I was given a citation for advertising Pressure Washing

Residential
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Yesterday, 2 representatives from the Contractor State License Board gave me a citation ($700 minimum) for having “Pressure Washing” written on the side of my truck. They asked me if I had a Contractor’s License. I told them I did not. They then said it was illegal to advertise Pressure Washing without having the Contractor’s license.

They said I could put “Not a Licensed Contractor” on the sides of my truck. Or, I could get a State Contractor’s license. Or, I could remove “Pressure Washing” from all advertising.

Have you guys run into this before?

Have any of you taken the exam to become Contractors doing “water and sand blasting”? If so, how difficult and expensive was it to go through the process?

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That’s nuts. How do they feel about “power washing”? Supposedly, that one word makes a difference for some insurance carriers. So maybe it would make a difference here, too.

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I like “power washing” better than “slangin the hose.”

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It’s just a way to drum up state funding to employ the guy writing citations…

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I just wanted to bump this conversation. That’s crazy, and I hope it doesn’t become a trend.

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Why?

If your not licensed, insured and carry the proper paper work you probably shouldn’t be doing the job. Jmo!

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I wasn’t aware that you were required to carry a contractors license to pressure wash. As far as I know its unregulated for the most part except for reclamation. What do you know about it?

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I’m thinking it’s a state by state requirement.

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Let me put it this way, if you do your due diligence and research the service you’ll be offering you won’t run into things like this.

I just feel more people should due a little more diggng to understanding what is required of them.

It sucks that the original poster got fined, it hurts bad.

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Do you offer pressure washing? Its not like I’m uneducated, I carry insurance. If someone posted something like this about window cleaning I’d think you surprised too. If you don’t have any useful info to offer I don’t understand why you would say that.

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I’m in California. From what I can tell you only need to be a contracter if your “water blasting.” Not pressure/ power washing.

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The guys who issued the citation said that a non-contractor could not advertise that he did pressure washing. I guess they equate “water/sand blasting” as pressure washing.

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What state are you in? I’m going to call osha tomorrow and see what they have to say.

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it was a perfectly reasonable post. i too am sorry the op got fined but it points out to all of us that it is our responsibility to investigate thoroughly enough to find ALL the requirements of operating our businesses.

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Sorry if you took what I said like it was directed at you it wasn’t, it was meant as a generalization.

I believe it was useful information as a business owner and for future business owners that read this thread.

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Thanks @cactus27 you understood what my point was. I hope future readers do to.

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I’m in California

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Washington State requiers the “speciality contractor licenses” and a Bond which protects the State.

No test. Go to government office, get really bored waiting, give them money and you are legal.

When advertising you are required to provide the contractors licensee number. Heard of 20k fines

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It’s from 2000 so laws may have changed, but I would check into this a bit if I were in your place.

From here: Power Washing License????? | Power Wash Network
I lifted this :

I cannot speak for NY but here in California there is a key word that seperates having to have a contractors license and not having one.

The word is water BLASTING, if you do pressure washing no license required other then city business licenses.

Now to make it a bit more touchy, the PSI and GPM also come into play here, I think 10,000 PSI and 8 GPM or above becomes Blasting rather then pressure washing.

Also if doing blasting we need to have 5 years experience with proof from other contractors we have worked for.

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This is what I found. Pretty much what DaveYogi said. You need a specialty contractors licence.

Kind of unrelated but I figured some people might be interested. Its a similar license for construction clean up.

As far as I can tell most companies in my area don’t have contractors licenses, or dont advertise that they do. As long as they’re not to hard to get this could be beneficial.

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