On Exterior Cleaning

High Mileage

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 17:06:11 GMT

When I started cleaning roofs and siding here on Cape Cod, I was bluntly told by an intelligent person that I was "a little old to be a roof cleaner." At that time, I was 34.

There’s a reason for that. People are supposed to do this for a season or two, realize it’s a physical grind which never gets easier, and move on. That’s the pattern I’ve watched for years, as exterior cleaning services have regularly popped up and then quickly disappeared. It’s a grind. It never gets easy. Most people quickly move on to better things. ( Case in point: I just learned of yet another local cleaning service which has closed their doors ).

I just turned 50. As I write this, I'm recovering from a surgery which was needed because I was wearing out. It turns out that if you wave a power washer wand around for twenty thousand hours or so, the repetitive motion takes a toll. Happily, we live in an age when things such as worn out shoulders are largely fixable.

But sitting here looking out at the snow is causing me to reflect on how these last many years have been spent: the roller-coaster seasons, the blur of jobs and customers, the family events which have filled the small gaps between work, maintenance, and meetings. Juggling work, parenting, and caring for Leah as she recovered from the early stages of her stroke and cancer. Work-wise, I've had a good run; this business has been good to me, and I'm still at the top of my game in many ways... but it's time to throttle back.

Am I retiring? No. Am I going to keep up the same torrid pace that I've kept all these years, cleaning five or six days a week from February through December? No... definitely not. That pace no longer makes sense.

What DOES make sense for me now?

Working local ; not traveling to clean buildings all over New England.
Taking on jobs of a size that I can readily handle ; not signing up more humongous jobs.
Working less so that I can work longer.
Finding a better balance between time spend cleaning, and time spend living.

I don't need to make a fortune; my "fortune" has been made. Now, I need the longevity to enjoy this next phase of my life.

So, if you call me and find that I'm booked until early summer, and then you see me on a Tuesday afternoon this spring enjoying some fishing at the pond, please understand: A full "work calendar" no longer means an "actually full calendar." I'm setting some boundaries and limits, and it will be an adjustment, but to not do so will mean certain failure.

And, as I've been telling others for years without listening to my own advice, "there's no trophy for burning out." Or turning to dust.

The Revolving Door

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:25:55 GMT

Every year here on Cape Cod, I see some new exterior cleaning services pop up. Often, they are branded as the "cleaning division" of a painting company. Sometimes they are started by the disgruntled employee of an existing cleaning company. And sometimes (rarely), they are started by an ambitious individual who sees an opportunity for those who are willing to work.

The opportunities are there. Believe me: when a little company like mine - which doesn't even pay to advertise - is already 14 jobs deep into springtime 2026, the work is there. But then every year, I notice that an approximately equal number of these companies quietly disappear. As I write this, I'm looking at the text message I got from a local cleaner in response to me referring some work to him:

Nate I meant to text you, through the ups and downs of this year Ive decided to go back to college and just moved... but I also wanted to say thank you so much for the work you pushed my way it made such a difference.

...another one bites the dust.

It begs the question: why don't more local exterior cleaning companies last? There is no single defining reason, but based upon what I've seen locally, I can easily point to several factors :

Lack of affordable housing. This leads to a lack of affordable employees. Hell, housing is so unaffordable that I couldn't afford to move here today if I didn't already own a place.
Weather. Just because that waterfront house in Harwich Port needs to be cleaned doesn't mean that it CAN be cleaned. The weather needs to be calm and dry, and THOSE days can be few and far between. Weather is a factor for many (most) types of exterior cleaning jobs, and trying to schedule those jobs around renters, landscapers, painters, etc can be a nightmare and can be very limiting.
Inexperience. It's amazing to me how many would-be cleaners go out and finance a fancy, overpriced cleaning trailer, only to realize they don't know how to use the equipment, it's the wrong equipment to begin with, or that they don't know how to clean even if they had the right equipment. This is common.
Lack of financial sense . For example, I see too many new cleaners getting excited about that "big money job" which - after I do the math - they realize was a looser after factoring in all the effort and expenses. Or they buy a $45,000 cleaning drone, only to realize in hindsight that it will likely never pay for itself because the specialized work just isn't there in the volume needed. Folks, it's not what you make, it's what you KEEP....
It's hard work. Really. Hour after day after week after month... it's hard. It's a grind. It takes a toll. It isn't comfortable.

As ever, I'm happy to discuss this business with anyone considering getting into it. Don't be shy. nate@outsidecleaners.com

Powerwashing Hardcourts?

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 23:19:39 GMT

Here on Cape Cod, I've been cleaning "hardcourts" since 2011 or so. Mostly tennis, some pickleball... some with lines for basketball, etc.

When I started, I cleaned them with hydrogen peroxide and a 4 gpm power washer tipped with oversized 40-degree nozzle. It would take 8 hours per court, no matter how fast I went. When I was done, the courts would be squeaky clean, and little rivers of green runoff would be trickling away from the court. Green, that is, because that was the color of the court's paint which the power washer had removed. Not great.

Flash forward 15 years. I've tried a lot of ways to clean hardcourts. A lot. Acids? Yes. Bases? Yes. Heat? Yes. Nothing is perfect, but some methods are better than others, and one is the best of all . But that best method? It takes chemicals. Specialized, high-flow pumps. Big water tanks. And for all that, it takes money.

So, why not just power wash a hardcourt with plain old water? You know: "Blast it!"

Well, it's like this: we call it a "Harcourt," but it's actually pretty soft. The painted surface is rather porous, and the paint itself is fragile. If it's blasted with a power washer, some of that paint will come off. Also, although it might look clean, the mold and algae currently on the court will return with a vengeance.

The idea of washing a hardcourt with just water pressure is kind of like the idea of a kid washing his hands with just soap: they might look "OK," but they're not really clean.

How do I know? Well, check out the pictures here. This hardcourt was blasted with water pressure alone... damaging the paint and allowing the algae to re-grow in the patters of the power washer. I was called in to "fix" it, which I did using - you guessed it - the chemical method I illustrated in the video above.

See the damage that was done? That can't be undone. But, at least, now it's clean...

If you're into videos, here's a quick summary:

Cancer

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 15:15:29 GMT

Here on Cape Cod, and here on YouTube , I'm known as the guy that cleans exterior surfaces (and especially cedar). With way over 2000 local customers under my belt since 2010, it's a regular occurrence to run into somebody at the grocery store or the gas station that I did a job for years ago. It's a regular occurrence to get referrals from those folks, or to get calls from them because they've moved to a different place and have more work for me. I get handshakes; I get pats on the shoulder; sometimes I get hugs.

...because I'm known as the guy that works hard and does a good job making peoples' homes look their best. Mine is a very one-dimensional public existence. For years, I've kept it that way on purpose. The world "out there" doesn't need to know more than the fact that I work hard and I'm a savant at cleaning cedar. Done.

After all this time, I'm now finding it necessary to share a little bit more about myself. As in: " I work hard, I'm good at cleaning cedar, and my wife is battling cancer ."

They're tough words to write and tougher to say in person. And, unbelievably, this comes on the heals of a year in which she had an artery in her head blow out. She's luck to be alive, and now she's fighting cancer.

Why am I sharing this here? Why am I robotically divulging this to customers and prospects alike who call looking to get their cedar roofs and decks and siding cleaned?

I'm sharing this because what's happening on the Homefront is, obviously, affecting all other aspects of my life.. including my cleaning career. Whereas in past years I'd jump right on those last-minute work requests, this year "No means No." When the available time to work in a day or a week is full, that's it. I'm taking Leah to tests and specialists on a weekly basis; if that's the only calm, dry day that week (which WOULD have been perfect for cleaning a roof), then so be it. While my income obviously continues to be hugely important to me and my family, maximizing it isn't currently priority #1. We are in survival mode.

If you've been through cancer, you know what I'm saying. For those who can wait for a job well done, I'll be happy to give your job the attention it deserves as soon as I'm able. Currently, that means "sometime this autumn." For those who can't wait, I totally understand. I can offer suggestions of who else to call.

Industry Trend

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 02:56:47 GMT

Somebody recently joked about me looking so much older than the younger man in some of my YouTube videos from years ago. Well, like Indiana Jones said, "It's not the years; it's the mileage."

But with thousands upon thousands of hours spend outside cleaning - and along with the aching back, creaking knees, and throbbing right shoulder - comes the benefit of experience and breadth of view. I've seen things come and go over long enough periods of time to notice trends in the exterior cleaning industry. In this blog I'd like to share an observations regarding one of those trends.

First, it's important to realize that the exterior cleaning market on Cape Cod is vastly different than nearly all of the rest of the country, because our roofs and siding materials are vastly different. Most residential construction in the U.S. features siding of vinyl, composite, or mayyyyybe painted wood. Roofs are almost always asphalt/composite. The bare cedar surfaces found so commonly here on roofs and siding are very, very rare in most of the United States. We are a tiny, tiny niche market.

Similarly, the exterior cleaning industry on Cape Cod is necessarily different from the exterior cleaning industry elsewhere, where those hard, synthetic or painted surfaces are readily "soft washed" with a chemical solution dominated by sodium hypochlorite (i.e. bleach). While sodium hypo - or "SH" in industry parlance - is a fine and appropriate ingredient for cleaning many hard, non-porous surfaces (vinyl siding, "Hardiboard," tile roofs... I'm looking at you, Florida), SH simply isn't the do-all solution when it comes to cedar... especially the WHITE cedar so prevalent here on Cape Cod.

Don't get me wrong: chlorine bleach does has its place in the local cleaning toolbox, but the toolbox necessarily contains many other tools as well. Companies such as Harwich-based Wash Safe set the standard years ago for non-chlorine cedar cleaning products, instead relying heavily on the cleaning power of sodium percarbonate ("hydrogen peroxide")-based cleaning chemicals. These non-bleach cleaning chemicals required different cleaning equipment and processes than the rest of the country was using to clean everything with bleach.

Because our local cleaning needs are so unusual and insignificant compared to the nationwide industry as a whole, the ever-increasing number of companies who make fancy trucks and trailers for the exterior cleaning industry have never been motivated to make products designed for our niche ways of cleaning. So, on a national level, the equipment being marketed to the exterior cleaning industry has been nearly entirely designed for those who clean with bleach. For this reason, the experienced cleaners on Cape Cod have long since resorted to designing and building their own custom "cleaning rigs." I did the same.

So, for years, one observable trend has been for cleaning equipment to become ever-more tailored to the legions of "Bleach Bandits." Pumps were built to be more and more resistant to SH's corrosive effects; synthetic bleach stain-proof clothing was marketed to cleaners; metered mixing manifolds allowed the fine-tuning of the bleach application. Then, the mixing valves became controllable with a little key FOB from your position on the ladder. Bleach, bleach, bleach.

But change is in the air. Happily, in this one little way at least, the change is a good thing. It seems that us niche wood guys are starting to be heard by the broader exterior cleaning industry. Many chemical vendors have added sodium percarbonate to their lineups, making their own version of "Wash Safe Cedar Wash." Even better, sodium metasilicate (the EPA's preferred replacement for trisodium phosphate, or TSP) has crept into common availability such that even companies in the very heart of bleach country are now offering their own sodium metasilicate-based wood cleaning formulations (looking at you, Southeast Softwash ).

Today, the wood-cleaning crowd is being heard by even some cleaning equipment makers. Case in point: yesterday, I met with a young cleaner off-Cape who is adding a fancy, factory-build cleaning trailer to his small cleaning fleet. AND, to my delighted wonder, along with the typical bleach-slinging tools, the trailer included a tank labeled for (gasp) sodium percarbonate!

I couldn't have been happier for him or the industry. Including more tools in the tool box, and thereby recognizing that bleach isn't the right tool for every cleaning situation, is a step in a better direction.

The Quality of Cedar

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 16:59:54 GMT

I'd like to share here some thoughts I have regarding the Quality of Cedar. I'm sure that some cedar shingle vendor somewhere in North America will read this, call me, and have a stroke as they yell at me over the phone, but I'm calling this like I see it. If anyone cares to argue my points here, be aware that my first question to them will be, "Do YOU have 15,000+ hours spent cleaning cedar of all types and conditions, in all ways, since 2010?" If the answer is No , well, you've been warned.

On a regular basis, I'll find myself assessing the exterior of a cedar home in need of cleaning while the homeowner walks with me, telling me how much they paid five or ten years ago for the "highest quality" cedar siding or roofing. No doubt the homeowner paid an actual fortune for their cedar roof or siding, but the time the cedar shingles I'm looking at are nearly always the common, regular, R&R Extra or Perfection white cedar shingles that we see on literally everything on Cape Cod from $3M mansions to, well, my house.

Invariably, the homeowners have been convinced by somebody* that their cedar siding is of the Highest Quality. And, they have reason to think that, even if they're wrong. Our friends at the Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau grade the quality of cedar shingles as follows:

Extra (Clear/Perfection)
Highest quality grade.
Made from 100% heartwood with a fine, straight grain.
No knots, defects, or imperfections.
Uniform thickness and width.
Ideal for high-end roofing and siding projects where durability and appearance are important.
Clear (Select)
High-quality shingles with some minor imperfections.
May contain a few small knots above the exposure line.
Mostly straight grain with slight variations.
Second Clear (Architectural)
More knots and natural defects than Clear grade.
Knots are typically sound and located above the exposure line.
Suitable for siding, rustic applications, or areas where minor imperfections are acceptable.
Utility (Third Grade)
Still more knots and imperfections throughout.
Typically not recommended for roofing due to reduced durability.
Often used for utility applications, sheds, or decorative purposes.
Undercoursing (Fourth Grade)
Lowest grade, not suitable for exterior exposure.
Often used for starter courses, underlayment, or areas not visible in the final installation.

While I'm at it, " R&R " is a term homeowners often throw into the this-must-be-quality-stuff argument. R&R shingles are typically associated with higher-quality grades because they are precision-cut for a refined and uniform look. However, R&R does not define the grade itself—it is a processing method applied to shingles, often in the Extra (Perfection) or Clear grades. R&R stands for " Rebutted & Rejointed ." This refers to a finishing process where:

Rebutted: The butt end of the shingle is trimmed to be smooth and uniform in thickness.
Rejointed: The sides of the shingle are trimmed for straight, parallel edges, ensuring a clean and consistent appearance when installed.

R&R shingles are easier to install and provide a more uniform, finished appearance. They are often used for siding applications rather than roofing because of their smooth, straight edges.

Here on Cape Cod, we only really see Extra or Clear white cedar shingles being used for bare siding applications. During supply chain disruptions of COVID, we saw a brief period of time where only Architecture or Utility (i.e. knotted) white cedar shingles were available. Because builders couldn't get their certificates of occupancy until the siding was completed, we saw McMansions being finished with knotted white cedar shingles, but that was a rare anomaly.

Here's my issue with all of this: are we talking about appearance , or are we talking about quality? Nicer appearance often means higher cost... Are we assuming that nice appearance equals high quality ? Yes, many people are (homeowners, for starters). And that's generally a mistake .

As I've previously written , white cedar siding from the 70's is typically in much better condition than white cedar siding from the early 2000's. Having cleaned cedar since 2011 or so, it's been impossible not to notice that the grain on old cedar shingles is much tighter than on typical new cedar shingles . The pic below doesn't show cedar, but it illustrates what I observe in my daily work:

In my experience, old white cedar siding is far denser, stronger, and mold-resistant than the fancy new stuff. (Case in point: in 2024 a contractor asked me to clean mold from nine square of white cedar shingles which hadn't even been installed on a home's siding yet.. it was still in bundles!).

Why would that be? Well, like most other types of wood in North America, the old-growth stuff is becoming increasingly hard or expensive to come by . Newer-growth trees from "managed farms" may be more sustainable, and replanting efforts are contributing to new supply, but the younger, quicker-raised wood just isn't the same as that from the truly wild, old-growth forests. House framers and furniture makers have been saying the same things about their woods for years.

So, how would I Nate Church list the quality of cedar, from best to worse? Let's zoom out, and start with something the Cedar Bureau's grading system above completely overlooks : cedar type.

Alaskan Yellow Cedar (Best)
Most durable of these three cedar—extremely resistant to rot, decay, and insects.
Naturally dense and tight-grained, making it highly weather-resistant.
Harder and stronger than both Western Red and Eastern White Cedar.
Western Red Cedar (Good)
High natural resistance to rot, insects, and moisture due to natural oils.
Good stability, but can be prone to minor cupping or warping over time.
Eastern White Cedar (Worst.)
Least durable.
Softer and lighter, making it more susceptible to wear and damage over time.
Prone to checking (small cracks) and cupping in extreme weather.
Requires staining or finishing for maximum longevity.

Type of cedar aside, from each type of cedar can be milled either shingles or shakes . Shingles are smaller and thinner and typically have a more uniform, refined appearance. Shakes are big, thick things, usually but not always rougher and more rustic in appearance than shingles.

Shingles are way, wayyyyyyyyy cheaper than the thicker, larger shakes, and so nearly all homes on Cape Cod are clad in shingles. But guess what? Thicker, larges pieces of wood tend to be more robust and to last far longer than smaller, thinner ones. Go figure! For that reason, in my book, shakes are ALWAYS "better quality" than shingles.

But, again, here on Cape Cod we see white cedar shingles. Some lumber yards carry red cedar shingles, and some even carry yellow, but it's all shingles. All of it. It's a money thing: shingles look prettiest and cost the least.

So, if you define Quality by nice appearance at a low cost, then go for the white cedar R&R extras. But if quality is defined by longevity, then the entire picture is upended. Go for Alaskan Yellow cedar, and go for shakes.

Or, maybe, even don't go with cedar at all.

* = lumber yard salesmen, contractors, etc.

Payment Methods for Exterior Cleaning

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 22:15:28 GMT

Lately, I’ve been debating whether to transition to accepting “only” credit card payments. Here’s why:

Everyone likes easy, simple, and seamless. As a small business owner, that’s generally my goal for my customers in terms of their interactions with us. Paper checks, while traditional, have become increasingly time-consuming. Customers occasionally forget to write them or mail them; they’re prone to being misplaced or destroyed (such as the example which I just received in the mail, along with an apology from the USPS), and mail delays are adding to the frustration with increasing frequency. When payments are delayed, it creates unnecessary back-and-forth communication, disrupting both our own workflow and YOUR schedule.

Credit cards, on the other hand, usually offer a faster, easier, and (I’m told) more secure option. They streamline the process for everyone: payments can be made instantly, customers receive immediate confirmation, and we can focus on delivering great results rather than chasing payments. Many customers specifically get excited about paying with a card so that they can “earn points.” The downside of cards is the transaction fee (3%+). That’s a “cost of doing business” which - if I only accept credit card payments - I’ll need to roll into the cost of each job.

On the other hand, I know from experience that many customers (especially of older generations) don’t feel comfortable using credit cards, and more than a few of our customers only pay with checks.

So, what are the alternatives? Younger folks ask about Venmo. I get some questions about Zelle. PayPal? Etc etc. Each has pros and cons, ranging from transaction limits to mandatory payment “holds.” Most, like credit cards, charge a processing fee.

I don’t know. My ultimate goal is to make the payment process easy and stress-free for everyone involved... including me. Having payments come in from all directions on a half dozen apps isn’t something I’m interested in. Forcing customers to use a payment method that they’re not comfortable with isn’t something I’m interested in.

So, there we are. Nothing is perfect. For now I’ll stick with checks or credit cards.

Choosing Between an LLC and S-Corp

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 04:22:17 GMT

"A well-researched summary"

First, the the obvious: I'm not a CPA or tax expert. That being said, I can read and take notes, and I've spent longer than I care to admit researching the topic of Which Business Legal Structure Is Best For My Exterior Cleaning Business ? Since 2012, my little business of Outside Cleaners has been set up as an LLC ("limited liability company"), but my tax guy has suggested (again) that I should consider switching to an S-Corp. Here's a summary of what I've learned:

For us Massachusetts small business owners, the choice between operating as an LLC (Limited Liability Company) or electing S-Corp (S Corporation) status can impact everything from taxes to health insurance costs. Most "tax pros" seem to consider our income's impact on our taxes, but not the significant impact of our health insurance costs. In my strong opinion, that is a mistake.

LLC: Flexibility and Simplicity

An LLC is a flexible business structure that protects personal assets while requiring minimal formalities. It’s a popular choice for small businesses, especially those just starting out. The benefits of this business structure are:

Simple Administration . LLCs require fewer annual reports and meetings than corporations, reducing the time and cost of compliance.
Taxation Flexibility. By default, an LLC is a “pass-through” entity, meaning profits are taxed on your personal return. However, you can elect to have your LLC taxed as an S-Corp or C-Corp.
Profit Distribution Flexibility. LLC owners can allocate profits in ways that don’t necessarily match ownership percentages, as long as it’s documented in the operating agreement.
Lower Costs for Small Businesses. Maintaining an LLC in Massachusetts can be more affordable than an S-Corp, particularly for businesses with modest earnings.

... but the drawbacks of an LLC are:

Self-Employment Taxes. LLC owners pay self-employment taxes (15.3% as of 2024) on all profits. This can result in higher tax bills for businesses earning significant income.
Limited Tax Optimization. LLCs don’t allow you to split income into salary and distributions like an S-Corp, which limits your ability to lower payroll tax liability.
Less Scalability. LLCs may be less attractive to investors or partners due to their flexible but informal structure.

S-Corp: Tax Savings with Structure

Technically, an S-Corp is a tax status, not a type of entity. Both LLCs and corporations can elect S-Corp taxation, provided they meet certain IRS requirements. It’s particularly advantageous for businesses with steady or growing income. The b enefits of an S-Corp are:

Reduced Self-Employment Taxes . S-Corp owners pay payroll taxes only on their “reasonable salary.” Profits taken as dividends are not subject to self-employment taxes, offering substantial tax savings.
Formal Structure for Growth. The formal structure of an S-Corp can be beneficial for businesses looking to hire employees or scale.
Potential Tax Savings. For businesses earning $75,000 or more annually, the tax savings from lower payroll taxes often (but not always) outweigh the additional costs of running an S-Corp.

...and the drawbacks of an S-Corp are:

Administrative Complexity. S-Corps require payroll, detailed bookkeeping, and additional filings. Professional services to manage compliance can cost $2,000–$3,000 annually.
Reasonable Salary Requirement. The IRS mandates that S-Corp owners take a reasonable salary before distributing profits. Determining and justifying this salary can be tricky.
Ownership Restrictions. S-Corps can have no more than 100 shareholders, and they can only issue one class of stock, which may limit growth opportunities.
Profit Distribution Rules. Unlike LLCs, S-Corps must distribute profits strictly according to ownership percentages.

The Crucial Role of MAGI and Health Insurance

For Massachusetts business owners, the relationship between your business structure, your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI), and health insurance costs is crucial. MAGI determines eligibility for health insurance subsidies through the Massachusetts Health Connector, so understanding how each structure impacts it can save you thousands in health insurance costs annually.

LLC Impact on MAGI: A s an LLC owner, all net business profits count as personal income, increasing MAGI. A higher MAGI may disqualify you from healthcare subsidies, leading to higher insurance premiums. But, crucially, the LLC structure allows many ways to reduce your MAGI, even after the current tax year (such as SEP IRA contributions ).

S-Corp Impact on MAGI: S-Corps offer some flexibility in managing your overall tax burden, but it’s important to understand that both the salary and distributions you take as an S-Corp owner are considered taxable income and contribute to your MAGI.

As an S-Corp owner, the IRS requires you to take a “reasonable salary” for the work you perform. This salary is subject to payroll taxes and is included in your MAGI. Profits distributed to you as the owner are not subject to self-employment taxes, but they are still taxable income and therefore contribute to MAGI.

Bottom Line: Rules-of-thumb are fine when discussing general best practices for big groups or populations, but they don't apply to every single case. As far as I can tell, the only way to figure out which legal structure is right for YOUR business is to go through the math in both scenarios. Then, look ahead and guess how your income and situation might change.

I guess my situation is an odd duck, because as it turns out, the details of my little business are such that I'm best remaining structured as an LLC. The reason: tax savings of an S-Corp are less than the combined costs of S-Corp paperwork and the higher health insurance costs I'll incur under that entity. This is true primarily because of the money I keep shoveling into my SEP IRA and the money I keep re-investing into my business.

References for Your Research

IRS Guidance on LLCs

S-Corp Election Information:

Massachusetts Health Connector Income Guidelines

Reasonable Salary for S-Corp Owners

Late-Season Cedar Thoughts

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 02:06:37 GMT

Late-season thoughts and reflections on cedar, cedar cleaning, cedar homeowners....

The warm, wet winter of '23-'24 lead to a hellaciously humid summer. By all anecdotal accounts, this lead to trim and siding getting moldier than anyone can remember.
I saw more poorly-installed cedar shingled siding this year than I have in a long time. Why? Did people suddenly forget how to installed white cedar shingled siding? Nooooooo...... I suspect it's for the same reason that the quality of most other services is going down the tubes out here: the cost of housing continues to push away the labor class, meaning that the contractors who get these jobs are left with fewer and fewer option to sub out to. In some cases, these options are obviously pretty poor.
I recently received word (by text ) that my new primary care doctor has left the practice. Now I'm on my 5th primary care doctor in 4 years. Why? Well, again, we're in a mode where skill only leaves the Cape while the affluent consuming class continues to roll in. When doctors who move here to take a job find it unaffordable, what hope does a carpenter have?
Reports of poor exterior cleaning services are on the rise. (Same thing, folks! ) When fewer people who make their living with their hands can afford to live here, and some homeowners can't (or don't ) want to wait for reputable services which are backed up... are these occurrences a surprise? Most of these occurrences could be avoided with a little patience on the part of the homeowner. As in: don't hire the only person who can get there quickly, because there may be a reason they aren't busy....
This season I noticed a definite uptick in calls from cedar homeowners in surrounding states. They're trying to find somebody to maintain their siding, and they don't want to go with their local "bleach bandits." Good for them. But I usually can't help. As I told the guy from Connecticut recently, I have all the work I can handle right here in the mid-Cape area, and paying me to travel is far, far more costly than anyone ever seems to realize. Time spent traveling is time that I'm missing out on good-paying work right here in my own neighborhood. For those homeowner who wonder who to hire in their area, I've made this video with my suggestions on how to hire an exterior cleaner.
See that slider picture above? That was highly-neglected white cedar siding in Chatham. Ugly algae on the north side of the house. Last autumn I cleaned it, and the "after" side is how it looked this springtime. No bleach, and all done with biodegradable chemicals. That is the A+ result which comes from an experienced, professional, local exterior cleaning service. Interested?

Why I Don't Do Texting

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 21:24:41 GMT

Leah says that I'm old-fashioned; that more and more people conduct business communication via text message; that by not being a "texter," I'm missing out on potential customers.

I say: that's all true. And I won't change. Here's why I won't embrace texting for business:

Overwhelming volume. Thanks to a simple promotional video which I made and threw on YouTube back in 2017 - which has since been viewed around half a million times - my cell phone gets carpet bombed with texts all day, every day, from people all over the world all asking questions about exterior cleaning. I wake up to a dozen texts from numbers I don't know, from places I've never heard of. By lunch, another dozen. By the time the day is over, another couple dozen yet. Everyone has a question, and almost nobody (really: nobody ) is a simple answer away from having the info they need. The time needed to respond to these questions just doesn't exist. I know, because I tried for years to keep up. One question leads to another, and each answer is time out of my own day and life which I'll never get back, and for which I get nothing in return.
No organization. Unlike emails or actual paper mail, there remains no good way to track and organize text messages. "Pinning?" "Flagging?" Oh, please : try readily organizing and tracking fifty or a hundred new text conversations each day. Try scrolling back through these silly little phone screens with aging eyes to look for that conversation with somebody - can't remember who - about that chemical they asked about.
It's always an emergency. The nice thing about roof cleaning and exterior cleaning in general is that there really aren't any "urgent" situations: moss, algae, and lichen grown very slowly and predictably. ("Look out! A glacier is coming!") When these things are noticed, it's easy and reasonable enough to put it on the schedule to address when we're able to. Maybe that's in 2 weeks, maybe that's in 3 months. Either way, things aren't going to change much in the meantime. BUT, there's something about texting which brings out the last-minute crowd: the Realtor who just realized that a home is a dump and photos are being taken on Friday; the exterior cleaner who bid on a job, got the job, and only now - while doing the job - realizes that he doesn't know what the heck he's doing. People in these situations seldom call, but they DO text! By not getting into texting, I'm sidestepping the drama which comes from last-minute, ill-planned cleaning.
No sense of people. When I speak with a potential customer on the phone, I can get a decent sense of who they are, whether their expectations are realistic, etc. Tone of voice is more meaningful than emojis. There are some "red flags" which I look for in a potential customer which will cause me to politely decline involvement in a cleaning project: them badmouthing every contractor on Cape Cod, or them saying they want things done the way they read about on Reddit... even if they have no idea what they're talking about. Again, a short conversation tells me far more about a potential customer than a text exchange, and I imagine that they could say the same in reverse!

Want to get in touch? You can find me here .

Dumpster Fires in Exterior Cleaning

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sun, 19 May 2024 16:39:50 GMT

This past week I was driving down Route 28 in Harwich on my way back from a job in Dennis. Suddenly, the smell of chlorine bleach hit my nose with the force of a slap. My god, it was overwhelming ! And where was it coming from?

My first thought was that my 5 gallon container of 12% sodium hypochlorite in the back of the Hino had somehow broken loose and busted open, spilling all over the place. But that didn't make sense - I wouldn't smell it so badly if it was behind me in my flatbed as I drove down the road. Then I realized that other drivers coming towards me were covering their noses and mouths as they drove. The smell was coming from somewhere outside my vehicle.

Two blocks later, I found the source: two guys were washing a white picket fence... with a high-volume roof pump . One was literally shooting a firehose-like spray of bleach solution at a right angle to the fence (and overshooting into Route 28) while the other frantically hosed everything down with water.

As I watched a car drive through the bleach mist, two things occurred to me:

Damage from "overspray" is the most common reason for liability claims in the exterior cleaning industry.
These guys probably weren't actually idiots, but rather they probably hadn't been trained properly or been doing the job long enough to realize their errors.

Which got me thinking about something else: I have seen so many examples of bad practice in this industry over the years, and I've taken pictures of many! So, with these thoughts on my mind, I decided to make a video showing the results of poor cleaning procedures, and to share my thoughts on how these poor results can be avoided. That video is below; I hope somebody learns something and that some costly or dangerous errors are avoided.

Exhibit A

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 21:56:57 GMT

Thesis: The exterior cleaning industry is dominated by pushy, shady, up-selling companies which pawn off questionable products using fear-based sales tactics.

Exhibit A: Yesterday in Yarmouth, I looked at an asphalt (composite) roof for a homeowner who thought it might need a cleaning. Yes, it does: dark streaks of algae discolor the north side of the roof, while spots of moss and lichen are plainly visible. Easy enough.

After looking at the roof, I noticed that the white cedar shingled siding didn't look quite right. "Oh, that ," said the homeowner. "Don't get me started!"

Of course, I did. As the homeowner explained it, several years ago she had hired a well-advertised local company to clean algae from the siding. The salesman/owner insisted that the siding not only be cleaned, but also treated with their revolutionary stain/sealant product which would be a one-time treatment. Must. Be. Done. Basically, to do anything else would be sheer madness!

So, the homeowner hired said Company to clean and "seal" the siding; the Company massively over-promised and under-delivered; the company later got so many complaints that the Company dissolved and re-formed under a new name. Clean slate! And today, while that Company's glossy print ads and prominent Google ads are seen by thousands, they're still peddling the same crap to unsuspecting cedar customers, and the Yarmouth homeowner's siding looks like this all over:

The Cost of Cedar

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 15:32:37 GMT

To a large extent, my livelihood is tied to the cost of cedar.

For example, if cedar roofing and siding were free, I'm guessing I'd be un employed because nobody would care about maintaining something which is free to replace.

At the other end of the spectrum, if cedar roofing and siding cost the same as, say, gold ... well then I'd be busier than I could ever keep up with. There would be a flood of new cedar cleaning services in the industry. Cleaning equipment and chemicals would be wildly overpriced.

As it stands, cedar costs less than gold but it's far closer to gold than "free." For this reason, yes, there continues to be more new cleaning services each season, and equipment and supplies are indeed priced to the moon.

HOW costly is cedar at this moment? Let's look at Home Depot , which should be considered the bottom end of things but which I'll reference because most higher-end yards don't publish their prices online. Home Depot's white cedar shingles are available for $69/bundle plus tax. A bundle covers 25 square feet, so that's just about $3/square foot. But, obviously, that's just the outermost materials. If a homeowner is having siding replaced, then the material cost is just the beginning. Don't forget about:

disposal of the old siding
stainless siding nails
new cedar breather and water resistant house wrap
and the big one: LABOR to remove and install

Siding is commonly measured in "squares," whereas each square is 100 square feet. So the above-mentioned bundles of cedar are 4 bundles per square. Add all this up, consider that the above example represents the rock bottom end of the price spectrum, and it's no wonder that us cleaners are able to clean cedar for a tiny fraction of its replacement cost. That's my idiots such as myself are as busy as we are.

Here's a number I'll never forget: A contractor recently told me that they price out new red cedar roofing installations at $2000/square. That's $20 per square foot .

The Legacy Question

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 21:52:36 GMT

I was recently reflecting (ok, lamenting) that I spend all this time and energy on a line of work which doesn't last. I clean stuff, and then eventually things get dirty again.

Contrast this to friends who build houses, or ships, or elaborate "hardscapes," all of which will still be standing long after I'm dust. What's my "legacy?"

It's not something I had really thought much about before this year. It's not something which really matters. But it's something which got into my head and kind of stuck there.

Then last week, in aisle 4 at the Stop & Shop grocery in Orleans, over the endless loop of Christmas carols being piped through the store's sound system, I heard my name being called. I turned around to see a smiling elderly face which looked vaaaaaaguely familiar. She introduced herself as a customer from a couple years ago. As it turned out, I had cleaned her roof 6 years ago. Her husband and I had talked quite a bit, and after I cleaned their roof he showed me his elaborate model ships which had had made before his hands started shaking too much. They sent me home with homemade cookies.

She told me that her husband had since passed away. She and I talked for ten minutes about time and living on Cape Cod. When we went our separate ways, I wondered how many contractors are met with a big smile and hug years after doing a day of work for somebody they had never met.

And here's the thing: this instance is common. I often run into customers at the grocery or hardware store or gas station, and the interactions are warm and friendly. Oftentimes, they'll ask me to "put us on your list" for some type of cleaning in the coming months. Oftentimes, they'll ask about my wife and son. It's nice.

I don't know what my legacy will be, or if I'll have one, or how I'll even know. Really, I'm pretty sure that when I stop cleaning, anyone's reaction will be, "Oh! OK, who do we call now ?" And then the next Nate will appear and fill the void. In the meantime, though, it's pretty cool to be recognized with a smile and a warm handshake from a day or two of work I did years ago. I can think of worse ways to be recognized and remembered.

SEP IRAs

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 01:59:17 GMT

We all know " That Guy :" the sole proprietor or tiny-business owner who had a good year or three and is now driving around in a 50-, 60-, or 90-thousand dollar pickup. This isn't a "work truck" in the traditional sense: this truck has a luxury interior, fancy rims, never a scratch on it... and commercial plates. Maybe there's a dash-mounted bracket for a laptop computer, or a tool or small piece of equipment somewhere in the bed, but let's face it: these could easily fit in a Kia Soul .

"It's a work expense!" That Guy says with a laugh. "A write-off! If I didn't spend it, the government would just take it in taxes!" You get the idea. That Guy spends a fortune on an unnecessary, over-priced, inefficient four-wheel drive ego boost. As I said, we all know a That Guy .

Here's the deal: Whether a company is structured as an LLC, S-Corp, DBA, etc, it's true that earned income left over after business expenses will be taxed. It's income! And yes, spending available money on a work vehicle (or tools, equipment, advertising, etc) will reduce the company's earned income, thereby reducing the taxes as well.

But isn't there something... I don't know.... smarter that can be done with available money to help reduce taxes? You know, something that won't represent the financial liability of an unnecessary luxury vehicle ?

Enter the Simplified Employee Pension plan ( SEP IRA , for short). Like a traditional IRA, it's a way to set aside pre-tax dollars for retirement, while reducing the calculated taxable income this year. And unlike a traditional IRA (whose annual contribution limits for 2023 is a mere $6500), a SEP IRA can absorb up to a whopping $66,000 - or up to 25% of compensation - each year. (Note that or reasons involving funny tax math, owners/sole proprietors can "only" contribute up to 20% of their income.. still a lot more than a traditional or Roth IRA!)

There are some catches: if employees exist, then the plan needs to contribute to their SEP IRAs in the same percentage that is contributed to the owner's. For this reason, I see the SEP IRA as a potent tool of particular interest to sole proprietors and small mom-and-pop companies (such as Outside Cleaners LLC), where employees are family members .

There's more: for small business owners living in the Great State of Massachusetts who would like to qualify for very affordable subsidized health care, this SEP tool can be used to knock down your calculated income enough to qualify for subsidized income . That's right: if you plan it right, you can shovel money into your retirement each year while also continuing to qualify for heavily subsidized health insurance.

Sooooo... that's why I live like a pauper. My sales truck, which I bough for $10k before the pandemic, has 265,000 miles on it. And while That Guy is dumping eye-watering amounts of money into auto insurance and excise taxes and monthly payments ("It's a business expense!") for his ridiculous ego truck, I'm putting the same money into our retirements.

Maybe I'm the only one who care about this stuff. Maybe I'm wrong to hang my hat on the long-term growth of the stock and bond markets. Maybe the western financial system will implode, my retirement will go to $0, and That Guy will have the last laugh while he rolls onto the beach in his ego-mobile. Time will tell.

Repeat Customers

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 13:09:57 GMT

Here's a catch-22:

I've heard it said many times that the Best customers are Old customers. ("Old" here meaning they've been our customers for many years). They know us, they know our service and our quality, and we know they pay their bills.

At the same time, the only grumbling I've ever personally heard about our cost of exterior cleaning service is from (you guessed it) Old Customers. Here's my reaction to that:

The cost of every thing has skyrocketed; the number of quality exterior cleaning services in the area has been reduced; and the "pandemic wash ashores" who moved to Cape Cod during the COVID have driven demand to a whole new level. The new residents have not only set the market, but they give tips for work well done, leave us reviews online and on neighborhood Facebook pages, etc etc. Again, in so many ways, the wash-ashores are setting the market.

At the same time, I've made the profound mistake of not raising my prices each year for jobs I do annually. In my mind, I originally thought, "There's value in having predictable work." Now, I'm in a pickle. I'm still doing many annual jobs at the same rate as I did in 2019! If that job came to me as a new customer today, I'd likely charge twice as much for the same job.

"What?? The cost of this service went up THAT MUCH?"

Yes. Here's some numbers to chew on: here's how much some of my basic work expenses have gone up since just before the pandemic:

Gasoline: + 34%

Diesel: + 63%

Sodium Percarbonate: + 42%

Oxalix Acid: + 55%

Sodium Hypochlorite: + 80%

Garage Rent: +125%

... never mind insurance, groceries, electricity, etc etc.

And this is the exact reason I so often hear from customers that their lawn guy, irrigation guy, or window guy "that they've had for years" suddenly no longer calls them back. Those guys are still very much in business, but they never raised the price, then they couldn't bear to double the price, and now they've just chosen to ignore their longtime client while doing the same job for twice as much for the new people in town.

Obviously, I'm not going to ignore my previous customers, but I also can't adjust to the times. So, to my valued previous customers with concerns about the current costs of exterior cleaning, I can only thank you for the business, thank for your appreciating my previous work, and thank you for understanding that there are many inarguable reasons why I cannot offer the same service for anything like the same price as in years past.

YouTube Cleaning Videos

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 13:33:44 GMT

Years ago, I started posting videos online to promote our little local business. It was just part of the free online marketing and advertising strategy I decided upon as a mean to make a living. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube... that was the social media trifecta. I didn't want to pay to advertise, and to this day I still don't.

Last year, I realized that some of my videos had a "lot" of views, and somebody suggested that I allow YouTube to put ads on those videos so that I could make a buck.

I recently got a notice from YouTube indicating that they needed my bank account info so that they could pay me. Long story short, a video I made last year on deck cleaning just paid this month's mortgage. That was certainly among the easiest money I've ever made and tells me I should do more of that type of thing. And that's very timely, as my body has reminded me more and more this season that I should be looking for other ways to make income.

I'll be posting more videos to try to keep interest and keep the easy money dribbling in. If you have suggestions for specific content, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Empty Words

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 02:59:12 GMT

Not long ago, I received an e-mail from an online writer from out West who asked if they could write an article for me to post right here. He appeared to specialize in the topic of personal finances. No fee was required; I assumed that his goal was to catch somebody's interest, get a click, and maybe earn a consulting client.

It seemed fine and fair to me, so I suggested an article on SEP IRAs ( Simplified Employee Pension Individual Retirement Arrangement ), a topic I believe most sole-proprietors to be largely ignorant of. Some time passed and he got back to me with a 634 words to review.

As quickly as I scanned it over, I started counting errors. Two in the first paragraph, four by the end of the third. Less than halfway through, the writer had drawn incorrect conclusions based on the earlier errors, leading to "guidance" which wasn't worth anything to anyone.

Full stop. " Thanks anyway!"

Have you noticed - as I have - the amount of hollow, useless articles available to be read on any topic? Seems to me that most of these are articles and blogs published online by freelancers with perhaps zero actual experience or expertise on the topic on which they're writing. The writing industry calls it "content;" it's just keywords packaged in intelligible paragraphs. Fluff , to attract search engines. The freelancer's source of info is often just a Google search bar which lead them to (you guessed it!) similar content articles written by other under-informed, zero-experience, outside-in freelancers.

And that exactly describes the #1 problem in the exterior cleaning industry. EVERYbody's web site would have you think that they're the area's premier service provider... even guys who started cleaning 4 months ago. EVERYbody out there has a secret, proprietary housewashing formula (pssst... it's soap and bleach). EVERYbody is "fully insured"... though almost none are. EVERYbody is using green products and processes, though if you look deeply you realize it's all a bad joke. And this crap adds up and up and up until folks in the industry trying to do the right thing are just left feeling embarrassed by the industry they're a part of.

That's how I feel. There's too little knowledge, putting itself out there as knowledgable.

I'm closer to the end of my exterior cleaning career than the beginning. Whether I have one year left or five, I'm going to use this platform (and my YouTube channel ) to spread as much actionable, hard-earned knowledge and experience as possible. First topic: SEP IRAs .

Shaking Up the Snow Globe

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 01:52:14 GMT

Within our little family business, this is the time of year when I typically look back, look ahead, and ponder things that I want to change: a hundred little inefficiencies; tools I don't like; tools I want more of; three dissatisfied customers during the year, each with a common denominator. Like contractors all over the Cape, I'm not getting younger, and so I also look for ways to make my job easier.

Then, I zoom back a little. Our household is adjusting to higher prices for everything... sometimes shockingly higher. One of my favorite customers just confided that she'll likely be selling her house and moving to Maine, as the Cape - her home for many decades - has become simply unaffordable. That's become a common tale. And on the other side of the transaction, I've never been busier with exterior cleaning. I'm sad to look back and realize how little time I spent actually conversing with my customers this year, as I was so often running to the next job... sometimes literally. The pressure to "squeeze in more work" was ever-present in 2022.

I didn't take my annual hiking trip in the White Mountains this year. I didn't catch a fish this year, and hardly tried. I sold my boat because the old joy in it just wasn't there. Alex is now 15. In another minute, he'll be 19, then 30.

This past week I caught up with an old friend and learned that he tried to kill himself this year. I had no idea he was struggling; at the time, I was furiously cleaning the outside of mid-Cape rental properties so that incoming renters wouldn't wrinkle their noses at algae on the decking or mold on the siding and (gasp) deduct a star from the rental's AirBnB review.

Once upon a time, there was time. Time to converse with and get to know my customers. Time to converse with friends and family in detail, rather than in headlines. Time learn about my customers, time to watch the tide go in and out, and time to listen to the whispers of intuition. It's time to get back to that space.

Yes, it's easy to sit here on a quiet night in late December and say, "I'm not going to get so stressed out and wrapped up in 2023." That's easy. But I'm publicly making this commitment to staying more grounded and focussed on what really matters, and I'll refer back to this page as 2023 unfolds.

How will I know if I'm successful? For starters, reflecting back on the year in late December 2023, I won't feel like I do now.

Gutters

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 17:54:51 GMT

This is the part of the season when this job reminds me that I can't please everyone.

Since 2011, I've worked for over 2500 homeowners here on Cape Cod. A small-ish fraction of those have me clean their gutters each autumn, but that "small fraction" still adds up to a lot of gutters to clean.

Homeowners who want their gutters cleaned in the autumn understandably want this service performed as late as possible so that the gutters don't fill up with falling leaves again right after they have been cleaned. What most homeowners typically don't understand is that once nighttime temps dip below freezing, the clogged gutters don't just thaw out on the next warm day. They don't. And cleaning frozen gutters is far, farrrrrrr more costly than cleaning them when they're not frozen.

So the task is to clean a whole lot of gutters at the last possible minute. Do them too early, and folks complain that they'll get full of leaves again. Do them too late, and it's REALLY too late.

... and that's why I've learned the hard way to strictly limit the number of gutter cleaning jobs I take on each year. And that's why I turn away far more gutter cleaning jobs than I actually perform.

Addressing a few more common questions:

Why don't we just automatically schedule all the gutter jobs from last year? I used to do that, and I cleaned far too many gutters for free. Each year, 10-20% of our gutter customers move away or pass away. Nobody tells us when this happens, and the new homeowners are NEVER happy to pay for a service they didn't ask for.
Can we schedule your gutter cleanings now for a specific time/date in late autumn? No. The exact work date depends upon many things, including the weather in November (have early storms shaken the leaves off?), nighttime temps ... and the many, many other gutters jobs already on the schedule. By necessity I group them by town and neighborhood.
Does anyone need to be home when the gutters are cleaned? No.
Do I need to use a spigot? No. My truck carries plenty of water.
Can I clean out the clogged drain which disappears into the yard ? Probably not.
Can we schedule your gutter cleaning for December? No. Recall it was only a few years ago when we woke up to a frozen world in early December... and it didn't unfreeze until springtime. Remember: once temperatures briefly dip below freezing at night, the contents of the gutters freeze solid. Most homeowners don't understand that those frozen gutters typically don't thaw out during the daytime. Frozen gutters cannot be cleaned out for anything remotely like the normal rates you pay.
Rates: We charge $1 per foot per floor and our minimum service charge is $165 (up $15 from last year). We routinely hear that this is competitive with other fully-insured gutter cleaning services.
Can I repair your gutter? Most likely. If I'm already cleaning your gutters, I can perform small gutter maintenance and repair jobs if needed, such as re-attaching disconnected downspouts, sealing pinhole leaks, etc. Those repairs are performed and billed based upon time and materials only.

The Churn

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 21:18:30 GMT

Before the pandemic, I read somewhere that Cape Cod has an average annual turnover rate of about 25%. In other words, a QUARTER of the local population moves away each year, and a new 25% comes in to take their space. That's probably changed a bit with the recent flood of "wash-ashores" during the pandemic, but you get the idea: this sandbar is practically a revolving door.

Which brings me to a topic I often think about: the companies that claim to have washed "thousands" of homes on Cape Cod... who ACTUALLY washed those homes? Some magically-consistent and stable staff of workers? Or a long, revolving Rolodex of short-term employees, most of whom worked for just a season or two before moving on to other streams of income?

Companies of any size on Cape Cod rely upon a workforce which is in constant flux. Big exterior cleaning companies scramble to find bodies to do this filthy work, and those bodies often have far, far less experience than the companies wish you to know. Through inside channels, I hear the horror stories, and it is indeed a nightmare. One example: A local roof cleaning company quietly replaced multiple asphalt roofs in the last 12 months because the under-trained geniuses they sent to do the work just butchered everything. By the way, that company proudly proclaims its "expertise" in the field of roof cleaning.

My point is this:

Hiring a small owner/operator or mom-and-pop business such as Outside Cleaners LLC is one way to ensure that the guy doing the actual work has as much experience as the COMPANY claims to have. When the guy on the powerwasher is also the owner of the company and has been doing the job since Day #1, it does make a difference in the finished product.

Cedar Exteriors

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 01:57:58 GMT

So many new "wash-ashores" have landed here on the Cape in the past few years, and the cost of cedar shingles is so very high , that we're getting more calls than ever with questions about caring for and maintaining the exterior of cedar homes here on Cape Cod.

What to do?

What NOT to do?

If we're too busy, WHO do we recommend?

.. and so on.

To address the most common questions and misconceptions, I'm making a video series just on Cape Cod cedar exteriors. It'll be 5 (or more) in total when completed. Links to these vids are below, and at the end of each video.

Warning: Sharp Learning Curve Ahead

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 17:31:54 GMT

One benefit of being a small business which attracts far more work than we can handle is that we’re able to pick and choose the jobs we take on. Location and schedule requirements play a role, but more often than not, the determining criteria is the customer , not the technical aspects of the job itself.

Case in point: a New Yorkers who recently moved to Eastham asked us for a proposal to clean an asphalt roof. The roof was well overdue for maintenance cleaning: some areas should have been cleaned several years ago, as they are now a fair bed of moss and lichen. This is a job which will take care and patience (time: months) to rid the asphalt roof of this organic growth without causing more damage to the already-compromised shingles.

The homeowner, though, had two quotes in hand already from other local roof cleaning companies, both of which promised an “instantly” clean roof with zero harm to the shingles, etc etc etc. She wasn’t going to entertain any notions to the contrary. The old phrase came to mind, “ It’s easier to fool someone than to convince them that they’ve been fooled .”

So, what do I do? Spend my time trying to educate her, or shift my attention to the list of homeowners who have done their research, have a sense of the snakepit that is the roof cleaning industry, and are waiting for me to talk with them about their particular roof? In the old days I would have squandered my time, but those days are long gone. Life's too short.

I’ve said it before more times than I can count: this exterior cleaning industry (and the roof cleaning industry in particular) is the Wild West, full of Snake Oil salesmen pitching Miracle Cures and magic elixirs. They’ll say whatever they need to in order to get your business; to get their commission; to keep the cash flowing. It’s bad.

For those who will believe whatever a salesman tells them, I recommend not ever having your roof cleaned. Your roof will likely last longer with zero maintenance than it will by being cleaned in a inappropriate or forceful manner.

Dazed and Confused

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Fri, 15 Jul 2022 21:30:27 GMT

In the last week or so, I've had the exact same conversation with four different property owners. It goes like this:

I'm finishing up an exterior cleaning job. The property owner is handing me a check and expressing their gratitude for a job well done. They ask what else I do other than clean. I tell them that other than repairing boats , cleaning is all I do. They express disappointment, because they need some other work done, and we're the only ones who called back and showed up as we said we would. Their tree guy didn't show up. The landscaped never called back. Etc.

"It's not like this in Florida !" they say. Or New Jersey. Or Maryland. Or New York. Etc.

"Why is it so hard to hire people here?" they ask.

Where to begin?...

I want to hold a mirror up to them and the once-affordable house they bought in 2019, gutted, remodeled, added to, and are now renting out weekly on Air B-N-B. That's an obvious part of the problem: every house turned into an investment property and the subsequent lack of "affordable" housing i.e. housing for people who provide local services. Housing for people who work with their hands.

Who but wealthy executives and Bitcoin bandits can afford to live here? Here's who: white-collar retirees, lawyers, Realtors, movie producers, CEOs, ... the clean-hands crowd. The folks who can work from Zoom (if they need to work at all). The business owners , not the business doers ... NOT the guy mowing a lawn, the guy emptying a dumpster, or the guy painting a fence. Those folks are part of the churn.

I can hear it now: "But the natural economic forces of supply and demand will balance out!"

Uh... no. Not on this sandbar. It's been getting worse for decades. Worse; never better. If supply and demand were going to apply to housing and happily meet in a balanced middle, it would have showed signs of life long ago. Instead - despite noble attempts by all sorts of wine and cheese nonprofits - without colossal intervention by far more capable institutions, the situation we have today will almost certainly be worse next month, next year, and in the more distant future.

So... why is it so HARD to hire people or services here? Because:

Too much service demand is being serviced by too few people, because.....
Worker bees can't afford to buy a home here, because....
Too many once-affordable properties have been assimilated into the seasonal rental market, or have become year-round residences by folks who fled to their second homes during the pandemic, or sit empty for 49 weeks each year as their off-Cape owners count the days until July.
Period.

It's all about being able to afford a home, and it ain't getting better.

So to the full-time consumer of services on Cape Cod: my best advice is to take very good care of the service providers who are currently doing good work for you. It's a seller's market; THEY'RE choosing to work for YOU as much as YOU'RE choosing to hire THEM.

Signs of the Times

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sat, 18 Jun 2022 22:34:52 GMT

Remember toilet paper shortages? And chicken? And baby food?

A similar train wreck has been quietly playing out in the building industry when it comes to all sorts of wood and - as it applies to exterior cleaning - cedar shingles. Here on Cape Cod, I first heard of the really acute shortage about a year ago when builders complained of skyrocketing prices for all sorts of good s including both red and white cedar shingles. Then, the shingles disappeared entirely from the lumber yards. Now, bundles which appear here and there are sold at multiples of what they were a year ago, and order of any quantity will arrive God-knows-when.

The reasons for shortages and price increases are many: production slowdowns due to COVID-19, skyrocketing demand due to the remote workers' exodus to seaside homes, Trump's tariffs on Canadian softwood . Then came a tariff hike by the Biden administration in late 2021, sending prices higher. Throw in a national shortage of truckers , historically high oil prices , and it's really no wonder that we're so busy cleaning old cedar so that property owners can put off replacement as long as possible.

As I drive around the mid- and outer-Cape, I see an odd number of almost-finished homes sitting becalmed, devoid of the normal buzz of contractor activity, because the poor builder can't find cedar shingles to install on the siding. No siding = no certificate of occupancy. It's a mess.

Some builders are resorting to measures unthinkable a year or two ago, including installing vinyl siding, Hardi-board, and (as pictured above) low-grade knotty cedar shingles. In my 12 years of cleaning here on Cape Cod, I've never seen knotty shingles installed on multi-million dollar properties.

... all of which is to say, it makes more sense than ever to maintain your cedar siding so that you get the most life out of it.

If you have a cedar property here in the mid-Cape area, I'll be happy to talk about ways to stretch the life of that cedar siding. 508-209-1972.

Water

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sat, 28 May 2022 19:13:30 GMT

Many towns in the eastern part of Massachusetts are experiencing lower-than-average groundwater levels. This has prompted some - including several towns here on Cape Cod - to place restrictions on the non-essential use of municipal water. Within our normal service area, this issue is particularly compounded in Chatham, where chemical pollution in two of the towns wells has further limited the available water there.

A s of this writing, the following towns currently have some form of voluntary or mandatory restriction on the use of municipal water.

D oes this mean that we can’t clean decks, siding, patios, etc? No. Rather, it means we are frequently not allowed to use water from a municipal source (the house spigot). Instead, we often need to use water which we bring to the job site with us from a private source.

"" BRING all that water?" Yes. O ur Hino 195, in service with us since 2017, carries plenty of water to do most average-sized cleaning jobs, thereby keeping us in compliance with the restrictions mentioned above. I’m not aware of any other exterior cleaning service on the Cape with this capability.

Wet and Forget

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sun, 24 Apr 2022 20:07:29 GMT

What about "Wet & Forget?"

Wet & Forget is a biocide advertised as a "no scrub outdoor cleaner." Basically, it kills organic growth, causing that growth to slowly fall off exterior surfaces over the course of time.

As I've shared through videos , I'm a fan of the approach (cheap and gentle!) but am a less enthusiastic about the product itself. For starters, it's expensive. Also, many of our clients tried Wet and Forget before eventually calling us. If it worked as advertised, why were WE needed? Lastly, the details: the active ingredient in Wet and Forget is alkyldimethylbenzyl ammonium chloride. Do YOU know what that is, how it works, what it's doing to our environment, or how quickly it degrades?

Me neither.

But I DO understand hydrogen peroxide, and I like it because it's cheap, quickly degrades in the environment, and never makes me feel bad when I work with it. For this reason, I put these two exterior cleaners to a little test.

Enjoy:

3...2....1... Inflation!

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 22:02:23 GMT

Yesterday I heard a friend grumbling about the price of new vehicles. At the grocery store, I joked with a stranger that we should have invested in chicken eggs. And in the mail, I've received two letters in three weeks from the same chemical supplier announcing price hikes on the same chemical.

Yes, inflation is here. As a teeny-tiny service provider, it's hitting us from all sides: Insurance. Fuel. And as if the cost of cleaning chemicals didn't go up enough during the pandemic due to skyrocking demand, the prices are now jumping further due to limited supply and transportation costs.

What to do? Work longer for less?

Nope. Not when we're still receiving far more demand for exterior cleaning services than we can meet. When things slow down, I'll re-consider our pricing. But in the meantime, I keep hearing how favorable our rates compare to our larger competition....

A Total Sh*t Show

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 16:57:38 GMT

The above photo is of a cedar roof in Chatham which I was asked to look at because the new homeowner wanted it to be cleaned before rental season.

It can't be cleaned because the cedar roof is rotten. Poke it with your finger, and your finger goes right through the thin, punky shingles.

That was news to the homeowner, who bought the place last autumn without getting a home inspection. In talking with the contractor currently on the job, the rotten roof is among a long list of "uh-oh's" that the new homeowner is slowly becoming aware of. I didn't tell him the new roof will likely be $40k+, IF his roofer can find red cedar shingles.

I'll take this opportunity to point out that the local real estate scene is now a genuine runaway disaster. Here's how I see it:

The COVID-19 pandemic caused affluent folks to flee the cities and suburbs, where they've learned they can work remotely from a home by the sea.
At the same time, demand for vacation rentals skyrocketed, as many vacationers felt safer in driving to a rental home by the sea than taking a plane from an airport to a crowded resort or amusement park.
Due to COVID-19, the output of manufacturing centers plummeted for a while, falling well short of normal demand. Transportation shortages between there and here and there exacerbated normal supply shortfalls.
Due to (1) and (2) above, the shortfalls due to (3) have been greatly magnified as demand exceeds normal levels. Many once-plentiful construction commodities to now be either unavailable or eye-wateringly expensive.
Soaring property values due to (1) and (2) is provoking many "average working folks" to cash out of their Cape Cod homes and move elsewhere. They are removed from the local labor force, making existing labor scarcer and more costly. The off-Cape buyers of their home are most likely buying it to gut it to rent it. Go to step (4).
As a result of 1, 2, and 5, I'm told that local homes are now uniformly selling for far more than their asking price. The winning bidders are paying in cash. As a sweetener to their bid, the winning bidders are waiving their right to a pre-sale home inspection.
Their un-inspected Cape Cod properties are not in tip-top condition. Wiring isn't up to code. Septic systems have failed. Cedar roofs are rotten.
Due to (4) and (5), the new homeowner can't get a service provider in a reasonable amount of time, and then they can't get the materials they need.
Money is thrown at both labor and materials in an effort to speed them up.
The "average" Cape Cod homeowner is left behind. Go to step (5).

Maybe I'm foolish for caring about the cost of a new roof or septic system or electrical system; maybe that type of small thinking is a difference between myself and the Really-Rich .

I'm not quite sure where the cycle ends. I do think that increasing interest rates will only slow demand from the Average Joe, not the second- or third-homeowner with big-time cash on hand. But these unflagged issues will be biting new Cape Cod homeowners in the butt for years.

I'd like to know, though: WHO insures a newly-purchased home which wasn't inspected during the ownership transaction?

That's all for now. I'm going back to work.

What I Do in the Winter

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 22:51:30 GMT

The question often comes up when chatting with customers: "What do you do in the winter?"

Fair question. I use water when washing the outside of buildings, and so exterior cleaning isn't something that I can do in typical New England winter weather.

But wait! What IS "typical" Cape Cod winter weather?

Some winters, we have no snow on the ground whatsoever. Other winters (2015), it's been a snow-bound mess from December into April. I cleaned three mahogany decks this February 22nd but on May 3 in 2020, it snowed. So there is no "typical" winter weather here. For that reason, I stay flexible with my schedule and YES, I do clean during the winter when weather allows. On February 22 of this year, I washed three mahogany decks in Chatham.

What ELSE do I do in the winter, aside from some occasional cleaning jobs? These days, I go to a lot of youth hockey games (go Coyote s !). I make silly videos regarding exterior cleaning for my YouTube channe l . And, recently, I've turned a hobby into a side gig.

Nate Church Boat s is the very un-sophisticated name of a pursuit which I'm hoping will fill more of my winters (and my wallet) as time goes by. I do fiberglass repair and fabrication. It's pretty basic at the moment, but some higher-tech stuff is in the works. Yes, it's another messy job which many wouldn't care for. Yes, I rather enjoy it.

My ideal client is a Cape Cod resident with a trailerable fiberglass boat who wants to have repairs done to their boat AND who plans ahead. Know somebody like that? I'm here .

Preventive Asphalt Roof Maintenance

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 14:34:08 GMT

The problem is, most homeowners don't pay any attention to their roofs until algae, moss, and lichen has gotten way out of hand. At that point, permanent roof damage has likely already been done. To make matters worse, most of the asphalt roof cleaning services on Cape Cod amount to blasting the roof with a powerwasher, and while that DOES remove organic growth, it also literally whittles down the remaining life of the roof.

It'd make me happy if Cape Cod homeowners got a little more into "preventive roof maintenance" rather than "oh-dang-this-is-an-emergency."

WHAT is preventive roof maintenance? I'll make it three easy steps:

Keep your gutters clean
Keep trees trimmed back from hanging over your roof.
Have your roof treated at the first sign of organic growth (any green or black stains, or anything fuzzy).

That's it.

Here's a brief video explaining the importance of the tree part:

Ladders & the Elderly

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 20:43:15 GMT

Autumn 2019. Orleans, Massachusetts. I was cleaning the gutters at a "normal" (read: non-MacMansion) house at the end of a residential road. I finished up, went to strap my ladders onto my truck rack, and a neighbor in an adjoining yard called over to me.

"How much?" he asked. He was about my age, maybe a little older.

"A dollar per foot per floor," I said. "Minimum hundred and fifty."

He asked for my card, so I dug one out of my glovebox and walked it over to him, where he explains that the house belongs to his parents, who are getting to old to do the upkeep, and he's trying to figure out what he'll do himself and what he'll hire out.

I never heard from him. The next springtime, I learned that his father went up on a ladder to clean the gutters, fell, broke a hip, and you know the rest. At the dawn of COVID-19 in the U.S., the old man never came home again.

Flash forward to autumn 2021. An elderly customer asked me to dispose of the aluminum ladders behind her shed. The ladders are fine, but she doesn't want her husband even thinking about using them. Good idea!

And another good idea:

"How to Clean Cedar Siding"

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 14:50:09 GMT

Despite publicly announcing that I no longer offer training of exterior cleaning, I still get calls, texts, and emails from folks asking how to do this or that. And 99% of the questions are the same: "How do I clean cedar siding?"

I get it. People want their cedar-sided homes to look nice. The don't want to mess things up. And they definitely don't want to replace their cedar siding if it can be avoided (seen the prices lately, ever for the cheap ones?).

So why don't I just make a cute little tutorial explaining how to clean natural cedar siding? Heck, I could sell it online, on Vimeo or such, and make it a nice little profit center!

Well, a few good reasons:

1) I have five or 6 go-to methods for cleaning cedar siding. No, they can't all just be combined. In my experience and opinion, there is no single BEST way to clean cedar siding, and right method for one situation may be the exact WRONG method for another.

2) The best method to clean cedar siding will take into consideration the:

why are we cleaning it? Propping to stain, or just making the cedar siding look better?
type of cedar (Red, white, yellow)
age of the siding
Has the cedar siding previously been stained, sealed, or in any way "treated"?
condition of the siding
How are the cedar sidewall shingles fastened? (Galvanized nails, stainless nails, or staples of one or the other?)
How accessible is the siding?
What kind of roofing material does the house have?
Are there adjacent decks? What is their condition, and kind of material are they made of?
What's being removed from the cedar siding? Old stain? Grime from the busy street? Superficial mold and mildew? Deeply-embedded algae? Rust stains from the old galvanized nails?
What's the condition of the windows? Are they in good shape, or are they old ones which don't shut properly, can't lock, etc?
What's the landscaping like? A "Cape Cod lawn," or a quarter-million dollars in koi ponds, hydrangeas, and rose bushes climbing up the siding?

3) Equipment. I'm not driving around with $30k in pumps, tanks, and hoses on a 19,000-pound flatbed for just fun; washing a cedar house as well and as efficiently as possible takes some specialized gear far and above a pump sprayer and a Home Depot pressure washer.

4) Experience. This is THE BIG REASON don't offer "How To" instruction on cleaning cedar siding. And, this is the #1 Reason which homeowners and inexperienced cleaning pros mess up cleaning cedar siding... they just lack the experience to do it well. Having been doing this for more than a decade now, I'll state flatly that the learning curve on cleaning cedar siding is far longer than most homeowners (and cleaning contractors) appreciate. Faaaaaaar longer.

With all that in mind, doesn't it make more sense to KEEP a cedar house clean, rather than cleaning it once its been allowed to become dirty? Hmmmmm.....

Typical Homeowner's Biggest Mistake

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sun, 12 Sep 2021 16:37:09 GMT

As previous mentioned , I've been in the exterior cleaning business for a while now. Seen a lot come and go, as they say. Along the way, I've learned to recognize "types" of customers:

There's the type who just wants the least amount of cleaning done for the least amount of money, just to get his wife off his back!

There's the type who knows the home's cedar exterior actually needs replacing and is long past the point of cleaning, but they're hoping I can somehow work a miracle.

There's the type who has spent 100 hours online in the past week researching the cleaning of cedar , and they now have a very specific notion of how they want their siding cleaned.

Etc.

Step back a bit, though, and most of these varying types of homeowners get lumped into the same overall category: homeowners who have made the most common biggest mistake I see. Here's how it plays out:

I'm done cleaning, I pack up the rig, take off my boots, and knock on the door to announce my departure. The homeowner comes outside, turns around, looks the the house, and their eyes pop out. Big smile emerges. Compliments erupt. And, eventually, the words, "I wish we'd done this sooner."

That's it right there ----> homeowners wait too long before having some sort of cleaning done . Seeing their clean deck, siding, or trim, etc makes them happy, and they wish they'd had it done it sooner. They wonder why they waited five years after they first noticed all the mold and grime. They wonder why they've spent weeks each season trying to do what I just did in a day.

I've seen too many homeowner express regret at waiting to have their deck, or their roof, or their trim cleaned up. So, my best advice to homeowners: whether it's putting in a butterfly bush, installing a stone Budda, or having some exterior cleaning done, don't postpone something that you can afford which will bring you joy. Life's too short.

Thoughts on Cedar

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 16:13:17 GMT

Some quick facts which many homeowners don't know:

Historic coastal New England used cedar for siding because that's what there was to use. If there was more stone (as in Europe), they would have built houses out of stone.

Cedar ain't what it used to be. The cedar on the market today is not nearly as dense as the old-growth cedar which was on the market a generation ago. And, in my opinion, not nearly as resistant to mold.

Red cedar is better than white cedar. And way more expensive. Due in part to the higher density, red cedar offers more lengevity. I believe this is why red cedar is more commonly used on roofs, whereas white cedar is typically used on the less-critical siding.

Yes, cedar can be washed too often. Just like skin and hair, cedar has protective oils which help protect it and give it it's longevity. Any time the cedar is washed, some of these oils will be unavoidably stripped from the wood. So, washing more often then necessary with accelerate the decline in the wood's ability to protect itself.

No, I don't recommend "oiling" cedar. From what I've seen, the products currently available have been so "watered down" for environmental purposes that I see them causing far more problems than they solve.

To color the cedar, cedar gets stained , not painted . Paint doesn't last like stain does.

10 Years

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 15:38:43 GMT

It's come to my attention that 2021 is Outside Cleaners 10th official year in business. Some reflection is called for.

I got into exterior cleaning because I could make more money in than I was earning at the lumber yard. I didn't care for heights and working from ladders but enjoyed working outside and working mostly alone. Many of our customers were local homeowners with local families. My partner at the time was a fabulous local character with all the answers, and we would powerwash a house in the morning, divide up the $600 between us, and spend the afternoon fishing. That was the best work/life balance I've ever known.

10 years on, pretty much everything has changed. That work/life balance is a happy memory. Now, an 8-hour day seems like a day off. $600 gets a big deck cleaned, but not a house. My work vehicle, once a little Toyota 4Runner, is now a 19000-lb flatbed with a proportionate monthly payment. Few of our customers are local; indeed most are investment properties owned by "Such-and-Such LLC".

The industry around me has changed. With few exceptions, I'm surrounded by chlorine cowboys who I wouldn't trust to wash my laundry, much less the exterior of my cedar house. Most never worked in the industry a day, but now due to the meltdown economy and the availability of pre-made " housewashing trailer s " (few of them DOT-legal but many available with 0% financing) they've started their own exterior cleaning businesses, 90% of which are built on the belief that chlorine bleach really cleans soft, porous wood such as cedar. Pro tip: it doesn't.

If I sound like an old codger longing for bygone times, maybe I am. With thousands of decks, roofs, and houses washed by myself over the course of tens of thousands of hours on the job, I've eared the right to be.

But not all the changes have been for the worse. In more recent years, I've had the pleasure of being able to work beside my lovely wife Leah and my (gasp) now-13-year-old son Alex. Although often behind-the-scenes, Leah has been absolutely instrumental in our little business's local success and popularity. As the saying goes, "Behind every successful man is a woman rolling her eyes."

10 more years? I doubt it. I've got cedar figured out, it's getting boring, I'm physically wearing out, and there are other vocations I'd like to pursue. In the meantime, I'm going to put more effort into that work/life balance that I vaguely remember from years ago.

An Odd Time Indeed

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sun, 07 Mar 2021 19:20:32 GMT

I'm not complaining. I'm grateful to be busy with a job I love. However, it seems to me that after a year of living on nearly-instant Amazon Prime deliveries, many new-to-living-here homeowners have developed unrealistic expectations when it comes to hiring a service of any type on Cape Cod.

Every plumber, electrician, builder, landscaper, mason, and roofer I know is busier than anytime in memory. Even the bad ones . And, this is no different for those of us in the field of exterior cleaning. At Outside Cleaners, LLC, we're a mom-and-pop operation, and our springtime has be nearly entirely booked since last autumn . This weekend, a perspective customer tried to hire me site unseen. As in: I haven't seen the job site; I haven't provided a written work proposal; I haven't met the customer... but they want to send me a deposit so that I'll save the date to do... something.

So, what are the unrealistic expectations?

Expecting that a quality service will be provided instantly and at a discount price. From my view, you can choose two of these three: quality, instant service, discount price. I'm not aware of any in-person service anywhere on earth which can consistently offers all 3.
Expecting a fully-insured service to compete in price with the services provided by fly-by-nighters, unemployed fishermen, and semi-retired "handymen." Big boy insurance costs big boy money, and that's reflected in the pricetag of a professional, top-notch service.
Expecting that a reputable service provider will "bump" a previously-scheduled service to make room in the calendar for a homeowner who didn't plan ahead, and is now in a panic. I get it: we all forget things, springtime sneaks up on us, etc. But it's not realistic to think that I'll change a standing appointment with a good customer just to make room for another who is loud and unhappy with their own lack of foresight.

So. Again, I'm not complaining, but rather just trying to shed some perspective on the situation that every service provider on Cape Cod is currently dealing with. For those trying to find a house washer to hire, I encourage you to check this out:

The Dirty Underbelly

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 22:53:11 GMT

In the past few years, we've noticed more and more homes being designed (or re -designed) with some sort of "usable space" underneath an overhead deck. We're seeing a patio, outdoor shower, a parking space, or even a hot tub being put under the deck. From what I've seen at construction sites this winter, this trend is only growing.

While those ideas might look good on paper, in the real world it's pretty much a nightmare. The underside of decking is notorious for being one of the nastiest parts of a house: it's always damp, it's always in the shade, and it's almost always a moldy, algae-covered mess. Homeowner of new usable space are typically shocked to learn just how truly filthy the underside of that deck gets, and how quickly .

Yes, I'm happy to clean the underside of a dec k (joists, columns, and the underside of deck boards), and can also treat it with an application designed to keep the nasties at bay. But an even better long-term solution is the installation of some sort of ceiling system beneath the deck. These give the homeowner something nicer than deck joists to look up at from that "usable" space, and prevents crud from falling into the usable space through the deck boards above. Examples of these ceiling systems include:

Trex RainEscape (from Trex... new construction)
UnderDeck Ceiling System (from Home Depot..... retrofit)
UnderCover Systems (new construction)

Recall that I just clean; I don't install them. (Given the need around here, maybe I should!) If anyone is looking for something like this to be installed here on the Cape, please check out my recommended service provider s . Tell them I say Hi.

On Staining Cedar siding

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 14:52:09 GMT

T o stain, or NOT to stain? That's the question.

One of the most common questions I receive from homeowners regards the pros and cons of staining shingled cedar siding. Specifically, newly-installed WHITE cedar shingled siding (as pictured in the link below). Everyone has an opinion; here's mine:

White shingled siding which is solid-stained when new should last longer than white cedar siding shingles which are left natural. That's because here on Cape Cod, shingled siding usually gets replaced when it stops looking good. Solid-stained shingles ( if maintained ) will look good for longer than shingles which are simply left natural.

I strongly recommend against bleaching oil treatments, any type of sealant, or any semi-translucent stain. I have not seem any of them work as advertised. Rather, I have seen them cause massive headaches for homeowners who are then left with big bills to fix the issue(s).

In a nutshell, leave your white cedar shingles un-stained if:

you love the natural look of cedar shingles;
you understand that they WILL change in appearance over time;
you understand that each side of the house WILL eventually weather differently than the others;
you understad that a periodic washing will help restore the appearace of the shingles, but that they will eventually age and weather again.

Conversely, install SOLID-STAINED siding shingles if:

you don't love the yellow-ish natural look of new white cedar;
you're impatient for the siding shingles to turn gray;
you have the money to pay for stained shingles;

you have the money to pay for regular touch-up and periodic re-staining of the shingles.

Lessons (Re-)Learned

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 01:17:48 GMT

One of the many things I love about my job is the seasonality of it. While the warmer months can get overwhelming with constant activity, this time of year is slow and quiet. I use this time to reflect, rest up, and make improvements.

Looking back on the 2020 exterior cleaning season, a couple lessons stand out to me. Some I'll mention in upcoming posts, but there's one I seem to re-learn each year: the average homeowner just has no idea what's happening above their gutters. If the roof isn't leaking or on fire, that part of the property gets no notice.

While I don't advertise myself as a roof inspector, it's impossible not to notice certain problems when up on a ladder cleaning gutters. This past autumn I discovered:

significant missing shingles (14 houses)
large holes in roof (3 houses)
large holes in siding (2 houses)
large plants growing on roof (3 houses)
trees damaging roof (5)
roofs in need of cleaning (more than I could count)

The lesson here is probably more for the homeowners than me: on occasion, get some eyes on your roof. If that happens to be while your gutters are being cleaned , then it's even better.

Happy New Year.

R & R (its not what you think)

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 21:37:39 GMT

This past week I met a prospective customer who was hugely proud of their Cape Cod house and hugely dismayed that their siding has mold and mildew growing upon it. I looked things over and it was all pretty standard stuff: the house was completed almost 2 years ago, the white cedar siding has become silvered in places and - in others - blotchy black and gray.

"But they're premium shingles!" said the homeowner. "They're premium R&R!"

OK let's stop right there. First, although the house was only finished two years ago, that siding probably went on 3 years ago. These were white cedar shingles in their natural state (no stain) on a house next to a pond (little humid?). White cedar ain't what it used to be ; the quality of white cedar shingles in general has been declining over the years, and it is becoming more and more prone to rapid mold growth. In recent years, local sidewallers have shared accounts of white cedar shingles showing signs of molding while still in bundles before being installed on buildings!

So white cedar sidewall shingles, although not cheap, is pretty cheap stuff.

As for " R&R ," that simply means they're been re-butted and re-jointed: the sides are parallel and the edges are square. This process - and additional cost - saves some time for the installer. It's got nothing to do with the quality of the wood, and nothing to do with how well it'll resist mold and mildew.

My opinion: white cedar shingles are vastly inferior to red cedar. Which, of course, costs far more.

Now, I could use some real "R&R."

Close the Flood Gates!

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 01:18:41 GMT

When I'm asked a question, I do my best to answer. As a person, that's how I operate. So, for years I've been answering questions from strangers regarding exterior cleaning.

"How you do clean a deck?"

"How did you clean that roof?"

"How should I wash my siding"

"What did you use to clean that?"

Etc.

Not just a few questions from a few people. Thousands . From all over the world.

About 18 months ago, I decided to try to capitalize on this interest and make some money by selling my expertise . I'd do some consulting for other exterior cleaning businesses, I'd make instructional videos, I'd offer 1-on-1 training. And I did. And now I'm stopping .

The reason: it takes too much time, and the return is too small. The juice isn't worth the squeeze.

So, for the foreseeable future, I'm setting all that aside to focus on making the most I can while I'm working, and enjoying some peace and quiet while I'm not. It already feels like a good decision.

NOT a franchise

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 16:02:33 GMT

I've stopped counting the number of calls I've received this season from people all over the country, asking if "we have a location near ________."

Sorry to say, but No, we don't have locations near Buffalo, Sacramento, St. Simon's Island, etc. We are located here on Cape Cod, where we are not a franchise and have no plans to be.

Why? In my humble opinion, franchises are fine for flipping burgers or taking trash to the dump, i.e. simple tasks which are easily and mindlessly repeated. Cookie-cutter. And if I just washed vinyl houses or asphalt roofs or concrete sidewalks, I'd agree that exterior cleaning would be cookie cutter . But I wash all kinds of cedar in all kinds of ways . Red, white, yellow, shingles, clapboard, shakes, various chemicals, pressures, etc..... there is a learning curve, and it is long.

I've dabbled in training newbies how to clean exterior surfaces long enough to be convinced that it will take an average rookie 2-3 seasons before they can wash a basic, easy, white cedar house "sort of well" without any supervision. It will take them 3-5 years to be proficient at more complicated or difficult jobs, and 10 years+ to be a wizard. All of that is incompatible with the "franchise formula" model of business.

Reinforcing this belief is my observation of other cedar cleaners who tried to expand to other locations. I've never seen it go well. The business's reputation takes a nose dive, and it's sometimes fatal.

So, until somebody convinces me that I'm wrong, I'll continue to do every job myself, so that I know it's done as well as possible. This is why I'll never be rich, but also why I'll never go out of business.

Old = Good

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 22:31:26 GMT

I don't often work in Wareham , but yesterday I was there and had the pleasure of power washing some cedar siding which had been installed in the early 1960's (!). This was likely the oldest white cedar shingled siding I've ever cleaned, and it cemented some opinions I've formed over the last decade of cleaning cedar:

1) In term of quality, older is better, and new white cedar shingles are essentially garbage. R&R extra, pre-dipped, etc... it's all junk. Compared to the old stuff, new white cedar siding shingles is very soft, porous, and seems to be highly prone to mold and algae infestations. I've heard some builders complain that their new bundles of "whites" turn black with mold before the shingles are even installed on the siding!

2) In term of quality, new galvanized siding nails are essentially garbage. Look at the picture below. That's a white cedar shingle set in place with hand-nailed galvanized nails. No rust, no staining, and that's been 35 feet from saltwater since 1964! Compared to the old stuff, new "galvy" nails seem to rust quickly and leave rust stains (maybe that's related to #1.... a feedback loop?).

So, why is the old white cedar shingle wood better? I suspect it's sort of like why wild salmon is better than farm-raised: nature grows a better product than a modern commercial farm.

I guess I'm getting old, seeing that I've found myself grumbling that "they don't make 'em like they used to." But this is an important for the homeowners who call me hoping to get their siding cleaned, but worried that it might not be a candidate because it's old. Personally, based on my experience cleaning cedar, it's the "new" stuff that I worry more about!

As Good As It Gets

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sun, 28 Jun 2020 01:00:02 GMT

I've always been a little envious of the father/son work teams I've met in the trades. You know, the good-natured joking, the camaraderie, the talking about life while driving between jobs. And here's my taste of it: with summer camps closed due to COVID-19, I've got a part-time summer helper. He's 12, works for food and tips, and eats like a horse.

Yes, he overheats easily, and he runs out of energy pretty fast, but he's getting his hands dirty, speaking with adults he doesn't know, and putting in effort on something which doesn't have a video screen. We'll remember this as a good time during a hard time.

This had me laughing the other day: He was rinsing crud off a metal garage door, and doing a not-too-great job.

"I'm done," he said.

I looked at it disapprovingly. "Really? That's finished?"

"I didn't say it was perfect," he said. "I said I'm done ."

Suddenly, Maintenance Matters

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sun, 31 May 2020 22:51:40 GMT

I love turning a truly ugly exterior surface into something pleasant to look at. These days, I'm getting the chance more than ever. Here's why:

Years ago, I was most often called by maintenance-minded property owners to look at exterior surfaces which "were washed 8 or 10 years ago." Over the past two or three years, though, the property owners who contacted me were often debating whether to have their deck, siding, or roof cleaned , or replaced. The surfaces in question have mostly been entirely cleanable, yet I watched homeower after homeower replace that roof/deck/patio with a shrug because, as they said, "We have the money."

I figured that when the economy eventually slowed down, property owners would be more interested in prolonging the life of these expensive exterior surfaces through maintenance than in the wholesale replacement of those dirty-but-cleanable decks, siding, and roofs. Obviously, I didn't expect it all to happen so quickly!

With the recent head-snapping change in personal and global fortunes, I'm being called to look at more highly neglected exterior surfaces than ever. These are not maintenance-minded owners, and the exterior surfaces have never seen any maintenance whatsoever. Reading between the lines, it's my impression that these owners always figured their building's exterior surfaces would just be replaced when they became unsightly. Now, maintenance (and money) matters, and it's eye-opening for them to realize how little it takes for me to make these surfaces beautiful again.

Some exterior surfaces are beyond maintenance. When that is the case, I explain it to the property owner. In many cases, though, I'm able to clean the surface, not only maximizing it's useful life, but providing a jaw-dropping improvement in appearance.

I love it when homeowners are speechless with happiness. :)

Weirder and weirder

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sun, 03 May 2020 20:03:54 GMT

The weirdness continues:

Several customers who had been on the work schedule for early springtime canceled work during the early panic of the pandemic.
I replaced those jobs with other customers who were going to have their siding replaced this year, but have now decided to spend less and just have it cleaned in order to stretch out it's useful life some more.
Several of the original cancellations have since called back to get on the schedule again, only to learn that the line in front of them is long: I'm now 7 or 8 weeks out. Instead of getting there "before May" as originally planned, they're looking at mid-July. It's frustrating for everyone involved, but what can I do?

Anyhow. The photo above is an in-process shot from a job I did on the outer Cape for an off-Cape customer. We've corresponded almost entirely by text and email. What with social distancing, quarantining, and crazy schedules on both ends, that's more and more the way these days. It's OK, but I miss meeting people and shaking hands.

For those interested in working together via texts and emails, please check out this brief video .

Covid-19

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 22:12:06 GMT

What a difference 6 weeks makes! In early March, this was looking like a gangbuster season. Now, jobs are getting cancelled left and right. I don't blame folks but I do question how good our economy was if most Americans don't have savings to last more than a couple days. Seems like a house of cards to me.

I'm going my best to keep working - and am grateful that I'm still allowed to - but like everyone I'm holding my breath to see how far this thing falls.

I hope all who read this are well.

How I Clean

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 15:04:08 GMT

If you've followed my progress over the last year or two, you may know that I've spent a great deal of time making videos which illustrate how I clean. I spent most of last season with a GoPro on my head, much of this past winter editing my videos... and then we had an early thaw so I went to work cleaning!

Now, though, the inquiries for info on cleaning have picked up a notch. Perhaps it's because so many folks are home online during this pandemic, or perhaps some are realizing that they want a career change... whatever the reason, I've felt the heat to get this project out there and off my desk.

Happily, I'm now posting my videos, and will continue to roll them out as time allows. I hope they answer the questions about exterior cleaning which so many people have.

No, the info won't be entirely free, but it'll be worth it's weight in GOLD for those who are interested in this stuff. Click here for more info.

Sealing cedar? Think again.

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 15:34:38 GMT

Beware the "add-on" money grab.

Many exterior cleaning companies go out of their way to look for easy "add-on" services that they can push on their customers to make the job more profitable. Typically, these services are of dubious value. One such service is the installation of "zinc roof strips," which I wrote about here . Another such service is "cedar sealing."

I'm happy to clean cedar all day and every day, but I don't offer (or recommend) sealing of cedar. Neither does the Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau . Here's why:

In case that font is too hard to read, it says, " Never seal your cedar roof. Sealing the roof will lock in moisture that would otherwise naturally evaporate during normal weather conditions. Cedar needs to breathe and thus a water repellat type product, rather than a water proofer is the best route to follow ."

In my experience, this advice applies to not only cedar roofs but also cedar sidewall.

Yes, I'm aware of many cedar seals on the market, and I've never seen any that end well for the property owner. So again, beware the "add-on" money grab.

Yikes.

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 23:03:07 GMT

In the last 5 weekdays of February, 32 exterior cleaning jobs were added to our springtime calendar. On Feb 29 of 2020, we had more than 60 jobs on our springtime list. For our little company, that was unheard of for this time of year.

That was great news!... for us . And while we have lots of calendar space left to acomodate work before Memorial Day, the time to schedule cleaning work for "early springtime" has long since come and gone. For those callers, and for the many homeowners who will surely call with urgent requests for exterior cleaning to be performed "before the open house" or "before renters come," it might mean we may not be able to accommodate their urgent requests because the line in front of them is long.

For property owners who may end up contacting us too late for us to help this springtime, my best advice is to do your research before hiring anyone.

Don't trust reviews posted on a company's web site. Obviously, those are subject to editing or outright fabrication. Instead, look to reviews posted on impartial, non-pay web sites such as Google and the Better Business Bureau . (Once-helpful sites such as Yelp! and Anglie's List have changed to a " pay-to-play " model, in which they adjust ratings and viewable reviews based upon ad purchases.)

Do ask the clean company about their cleaning process. What exact chemicals do they use? Will their process do anything to void your deck, siding, or roof's warranty?

Do get a work proposal in writing. Make sure it explains the scope of work, timeline, and payment terms. (If somebody just gives you a dollar figure on a business card, walk away).

Do ask for the company's certificates of insurance for liability and worker's compensation. If they're paying for these insurances, they'll be proud and happy to have them provided. These certificates get delivered directly to you from the insurance provider, not through the cleaning service.

Do make sure that everyone on the job site is covered by worker's compensation. Oftentimes, the owner of a small company doesn't cover him/her self, which leaves YOU vulnerable to a financial mess if they get hurt on your property.

I hope that helps.

My Biggest Mistake.

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 21:26:36 GMT

We all live with risks. At work, some of my risks include working with ladders, water pressure, chemicals, summer traffic... and these little bastards. Ticks. No, they're not just a summertime thing. No, they're not just found in beach grass.

If we learn best from our own mistakes, then I must be the smartest guy around. If YOU are wise enough to learn from mistakes made by others, then here's one to file in the front of your mind: Don't ignore ticks or the risks they pose . They carry diseases which can change your life forever, such as Lymes Disease. Prevention is much easier than a cure, but timely recognition of a problem is also muy importante.

There's tons on info out there about Lyme's Disease and other tickborne diseases, and it's being updated all the time. One summary guide which has been brought to my attention is linked here .

Use your brain to make life better, because it's hard to live your best life when you're sick.

Zinc Roof Strips

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 22:53:18 GMT

Over the years, I've been asked more than a few times about zinc roof strips. Do they work as advertised? Are they worth the cost? Are they worth installing?

Here's my opinion: No .

My reasons:

Look at the picture above. Obviously, the zinc strip installed at the ridge line is doing something to inhibit the growth of algae on the shingles below it... but not enough to keep algae from growing farther down the roof. Also, it appears to be doing nothing to prevent the formation of damaging lichen.
I've long since lost count of how many roofs I've cleaned which had those zinc strips installed. If they really worked, why was I needed to clean the roof?
From what I've seen, for zinc strips to really work they'd have to be installed every 5 or 6 feet along the slope of the roof. Along with looking ridiculous, it would be far more cost-effective to just have a maintenance cleaning performed every couple years.
I think the whole thing is just an aftermarket money grab along the same lines as " gutter guards ."

No thanks.

Have Truck, Will Travel

Sat, 25 Jan 2020 21:01:07 GMT

Outside Cleaners is a Mom-and-Pop business here on Cape Cod in eastern Massachusetts. We clean roofs, decks, patios, and siding. We specialize in cleaning cedar and, to be honest, we're good at what we do.

For this reason, we're commonly asked, "Will you travel off-Cape?"

Yes, for the right job and customer, we will travel pretty much anywhere in Massachusetts. To date we've traveled over the bridges to clean cedar roofs and siding in Plymouth, Duxbury, Newton, Wellesley, Weston, Lynfield, Westport, and Manchester-by-the-Sea. So, whether you need your cedar cleaned in Beverly or Brookline , Easthampton or Edgartown, we're happy to hear from you. We can often answer many questions and provide a detailed estimate with the information available from Google Earth, emails, texts, etc.

We're currently scheduling work for early-season 2020, so if you have a springtime project in mind, now is the time to contact us . We look forward to hearing from you.

End of Season

Tue, 24 Dec 2019 21:21:54 GMT

Here on Cape Cod, exterior cleaning is pretty much a 3-season occupation. With little variation, we start cleaning in April and end at Thanksgiving. So people ask me: "What do you do in the off-season?" This year, my answer is...

Maintain our equipment and upgrade the work truck
Vacation on Vieques
Visit a buddy in San Diego
Coach and attend a lot of youth hockey games
Restore some fiberglass boats
Reconnect with family
Catch up on rest and health

and, most excitedly....

Finalize work on an exterior cleaning video library

There's plenty to do, and so I'm very excited for the next few months. For customers interested in having us perform exterior cleaning work in the springtime, please don't wait to contact us ; as of this date, we have eleven jobs on the to-do list for early springtime. It's never too early to call.

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

-Nate

The End is Near

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 18:03:18 GMT

The leaves have fallen, the temperatures are dropping, and the clock is winding down on the 2019 gutter cleaning season here on Cape Cod. Why? Because once that wet mess in your gutters freezes, it becomes very expensive to remove.

I often wonder if the folks who don't clean their gutters - or don't hire somebody to clean them - also put off other inexpensive, obvious maintenance. Do they drive around indefinitely with a Check Engine light on? Do they clean a clogged toilet, or just keep using and hoping it'll clear itself out? These are the things I wonder while driving around cleaning gutters and seeing small trees and bushes growing out of gutters around town.

"What about 'gutter guards?'" I hear that question often. To best illustrate the problems with those infernal things, I've made this video. If you're considering some sort of gutter guard for your gutters here on Cape Cod, I encourage you to check it out and save your money for funner things.

OK, off to clean more gutters. Just a couple linear miles to go. Have a Happy Thanksgiving, and be sure to tell somebody that you love them.

Log Cabin!

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 20:48:14 GMT

Recent got a call to clean something new to me here on Cape Cod... a log cabin! Right in Chatham, land of cedar-shingled homes! Seems the owner wanted it re-stained, and cleaning was step #1.

Did it, done it, not a problem. My impressions:

It cleaned up very well and very easily with hydrogen peroxide. As a bonus, most of the old stain washed right off during cleaning.
I can't imagine how many MILES of caulk there is between the logs in that house.

After that, it was back to the normal cedar, cedar, and cedar .

Gutter Season

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sun, 29 Sep 2019 17:55:42 GMT

Here comes gutter season.

Why clean gutters ?

Clean gutters enable proper drainage of water away from the building, helping to prevent wet basements and even cracked foundations.
Clean gutters help prevent expensive damage from rot and ice dams.
You may no longer notice the plants growing out of your gutters, but every visitor to your house does.

For us, it generally kicks into high gear around Halloween, and goes right through Thanksgiving. We clean all types: wood, aluminum, plastic. Tree debris from the gutters is generally tossed into the owner's back woods, but some homeowners ask us to dispose of it off their property. No problem.

The perennial question: "Do gutter guards work?"

My perennial answer: No. Here's some videos illustrating why I say that:

Gutter Guards Part 1

Musical Chairs

Sat, 07 Sep 2019 18:47:53 GMT

... and just like that, suddenly people have re-found their phones. On the Friday after Labor Day, I got so many calls by people looking for exterior cleaning that my voicemail filled up. (Can you hear me sigh?) Each day that passes, we book another week of work.

In any case, after a quiet second half of August, we're full speed ahead again. The tough part is that as a homeowner, I understand how it is to want to think things over and compare prices. Selling cleaning jobs, though, I know that if a homeowner waits two weeks to decide to hire us, they'll miss their window of opportunity to have the work done this calendar year.

Oh well. All we can do is our best. Looks like we've got some fun jobs coming up, and some more trainings of up-and-coming cleaners from off-Cape. If you're reading this and are interested in making money in the field of exterior cleaning, check out this opportunity and give me a call so we can bounce around some ideas.

The Camel's Hump

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 18:13:40 GMT

Here on Cape Cod, the exterior cleaning season is really TWO seasons:

BEFORE August
AFTER August

The weather determines how early in the year I can start exterior cleaning, and the weather determines how late the year I can continue. At first, it's a mad dash to do jobs for the "first thing" customers... as in, "I didn't call you about my deck early enough this year... so please clean my deck FIRST THING in the springtime." Then, it's a race to meet the Memorial Day and 4th-of-July deadlines. Then, it's a pigpile of customers lined up to have the project cleaned right after Labor Day. But during August, folks typically don't want me around, because they're trying to enjoy the last bit of a summer which has gone by too quickly.

So for me, August means the chance to catch up on the odds and ends which haven't gotten attention:

Finally installed the remote control switch for the Hino's Dayton 3/4 hp rinsing pump. It's sweeeeet!
Performed full service on the Pressure Pro high-volume machine, which is creeping in on 1000 hours of use since last year.
Re-stocking on sodium percarbonate (currently some good deals on Amazon ....)

Mostly though, I'm taking the chance to catch up with family....

Full Throttle!

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Wed, 07 Aug 2019 21:23:04 GMT

I've been enjoying making some time-lapsed videos of my job sites lately. If only the REAL work would go so fast! But it's proving to be a good way to communicate with customers the process of a typical job.

The patio cleanup lined above was one of the messier jobs I've done lately. Glad I had the boots and slickers on hand.

On the topic of patios: most are poorly installed, with no provisions whatsoever for proper drainage. This is true for "average" homes and high-end, multi million dollar properties. Somehow, the decision makers just don't understand that there's more to it than leveling out some ground and throwing down some pavers.

Locally, I know of a man who does it right. He won't be the cheapest, but his installations will outlive the owners. If you're in the market for a stone patio, wall, or other "hardscaping," do yourself a favor and contact David at Shep Hardscape Service s. Pay once and enjoy forever, and tell him Nate said Hi.

Job Site Safety

nate@outsidecleaners.com — Sun, 28 Jul 2019 18:21:52 GMT

For most folks in the exterior cleaning industry, "job site safety" means things like ladder safety, safety goggles, hearing protection, and respirator masks. I agree, and I do all that, but what about the less-obvious dangers?

Not every house I wash is perfectly-manicured. Some of these properties are being turned around from a neglected state: bushes growing in the gutters, rotting trimboard, and a "lawn" of overgrown grass.

I lost 5 years of my life to Lyme's disease. Yep, after coming down with it hard in 2014, I found over time that I was in the minority of Lyme's Disease cases which don't just "go away" with a simple round of antibiotics. I'll spare the details for another time and place, but the bottom line is that the best cure for Lyme's Disease is prevention . So, whenever I'm called to perform a cleaning on a rehab job in a badly overgrown yard with "textbook" havens for ticks, my first call is to my buddy John at The Yard Gard . His organic spray treatments, applied to the yard before I'm schedule to work, make the place tick-safe (really, "me-safe").

Do I recommend it? Duhhh......

New Kids on the Block

Tue, 16 Jul 2019 14:17:22 GMT

Every year, I see a new roof cleaning biz pop up here on Cape Cod. And every year, another one or two quietly disappears. Very, very few last more than a couple seasons.

If you're looking for a roof cleaner on Cape Cod, I recommend looking past the glossy ads and discount coupons and just finding a service with a proven history of happy customers. Yes I'm biased , but really... it's kind of scary what's out there.

Consider:

In 2018, the owner/operator of a roof cleaning startup (which advertised itself as the "premier" service on Cape Cod) admitted to me that he had cleaned less than 10 roofs at that time.
In 2019, a major local painting contractor plunged into the industry, only to realize they didn't know how to use the new equipment they bought (which is carried in a box truck lettered "We Now Clean Roofs!"). After politely but repeatedly declining the owner's requests to train his crew, I eventually just stopped responding to his emails.
At this writing, my own Google search of "Cape Cod Roof Cleaning" prominently produces contact info for services which still use a power washer to clean asphalt roofs. Why is that a problem? Well, the image above and those below should be a hint!

Emergency? Call 911.

Sat, 01 Jun 2019 16:52:14 GMT

I'm human, too.

I go to the gas station when the needle is near "E."

I look for my swimsuit the morning of the first nice day of summer weather.

And I shop for Halloween candy at 4pm on October 31.

So I get it: some people procrastinate. We see that in our business at this time of year, when the "planners" secured cleaning dates two or three months ago, and the "non-planners" are calling just now. They don't want to hear that we're currently booking new work for mid-July.

"But we have renters coming!" they say.

We understand. But that doesn't mean we can get there any sooner. We're not going to bump another customer from the schedule - one who planned ahead - to rush to a job for somebody who didn't plan ahead at all. It wouldn't be fair to our customers.

Care to plan ahead? We're currently booked until the second week in July, and already have jobs on the calendar for autumn 2019 and spring 2020. We want your money as badly as you want a job well done. Please contact us here to get the ball rolling.

Yes, we do samples.

Sun, 05 May 2019 19:05:29 GMT

Some home owners - especially the owners of large, high-end properties - want to know exactly how their home will look after it's all cleaned. Given the number of cleaning methods available and the differences in results between different cleaning services, we don't blame them!

When pictures and descriptions just won't cut it, we can often offer to perform a small "sample cleaning" so that everyone will know exactly how thins will look when completed. No, we can't do if for free, but for a nominal fee we can all see what a multi-thousand dollar cleaning project will look look like when completed, before it's started. Once it's done, there's no undoing it!

Equipment Suppliers to Know

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 00:18:31 GMT

I've been washing washing roofs, decks, patios, and siding here on Cape Cod since 2010. During this time, I've found some equipment and material suppliers to stay away from, and some to bookmark. In recent seasons, our top three equipment suppliers have been:

Pressure Tek

Pressure Washer Products

Pressure Washers Direct

These equipment suppliers not only offer quality products (machines, pumps, hoses, reels), but they're responsive to questions or concerns even after the sale. If you're in the power washing or housewashing business, I recommend checking them out.

And the winner is...

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 10:32:57 GMT

Back on March 1, we announced a raffle to benefit the Cape & Islands Police K-9 Relief Fund . Anyone who contributed $10 would get their name entered into a drawing to win a free deck cleaning this springtime, and all the proceeds would be donated to the Relief Fund. We also put a special page on our web page, with a countdown timer and everything.

Despite views, likes, and thumbs up, nobody (NOBODY) entered or contributed. It's been a valuable lesson for us in views, likes, and "thumbs ups."

No matter. We've just sent $250.00 over to the K-9 Relief Fund, and we encourage others to keep them in mind as well.

Lipstick on a Pig

Mon, 25 Mar 2019 23:17:55 GMT

Outside Cleaners got called to take a look at a painted cedar clapboard house which is inexplicably "exploding with mold." The owner bought the house just a couple months ago. On our way to the front door, I saw a major warning sign on the front deck: a recent stain job over rotten wood . I look around, and see several more spots just like it.

Honestly, that pretty much tells me all I need to know. This is what happened:

the house was neglected until somebody had to sell it
the Realtor told them it had to be painted or nobody would buy it
the owner found the dirt-cheapest painting contractor to do the work
the el-cheapo painting contractor slapped on a bunch of paint and stain without ANY surface prep .
it looked good just long enough for the house to sell, but the house is now a mold cocoon.

Mold, mildew, and algae is coming out from within and under the paint and stain, and it looks terrible. Unfortunately for the unwitting new homeowner, there are no simple or inexpensive fixes.

I'm sorry to say it, but I estimate that 8 out of 10 exterior painters on Cape Cod are downright bad. They're either fly-by-night contractors who won't last three seasons here, or they only stay in business because they spend an actual fortune on glossy advertising each year.

Based on almost a decade cleaning buildings and working with painters here, here's some observations:

There are NO "Good, inexpensive" painting contractors on Cape Cod. Period . The 2 out of 10 which are good WILL BE PRICEY, and for good reason.
Good painters definitely have a backlog of work, because their reputation puts them in demand. Don't call them on the first nice spring day expecting to get a painting project done by Memorial Day.
Some of the best painters we know don't even advertise. So how do you find them? Ask at the stores where the best pros buy their paint ( Sherwin-Williams , Harwich Paint and Decorating , or Snow's are a few good ones in the mid-Cape area). Don't just grab a business card off the bulletin board; talk to the store manager. Describe your project, timeline, and budget so that they can steer you towards an appropriate local pro.

Lastly, when it comes to speaking with the painter, if I were looking to have my house painted on Cape Cod, I'd ask for references from 5 or 10 years ago.

Really.

How Warm?

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 13:17:39 GMT

With a growing list of power washing, roof cleaning, and soft washing jobs to do on Cape Cod this spring and summer, we're often asked, "How warm does it need to be to work?"

Although the answer depends a bit upon the type of cleaning job in question (roofs, decks, patios, siding), a good rule-of-thumb is that the local weather forecast should be above freezing while working and warm enough to not freeze the night after cleaning. Why? A couple reasons:

Exterior cleaning uses a bunch of water, and when the job is done everything is SOAKING WET. We don't want to leave behind a dangerous ice rink!
Most cleaning chemicals perform dramatically better as temperatures increase. Attempting to clean something with the proper chemicals, finding they don't work, and relying upon rinsing pressure alone is a common "rookie mistake."

Got a house washing project in mind for your Cape Cod property? We are currently scheduling for June. Give us a call at 508-209-1972 or check out how to get a speedy quote here .

Problems with Plastic Decking

Thu, 07 Mar 2019 19:56:06 GMT

Here's the scenario: a family buys a home on Cape Cod, does zero maintenance on it for 5 or 10 years, then realizes that the mahogany deck is looking shabby. Mold, mildew, and algae is discoloring it, and some lichen is growing on the ends of the boards way over in the shade.

They call Outside Cleaners , and we come take a look. We see that the deck is well-built: properly supported, constructed with stainless hardware, proper gaps between decking boards, etc. No problem. We can clean it up for hardly more than it would take the homeowner to rent a power washer, buy some oxygen bleach , and wash it themselves.

We promptly e-mail a proposal to the homeowner, and then never hear back. Four days becomes a week. After ten days, I call the homeowner to make sure they got our proposal. Yes they did, but they're no longer interested in having it cleaned because they're going to just replace it all with plastic decking "so that they don't have to worry about it again."

...

Ahhh, where to begin? They think a plastic deck will somehow carve their Cape Cod happiness in stone. We see that mentality often, and can only shake our heads. Yes, that plastic decking will still be intact in a landfill a thousand years after we've all turned to dust, but that doesn't mean the decking will look good during it's advertised service life! We've long since lost count of the number of plastic decks we've seen which have been permanently stained by sunscreen, sap, food grease, and even water moisture ! And while we're aware of products and services which claim to fix stains on plastic and composite decking, we've yet to see one (really, not ONE) which works as advertised.

What we HAVE regularly seen is plastic deck owners with buyers remorse. We meet them with incredible regularity. Among the lamentations we've heard: They didn't realize...

1) ... how expensive the decking was.
2) ... their old deck, which was made to support stiff mahogany or pressure-treated decking, needed to be modified to properly support the flimsier plastic or composite decking. $$$
3) ... how often those plastic decking companies go out of business, only to re-form under a different name .
4) ... the company behind their warranty went bankrupt.
5) ...they'll still need to clean the plastic deck, or permanent discoloration or deterioration can occur.
6) ...when they go to expand the deck in the future, they won't be able to match the decking color with their old decking because companies change their colors with comical regularity.
7) ... how easily the plastic or composite decking stains .
8) ... how hot the composite decking gets when in the sun .

If I could tell a future deck owner something, it would be this: Maybe a plastic deck is right for you, but maybe it isn't. Everything needs some maintenance from time to time. Nothing lasts forever. Read reviews, and read the fine print. Don't believe in it when it's brand new and unproven in the real world. Don't believe everything you see in their glossy ads.

FULLY Insured?

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 16:05:17 GMT

The winter of '18-'19 hasn't been bad as far as winters go. Still, I'm pent up and a bit itching to get away from the computer. While I'm here, though, I'll share this thought:

We see this all the time: a power washing service advertises themselves as "Fully Insured." However, a quick phone call or email determines that they really only have a liability insurance policy.... zero worker's compensation, and zero commercial auto insurance.

"Worker's Compensation Insurance isn't required," they say, and in some states that's true: Massachusetts law does not require the owner of a company - even a tiny 1-man company - to be covered with "worker's comp" when working directly for a homeowner. Employees, however, must be covered.

Which brings us back to "Fully Insured." Is a business (even a 1-man show) fully insured if they're not covered with two of the three major categories of insurance? That sounds more like "minimally insured" to me.

Any legitimate, professional power washing, roof cleaning, or soft washing service must be covered with liability, workers compensation, and commercial auto insurance. That's for everyone's protection: homeowner, business owner, and employees.

All I can say is this: Outside Cleaners is fully insured with these insurances. I encourage all power washers to protect themselves from unfortunate legal entanglements by making sure that your exterior cleaning service provider is really, actually, fully insured. Homeowners: ask for certificates of insurance when getting a quote for exterior cleaning, then read the fine print to make sure the right boxes are checked and that everyone on-site is insured (even the owner). Additionally, you can go to the Massachusetts web site to look up their records of workers compensation insurance for yourself.

Peet Dryer

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 16:00:10 GMT

One of my favorite pieces of work equipment here at Outside Cleaners is something that we don't even take to our job sites: our Peet Dryer . It's a simple electric device for drying out the inside of wet gloves and boots. When I come home from power washing and my vinyl gloves and waterproof boots are soaking inside from sweat or water, I set them on this thing and they dry out overnight. No putting on cold, clammy, stink gloves and boots the next morning!

I got my Peet Dryer from Cape Fishermen's Supply in Chatham here on Cape Cod but I've also seen them on Amazon. Ocean State Job Lot often has similar things from different brand on occasions. If you're in the housewashing, power washing, or general exterior cleaning business, get one.

Or two.

Spot Cleaning?

Thu, 28 Feb 2019 21:32:41 GMT

Not so fast....

Here on Cape Cod, we're often asked if we can clean "just part" of a shingled wall. It's a fair question, because mold and algae often visibly affect just PARTS of a shingled sidewall.

A homeowner in Brewster "spot cleaned" his cedar shingled sidewall -shown above - and then called us to wash the rest of it. I took this picture to share, because I can't think of a better example of why we advise against washing just PART of a wall:

Spot cleaning would be OK if nobody cared about appearance. However, washing cedar shingles to remove mold and algae will change the appearance of those shingles, and homeowners are never happy with the non-uniform results of "spot cleaning." For that reason, no, we don't "spot clean."

If you have an exterior cleaning / power washing / soft washing project in mind, please call us at 508-209-1972 or check us out at www.OutsideCleaners.com . We'd love to help out.