You guys made my day! Here, I thought I was the only dope who bought what I call $1,000 paper weights! I'm on my second go-round with glass restoration. I got the right system, paid the right price, got the right training. Sounds terrific, no? No. Here in So. Cal.
1- most stores have a tint cover on their windows (it gets a little sunny down here), so if the jerks scratch it, they just replace it (eventually).
2- the potential client doesn't own the building, so they won't pay for it.
3- the landlord could care less what happens to the glass. AND, the most amazing (to me)
4- I live in a decent neighborhood and yet the local McDonald's, Burger King, Jack In The Box and Taco Bell (plus other fast food chains), ALL have scratched graffiti on their glass and yet even offering it for FREE (in the form of script as payment, so no cash outlay), they don't even have it done. It gets ignored and like all other graffiti, it grows to other places on the building when ignored.
Let's see what else besides what others have wasted, er, spent their hard earned money on, have I wasted.
Start with $10 K on two (really 3, but I spent $100,00 on R & D and lost it all) of those acid proof systems for marble and other calcium based stone (and please note I am in the stone restoration biz for 26 years now. You would think I would have learned).
$12 for a Jani-Jak (Cimex). It is broken and parts are no longer available! Sweet. I think I have another Cimex in the warehouse that is also broken and so old there are no repair parts for it.
$1,100 for an Oreck orbital which they promised would clean out the small holes in travertine (ha, ha - ooops, joke on me).
Another couple of grand for a machine I can't hardly describe. Essentially the motor sits on the floor and using hydraulics, the grinding head can be held against walls in showers and the like. Problem? It is still very heavy. And of course my guys refused to use it, giving excuses all day long. Another paper weight.
$??? (I can't remember) for another one of these machines that promised the same thing (am I stupid?) as the Oreck. It uses a rotating brush and vacs up the cleaning fluid. Great idea, doesn't work in my business. It is designed for VCT.
The list goes on and on. And even when they work out, like stainless steel restoration, there is so little work there that the income doesn't warrant the expenditure of time. It is strictly an add-on as long as we are there.
Same with shower glass. Yeah, we have figured it out, get stupendous results and even found a sealer that doesn't cost an arm and a leg (and works great), but again, except as an occasional add-on, it is more useful as something to put on a business card than to try to earn enough money to make it worthwhile.
Hey, I even bought a used Carpet Jenny (for those of you old enough to know what that was back in 1986) to extract slop from marble floors that we grind. Before I could use it on stone, I got a chance to do a commercial carpet job with it. Did a good enough job. BUT, it taught me that cleaning carpet is HARD, HARD WORK. That was my one and only carpet job in 26 years. Now Tom Meyer does my carpets and whatever it costs, it is cheaper than I could/would do it.
I have the highest respect for you guys who bust your butts doing what you do. Not me, brother.
But again, I don't feel as badly knowing that guys smarter than I am have tried and failed at lots of associated opportunities.
