Winter Maintenance
Written by Michael HinderliterAs winter approaches for much of the country power washing contractors tend to slow down and in some places shut down all together. Cold weather creeps in and many of the specialty services that you or your company normally offer simply don’t sell in the cold winter months. So, what are some ways you may look to get through that dip in revenue or in some cases how do you survive? My suggestion is look at kitchen exhaust cleaning aka hood cleaning. This may be a scary idea for some as it does differ greatly from a house wash, concrete cleaning or window cleaning, but this specialty can be really lucrative and it doesn’t take a break for the winter.
According to NFPA 96 (National Fire Protection Association), which for much of US and Canada is the standard fire code, all systems must be inspected and cleaned by a trained, qualified and certified person. This means with the right training and demonstration of the proper codes and procedures you can use your power washing equipment to add this in demand service. Not only is it a residual service that happens on varying frequencies, it is required by law. This service is not cosmetic in nature, but an essential part of fire protection for the restaurants in your community.
The Phil Ackland Training and Certification course that I teach each month is designed to provide the correct training and understanding of this service. It is an intense five-day course that goes over in great detail the fire codes, the expectations the cleaning company has on them, safety, environment concerns, in depth look at the systems themselves as well as the components that make up an exhaust system. The combination of hands on training combined with classroom learning provide the students multiple ways to learn and retain what is being taught. At the end of the week an exam is given to make sure all the information learned during the five-day course has been understood and retained.
