Contractor Stories

Creating a business of hardscape maintenance
Pat's trailer is set up so crews don't have to take the washer out of the trailer. "We pull up in front of the house, pull 300' or 400' of hose out. Clean everything in the backyard, reel the hose back in by pressing a button on the electronic reels, seal it and be on to the next job.

The system will put down up to 9 gallons of water per minute when operating 2 surface cleaners. Since residential water service only delivers 4 to 5 gallons per minute, Pat's trailer includes a 350 gallon holding tank. A full tank weighs 2,919 lbs, so they travel with it mostly empty and fill up at each stop. It takes over an hour to fill.



Creating a business of hardscape maintenance
By Tom Hatlen

Profile
MLPS, Inc.
Collingswood, NJ
Patrick A. McCrindle, Co-owner
Paul Lunney, Co-owner

Services (% of sales)
65% hardscape installation
26% hardscape restoration, cleaning & sealing
9% non-hardscape pressure washing

Customer base
75% residential
25% commercial and municipal

Employees
6
With billions of square feet of pavers installed and only a fraction of them sealed, the potential market for paver maintenance is huge. 1/3 of Pat McCrindle's employees work on his highly profitable paver restoration, cleaning and sealing crew.

At least 7 billion sq ft of pavers have been installed in the U.S. since just 1998. But only a small fraction of installations (under 5%) are sealed.

"So the potential market for cleaning and sealing is huge," says Pat McCrindle. "After 30 years of installing pavers, I have 7,000 or 8,000 names of past clients in my computer that generate a great lead source for me. I send out letters saying that, 'McCrindle Paving Systems has a new service available to protect your investment.'"

Even so, he says only 40% of his hardscape maintenance work (paver installation repairs, cleaning and sealing) comes from past clients. 60% comes from new clients. "I go to large landscape contractors and other paver contractors, and subcontract work for them. I'll give them 20¢ per sq ft for whatever I clean and seal. They own the client, but I'll service and maintain the installation for them."

All in all, Pat's efforts create enough work to keep his 2-man paver restoration, cleaning and sealing/sand stabilization crew working full time. He says the margins for this work can be extremely high (unless you work in Florida where they charge 1/3 or less of what they can charge in New Jersey).

"I've been doing maintenance now for about 6 years. It's been a great natural progression for me. Cleaning and sealing is a lot less physically demanding than installing pavers. There's no lifting or bending over. I'm still in shape, but I'm 52 years old. Right now I'd rather clean and seal a paver than lay it."

There's a market for it
Pat began researching paver maintenance 7 or 8 years ago when a number of past clients started asking him if he could clean their pavers. He found there was definitely a market for it.

Pat McCrindle applying sealer.
Pat McCrindle applying sealer.

"With the economy, people aren't as prone to spend $90,000 on a driveway like they did back in the 1990s. Instead, we go to people who have that $90,000 driveway and tell them, 'I can make it look like the day it was installed.'"

To learn the business, Pat attended a cleaning/sealing certification program through one of his suppliers. He says nearly all the manufacturers offer training now. He also took pressure washing seminars thru a distributor.

Pat printed a tri-fold brochure with client testimonials, project photos, and photos of his equipment. "You look at these before-and-after photographs of anything from clay brick to travertine to pavers, and you see a big difference. It's pretty much a no brainer to call us."

He says it's also a no-brainer for other paver installers to send him work. For example, he does cleaning and sealing for a larger contractor that refers him 2,000 to 3,000 sq ft a week. "At 20¢ a sq ft, that's $400 to $600 of income he puts in his pocket. And all he does is make a phone call."

Pat offers a 2-year service contract that produces ongoing paver maintenance work for his company. "We go in and repair it, clean it and seal it, and any time during that 2 years if they're not happy with it we'll go back and redo it for free. After 2 years we go back and we do another application for 25% to 30% less than our initial cleaning and sealing because we don't have that heavy cleaning like you do the first time."

The goal is to continue returning to clean and seal every 2 years after that.

Before and after the surface cleaner.
Before and after the surface cleaner.

Restore installations first
Pat's paver maintenance service starts with paver restoration. He won't seal an installation until he is confident of the integrity of the interlocking paver system. This helps ensure clients stay 100% happy with his work.

Restoration involves repairing anything that needs it. Typically that means raising low spots and replacing failed troweled-concrete edging which was the standard 15 years ago. Pat says today's edge restraints are far superior. Geo-textiles that prevent sand loss/paver sinkage are another difference-maker in recent years.

"On a 1,000 sq ft driveway we may have 45' of concrete edge that failed and needs replacing with PVC edge restraint, and 250 sq ft of pavers that need to be raised. There are low spots where the garage floor meets the pavers. So we have to take out 1' or 2' of pavers there, put in 3' of woven geo-textile to eliminate migration of fines under the concrete slab, and add sand."

Worst case scenario: The original installer didn't know what he was doing and the entire installation needs to be redone. Pat's crews do repairs following ICPI best practices and standards, and this gives his clients confidence in their work.

Cleaning fast and efficiently
With the installation repaired, it's time to clean. 6 years ago Pat started out with an investment of less than $5,000 in equipment: a 4,000 psi cold water pressure washer, 200 ft of hose, a surface cleaner, and some spray wands and tips. He thinks that's still a good level for someone just getting their feet wet in the business.

Today Pat runs top-of-the-line equipment ($30,000 worth of it) that allows him to do a fast and thorough job of cleaning.

"My equipment paid for itself in one season. It's set up to totally self-contain. You could actually go and do an installation with this trailer; then clean it and seal it all out of the same trailer."

Equipment/tool list
  • 7,500 GVW 16' customized dual-axle enclosed trailer with sand compartment to re-fill joints.
  • 4,000 psi pressure washer that heats water to 300 run by 21 hp diesel engine.
  • 350 gal water tank.
  • 2 electric reels each holding 400' of garden hose.
  • 38" and 19" surface cleaners.
  • Repair tools including extractors, alignment bars, mallets, plate tampers, wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes and blowers.
  • Spray pumps to apply sealer.

Sealed surface
Sealed surface

2-man crew efficiency
Pat's pressure washer alone costs about $7,500 because he wanted it big enough to run 2 sprayers or surface cleaners at the same time all day long. He's found a crew of 2 operates more efficiently for his work. His crew typically repairs, cleans and seals 2 or 3 residential jobs in the 500 to 1,000 sq ft range daily. A 2,500 sq ft job might take all day.

Pat says there's always something for both crew members to do. "They're setting up, mixing the product, fueling up equipment, starting equipment, pulling the hoses out. If you have 300' of hose out, it makes a big difference having a guy tending to the hose while you're surface cleaning a 2,000 sq ft pool deck. They're very efficient, and they're less likely to miss something.

"The equipment gives me the competitive advantage. There's very few companies in the region that do it the way I do it."

Cleaning & sealing
Pat says there's enough to learn in cleaning and sealing that it takes employees 2 or 3 months of doing it every day to become proficient in the job. Cleaning with 300 heat makes things easier for crews because it allows them to remove existing sand stabilizer or old sealers without using a stripper. It also does a better job of overall cleaning.

Removing recently applied sealers
If a sealer has been applied within 2 years things get more dicey. Different sealers require different strippers, and you really can't tell what was applied by looking at it. If the homeowner doesn't know, you'll have to do some test spots until you find something that works. Some strippers require careful controls and cleanup.

Surface cleaner in action.
Surface cleaner in action.

Fixing poorly applied sand stabilizer
Pat says fixing improperly applied sand stabilizer is also part of his maintenance work. "A lot of guys flood the joints and end up with a white haze. So we get calls to clean it off. It doesn't matter whether you're installing poly sand or liquid sealer, you have to do it right and you have to take your time."

Removing efflorescence
Efflorescence must be removed before applying a sealer. Pat recommends using a product designed just for this purpose such as Vana Trol 600. "Some guys use things like muriatic acid which scorch and etch the pavers. Other guys seal it with the efflorescence on and get a white haze. It doesn't look good and their client calls us."

Sealing
Pat uses both solvent-based and water-based sealers depending on the application and the look the client wants. He says a lot of contractors do a poor job of sealing because they don't understand the capabilities of their sealer.

"For example, a typical sealer I use is designed for a surface that has less than 5% absorbency rate, the ASTM standard for a paver. Clay brick has 14% absorption so it needs 8% to 10% more sealer. For tumbled pavers, I'd probably use 35% more sealer because the wider joints absorb more sealer. All pavements have different absorbency rates, and you have to modify your application rate accordingly."

A world of work beyond pavers
It's important to note that once you have the cleaning equipment and expertise, you're not tied to just cleaning pavers. About 1/4 of Pat's maintenance work is non-paver-related pressure washing. He says, "Pressure washing is a huge industry. I can go to municipalities where I'll actually wash the whole downtown. I have a project now that's about 50 storefronts and sidewalks, both sides of the street for 10 city blocks.

"At a house where I'm cleaning and sealing pavers, I'll wash the entire house and the roof. With my equipment I have a 70' reach from the ground. I don't get on a ladder.

"In a neighborhood I'll drop off 50 or 60 brochures and a business card, and we might get 8 or 10 phone calls. It's a great business that fits in nicely with what we do."

Pat McCrindle also teaches ICPI Level 1 and 2 certification classes.
Pat McCrindle also teaches ICPI Level 1 and 2 certification classes.

Digital Edition
April/May 2024