated waters.

As towns and cities grow, the need for impervious surfaces such as roads, sidewalks, parking lots, and buildings increase as well. Increases in personal automobiles, trucks, RV's and other recreational vehicles occupy our roadways. Industrial growth and consumer product usage and spills create more pollution. As these contaminants fall to rest on the roadways, sidewalks, parking lots and building tops, the potential for being carried by natural run-off process is inevitable.

The PWNC recognizes that in order to preserve our ecosystem and waters, it is our responsibility to properly maintain these surfaces to decrease the amount of contaminants carried off during rains. Through years of industry study and testing, detergents and equipment have been developed for professional companies to use as part of their daily routine in order to keep our environment safe.

PWNC contractors are working with law enforcement agencies when called for graffiti abatement. Training is being provided to help these companies identify potential gang activity so that more eyes are available to alert the proper authorities. It is one more small contribution that we feel is our obligation to our fellow Carolinians.

Responsible companies have voluntarily decreased washing that is for purely aesthetic reasons. However, more often than not, when a pressure washing company is called to wash a home or roof there is a health related issue that is also present. A large percentage of the population has developed allergies to nearly invisible airborne irritants such as pollen, mold and mildew. If left unchecked, one’s home can become a prime source of health issues.

Water is a recyclable resource. Today's technology allows professionals to reclaim and clean water from impervious surfaces. Even when cleaning homes or buildings that are surrounded by ground, rather than concrete, the water we use returns to the water tables for everyone’s use. As for the detergents that also enter, earth itself is the most effective filtering system. Through natural bioremediation, the water that enters the water tables is clean.

Current water restrictions set out by certain towns and cities are creating some issues where cleaning is concerned, however, the larger percentage of professional companies have the ability to obtain water from alternative sources in order to continue to work. The general misperception of our industry is actually causing more harm for these professional companies than the restrictions themselves, and the above mentioned companies are your most effective source for ongoing, environmentally conscious cleaning.

PWNC

www.pwnc.org

336-516-2242

Today, News 14 ran an article and opened it with a call to "put away the pressure washers." Below is a link to the article and following that, my reply.

http://news14.com/Default.aspx?ArID=592914


As a company who has been pressure washing professionally and commercially for the past 10 years, I must say that I take exception with that opening statement.

I believe it is fair to say that we ALL realize that our water situation is critical and that it is up to everyone to do their share to conserve, including us pressure washing companies that are often, of late, misrepresented by the media. We, as an industry, are often portrayed as the bad guys. What YOU see are un/under-educated service workers out trying to waste YOUR water in our attempt at making a fast buck. You see laborers dressed in the faded, often dirty work clothes, work boots and driving the pickup trucks. In truth, what you see are underachievers who are too lazy to find a “real” job. You see an industry that has made a foothold based on cosmetic desires rather than real need. That couldn't be further from the truth.

Could you please explain to me why car washing is allowed when cleaning by professional power washers is not? Please do not use the recyclable water thing as recycled water still has to be replaced from time to time and multiple power washing companies also reclaim & recycle their water. The point I’m looking for is….

If someone has algae on the roof of their home, or mildew on their siding or deck – these become health issues and further shorten the life of the substrate they are feeding on. To my knowledge, having some dust on your car doesn’t shorten the life of the car, doesn’t improve gas mileage, isn’t a potential health hazard, and falls more under the purely aesthetic category, obviously more so than maintaining the safe living environment of one of the largest investments that people make – their homes!

Please don’t get me wrong – I firmly believe in conserving water as do most other power washing companies. We do not waste water when performing our services. The larger percentage of professional companies has methods and equipment in place to utilize the least amount of water necessary to do our jobs efficiently and effectively. By prohibiting professionals from doing our job, you are simply increasing the number of homeowners who are going to sneak around the care for their property. Is graffiti removal going to be prohibited – do you want Raleigh to look like some of the inner city photos you see? How are taxpaying homeowners going to feel when graffiti removal, not a sanitary issue, is allowed, but maintaining the appearance of their own homes is disregarded?

Roger Gothorp

Carolina ProWash LLC

Discover the Difference Quality Can Make!

Consider for a moment that the average American uses 150-200 gallons of water per day. This number represents the essentials like showering, toilet flushes, and teeth brushing, but doesn’t include things like car washing, lawn watering, or baths for relaxation. In fact, most professional car washes use 30-50 gallons per car. If they are hyper vigilant about the environment and have first class equipment, they’ll use about 10 gallons per car. Most car washes serve about 200-300 cars per day with large locations washing over 1,000!

The math is staggering when you consider that pressure washers are targeted by local governments for drought restrictions when car washes that “recycle” are permitted to continue operating. A below average car wash with superior equipment serving 200 cars per day will use approximately 2,000 gallons per day. More realistically, the average car wash will use 5,000-10,000 gallons per day. Alternatively, a pressure washer at the height of the busy season will use about 1000 to 1200 gallons of water, assuming they are washing 5-6 2200sf homes at about 200-220 gallons per wash.

Observe how many restaurants are on any busy street in your city. Each restaurant washes their equipment, insists that employees wash hands repeatedly, and does enormous amounts of dishes (one of the biggest culprits in residential water usage). They also use water to cook, clean floors, and some bring complementary glasses of water to each patron whether they drink it or not. It’s fair to say that an average restaurant will use thousands of gallons of water on any given day, yet they are never mentioned during drought restrictions.

The image of a pressure washer spraying water from a high pressure wand invokes anger in individuals, especially when the same individuals aren’t permitted to water their own lawns. The perception is that the operator is being wasteful, when in fact the water usage on an entire home is minimal in comparison to most local businesses. This perception leads to bans on such activities as a quick remedy for local governments to appease the public without considering the trickle down ramifications of prohibiting cleaning.

This knee-jerk reaction, coupled with media-fed fear of cities running out of water leaves a lasting impression on the general public. In the event that a pressure washing company can afford special privilege licensing, or even qualify for such permissions, the perception is already ingrained in the minds of their clientele … water usage is bad. However, because businesses like restaurants utilize water in more covert ways, large box stores carrying inventories of non sellable plants that need watering, and other businesses like car washes operate under the guise of “recycling”, they aren’t discriminated against by local government or perceived as bad by local residents.

How do we, as pressure washers in the Carolinas, combat this kind of misconception? Just like the gallons of water usage, the answer lies in numbers. One pressure washer attempting to reach a few property owners to educate on the benefit and necessity of outdoor cleaning, or singularly complaining to a local official isn’t nearly as effective as a unified, organized group of individuals presenting a case to the proper governmental entities or media outlet. Use resources available to you like the PWNC to reach out to the public, change the limited way of thinking and make your case heard.

For more information on drought conditions, local restrictions or how we can help in your area of the Carolinas, contact the PWNC.

PWNC
Power Washers Network of the Carolinas