Where to detail?

01WJLimited

01WJLimited

OTC Home Detailer
The only place I can think of is my own driveway. I have no waiting facilities for anyone who comes... should I tell them to drop it off and have a ride? Or let them just sit there for 1-5 hours... Anyone who does detailing on the side (Not a business), can you help me out?
 
I will either go to their house with the agreement that I can use their water and power or have them bring their cars to my house and I'll drive them home and pick them up when it's ready. I'm not at the point where I have the time or the money to invest in a full mobile system, so that agreement helps with their convenience. It's worked thus far.
 
I have three options for detailing and I am pretty much using just two of them all the time now. The one I never use is taking their car to a coin op and borrowing a broken bay to do a bucket wash in. I had a deal with a guy who owned a coin-op wash and he let me do that at his place when I needed to.

Option two is to do it at their house. Providing they have water, power, and a garage I can pull the car into so I don't have to work in the sun of course. If they don't have all three of those things then we move on to option three.

Option three has two parts. They need to bring the car to my house and either sit around watching me do their car, or they can leave it with me and come back later. I actually prefer them to just leave it with me and come back later. My favorite is when they can leave it with me on Friday night and pick it up Saturday morning. Then I have all night to work on it without needing to get up in the morning. Lately this has become a fairly common option people are taking. Personally I am pleased that they trust me enough to do that, but considering that they know where I live, I think it would be foolish of me to do anything sneaky. ;)

I have also done the rare on site detail at an office place. I still need the power, water, and shade, but if you are just washing and you aren't really doing any waxing or polishing then it works otu fairly well. I'm a detailer and not a car washer though, so I don't do that anymore.
 
Hi I would think twice about doing cars in your driveway depending on where you live. I had a problem with neighbors complaining first to me then to the police who told me in a nice way that I live in a residential area and I was not allowed to run any type of business on my driveway. i would definetly go to the custs. house and do it there using the cust. water and electric I have a van set up with water tanks, pressurewasher and a generator and if I go to a cust. house I use my water but thier elect. and no one minds most woul even let me refill my tank if I ask though that has only happened on rare occasions.
 
karwaxer said:
Hi I would think twice about doing cars in your driveway depending on where you live. I had a problem with neighbors complaining first to me then to the police who told me in a nice way that I live in a residential area and I was not allowed to run any type of business on my driveway. i would definetly go to the custs. house and do it there using the cust. water and electric I have a van set up with water tanks, pressurewasher and a generator and if I go to a cust. house I use my water but thier elect. and no one minds most woul even let me refill my tank if I ask though that has only happened on rare occasions.
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I guess it just depends on where you live. My neighbors are always stopping by while I'm detailing to see what new trainwreck I have to work with. They are always interested to see if I can get a good turnaround on them too. I guess my neighbors are just really friendly. I even keep my garage door open(for more light and fresh air) with my stereo on at a pretty decent level and I haven't had one complaint yet. I could understand how that would anger some people though.
 
I either have them drop the car off and them have a ride or I will give them a ride back home and pick them up when I'm done.

OR, if they're at a location where I'm comfortable leaving my truck parked, I offer to pick their vehicle up and drop it back off at their home or office. I have a lot of people who use this option at larger office buildings. When I do leave my truck sitting someplace like that, I always put signs in the windows with my contact information and etc. -- I figure it's great advertising to leave my spotless truck somewhere that it will be noticed. :D
 
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