RV pricing?

Greg Nichols

Greg Nichols

New member
Whom here has lots of experience detailing Rv's? What is a starting rate for:

wash/wax
wash/polish/wax

do you charge by the square foot, or Linear foot?

I just cannot find ample info on this subject.

Cheers,
GREG
 
Greg, I have reached the conclusion that you cannot charge what you need to charge to do any rv, the market-generally-won't support compensation for the time needed for a true detail.
For instance, we have a 24' motorhome-think of your typical box type ambulance or mini-school bus-gel coat fiberglass. It takes me a full two days to wash, debug:detar, clay some sections, rewash, polish some sections, apply Klasse AIO and SG and rain x the windshield. On the roof alone I can spend a half day, and this is a fiberglass roof, not epdm AND I use a-frame staging with laminated planking to speed things up. AND our coach is only two years old with the glass being in like new condition.

The typical motorhome would be a black hole for time, material and chemicals there are far too many variables (awnings and rubber roofs alone could eat of an incredible amount of supplies and time to clean of mold, stains and re treat) -can't see how anyone can make even minimum wage doing these things.

Forgot, Add in the changes to your insurance, including workmans comp (remember you'll be spending alot of time off the ground) and the outlook should begin to become obvious.

Remember to factor in the cost of going to the chiropractor and pain meds!
 
Thanks for the reply tom.

I've done some small Rvs, but got a call to wash and wax a 37' motor coach. The guy asked how much per foot. I told him that it would be about 6-10$/ft depending on the condition. He told me I was the highest in the state at 10$. I really tried to clarify his expectations. It sounds like just a true wash and wax. I am just having a hard time figuring how to make money on this.

Anything helps.

Cheers,
GREG
 
Greg Nichols said:
Thanks for the reply tom.

I've done some small Rvs, but got a call to wash and wax a 37' motor coach. The guy asked how much per foot. I told him that it would be about 6-10$/ft depending on the condition. He told me I was the highest in the state at 10$. I really tried to clarify his expectations. It sounds like just a true wash and wax. I am just having a hard time figuring how to make money on this.

Anything helps.

Cheers,
GREG
Click to expand...

I don't see how this quote would be different than any other vehicle. Sure, you need to gauge by condition and size, but your hourly rate should dictate your quote, plus a little extra to cover additional expenses.

At $10/ft x 37 feet, you're at $370. Divide that by your hourly rate. Can you complete the job in that time frame? If not, adjust accordingly.

What if you hired a helper at $10-12 an hour, would that make the job financially feasible?

Frankly, if someone else is willing to do the job for $225, I say let them have it. But if you feel you can make a profit at that price, go for it.
 
Very interesting thread, it would be very nice to here what some RV guys charge. I would imagine, much like boat detailing, that it can be a very profitable business if done correctly.
 
Greg, do you work off ladders, staging?

According to the info posted at the site that Bret referenced your pricing is low to begin with and the reaction the customer gave you is usually the comments I have heard, people seem to think that getting a large motorhome washed and waxed is a $200 job at most.

At $8.00 a foot, you'd be looking at $296, I would plan on about $75 bucks for supplies, chemicals with a couple left over for wear and tear on the machine (s) so the job is down to $221 or so. I guess if you are real fast and set up well a decent job could be done in about 10 hours-but a case of beer says after you finish you are done for at least a week.

I guess if you are slow give it a try but I would not set a single toe on the roof-if you go through plan on at least 10 large!
 
Thanks for the replies.

I was thinking I could do the job in 5-7 hours. While charging 7/ft give me almost 260..........divide by 6hrs.........43/hr. That is my going rate for doing boats too.

The real debate is how many hours typically does it take to do a linear foot, with 11' sides? I figured there is 800sqft of surface area!!! That is like polishing a tennis court.

when I checked around with other local Rv detailers they start at 6/ft, but I DOUBT when they get on site its more like 8/ft for a wash and wax, brightwork seems to be extra with some.


keep the info coming.......
I did read that link, but failed to notice how long it might take to wash/wax per linear foot.

Cheers,
GREG
 
Greg, how about sharing your procedure/products with gelcoat-what would you do if you wanted to go a little over the top on an rv?
 
I'm no expert on Rv detailing, hence the questions. I've done some smaller ones and I break out the foam cannon, lay down some foam, get a soft brush on a handle, and wash away. I follow up by letting it air dry, out of the sun, and spread the wax/sealant via a PC doing a large section, then wipe off......repeat. If I have to polish I use Megs or 3M polishes needed for the job.

Cheers,
GREG
 
Greg Nichols said:
Whom here has lots of experience detailing Rv's? What is a starting rate for:

wash/wax
wash/polish/wax

do you charge by the square foot, or Linear foot?

I just cannot find ample info on this subject.

Cheers,
GREG
Click to expand...

Back in the day my rates for RV's(heavy equipment) started at $10 per linear foot. That included a basic decon wash and wax. It usually went up in $5 increments for interiors and multi-step polishings. Any time we did them, I'd put as many people on it as possible to knock it out fast.
 
Greg,
I don't know If I can help with your question I'm not a pro. at RV cleaning, waxing for a living, but having been an RV for the last 12 years, and having helped many of my fellow RV'er friends maintain their rig's all these years, including my own 34' 5th wheel (gel-coat), maybe these points might help.

1. Today motorhomes are clear coat paint. A friend and I cleaned, polished, sealed his 40' motorhome ($350,000 rig) in 8 hrs. (1120 sq ft of surface) Now keep in mind we do this every 6 months, so it was in good shape.

2. When you quote 6-10 bucks and hr for your effort, the question of what condition is it in IS A MUST!! ask any pro detailer who does cars for a living and he will take one glance at a car and knows what the condition is and what he's about to get into and most important, what it should cost.

3. Now, Trailers, 5th wheels. Gel Coat is a totally different anminal. Owing a gel coat 5th wheel, I know what it takes to keep it up like new. The cleaning products are different, the cleaning processing it close to paint, but with slight differences. Again, here's where the real question of what condition is the rig in the most important. If heavy oxidation, your in for a long 2 days, if light, then you could get by with a one day effort.

I hope this helps a little. Cleaned a lot of this puppies and know about just what it takes.

For your info. here in Tucson area, the local company's and local detailer's charge:

34 foot 5th wheel (light oxidation) $540!! ($16 a foot)
40 foot motorhome (light oxidation) includes roof cleaning (fiberglass)
$640

Hope this give's you some Idea what you getting into. Remember, you cleaning the surface of a small house!!!!
 
Greg, its starting to look like the going rate here is $20-$50 per foot, the higher end includes the rubber roof prep and treatment, the lower does not.
The roof alone can go for $5.00 per foot.
If you or Tucon could list the chemicals and pads that you use it would be helpful, both gel coat and painted glass.

Doing the large coaches has got to be one tough way to make a buck. At least with some boats and cars you are working on the ground and a fair amount of the time the machine is on flat horizontal surfaces. With the smaller rv's like mine, you can reach to 90% of the height from the ground so little time is spent on a ladder. But man, when you get to the big coaches....

Also there is the personality factor. The short period of time I was interacting with the private/business jet community was quite enough, singulary the most disgusting group of 'people' I have ever met in my entire life-if you were not using jp you were runway debris plain and simple-its got to be the same with the mega dollar motor coaches-no thanks.
 
Tom,
I have been using GEL-COAT Labs "Bow to Stern Vessel Care". I know, boat name, but Gel coat is Gel coat. Go under PAC's RV tab and they go through the whole process of explaning how to use their products. I have had great success with the heavy compounding, Polishing II, and the Micro-polish & sealant products.

As far as big rig's, any of the car products do great. Menzerna, black-fire are my favorites. Your right about the high-end rig's and their owners, big pane in the tosh and want everything for nothing.
 
Thanks Tucson, I am trying to get some info about the Gel Coat Lab products, finally located the Company; ;its Four Star Products in Florida.
Problem is that it is nearly a complete unknown, well in the Northeast anyway.
During lunch I called about eight marina's/boatyards and no one had heard of this product.

The Four Star Prouduct website doesn't contain any info as to why someone should try their product, sort of wierd-not even any list of oem's that use or recommend it; even other forums are devoid of any input about Gel Coat Labs. Most posts on boats/rv's will reference the Meguirs prouducts but as I read things they are marketing a wax and I want to stay with a synthetic sealant.

If you could post what prouducts you used before switching, and how they compare to Gel Coat Labs, it would be of great interest to me and probably to many others also.

The Klasse twins have worked well for me on our rv-and of course the product is recommened for gel coat, but I am always interested in something that may be 'better'

Thank you again.
 
Tom,

I'm a little confused. www.Properautocare.com is the web-site that I've been using for a long time. They carry alot of the most detail products on the market today. This form was started by them and I assumed that everyone knew of the web-site. Now mind you, I don't endorse that they have all the right products, but I've been very pleased by the results of Gel-coat Labs products and many of the Auto detail products as well. Menzerna, and Black fire are my favorites. Check them out and get back with me.....
 
Yes, a clarification is in order; first to keep the subject on Greg's topic-pricing. He and yourself are using the Gel Coat Labs product, pricing would be affected if this line is faster, slower, no change in time, or 'better' with regard to the end result. Of course detail pricing would also be affected by the cost of the Gel Coat Labs product relative to what is/was being used .

I sought out the Four Star Proudcts web site, the maker of Gel Coat Labs products, in the hopes of finding comparative reasons why someone should switch to Gel Coat from say, Klasse and this information is not available which I find odd-especially when the product is a virtual unknown.

Nothing significant is available, in fact the only substantive claim is contained on the CMA site, that Gel Coat Labs products have 5 times the solids of others, but what does this mean? Does the product last five times longer, does it take five times longer to apply or does it apply in one fifth the time, how about application with machine, types of machine, can you carry it to metal sections of the rv, does it stain rubber-seals, does it affect decals.............

Granted the Klasse people didn't answer any of this prior to my trying AIO and SG on filberglass but Klasse has name recognition-see my point?

It appears that Four Star Products remains an unknown through design and in this economy you have to admit that is one hell of a marketing plan.
 
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