The HouseWash Company Ltd

General information

In November 1997 we (Mark & Leonie) decided to start a business of our own. Mark had worked for the previous 10 years in the computer industry and was off work recuperating from a broken leg from playing rugby whilst I (Leonie) was busy bringing up our two children (now four).

Using our last $700 to buy a rusty Datsun Ute, we loaned money off Mark's dad and purchased other much needed equipment.

We initially named our business "The HouseWash Company" and focused on the residential market, wishing to become known as THE House Wash specialists. We then went forth to conquer the world of Exterior Washing!

Mark hobbled around and cleaned all the houses while I handled the paper work and client contact.

As we grew and hired Technicians, we devised methods of providing consistent, high quality, cleaning services (apart from hiring the best people we could afford and training them up with our methods).

We randomly surveyed our clients and asked them to gauge the job we had completed for them. The Technicians were rewarded on the results of these surveys. Needless to say our Technicians were/are very interested to make sure our clients were indeed delighted!

Our "one man band" business started operating out of a single garage below our family home in Massey without heating or seating in 1997. We moved home as the family grew and eventually moved the business to rented offices in 2009 using a 12 metre shipping container for maintenance.

We finally moved into our own factory and offices in June 2015. We were pretty excited for our business to finally have a "real" base of operation. Mark has always stated we didn't have a real business until we purchased our own offices and factory!

We have a full time mechanical engineer who builds and modifys the water blast equipment necessary for the work along with maintaining our fleet of 13 property wash vehicles.

A large part of our growth has come from referral work, i.e. clients who refer us to their friends, neighbours and work colleagues. In some streets we are cleaning every third house due to this word of mouth endorsement. Exterior Body Corporate Apartment cleaning grew after the first 5 years with Exterior Commercial Building Cleaning kicking in after about 10 years in operation.

Twenty years, and over fifty thousand property cleans later with a multi million dollar annual turnover our business has grown to 19 staff with Technicians covering all of greater Auckland.

In 2014 after prolonged debate we decided on a name change from "The HouseWash Company Ltd" to "The House & Building Wash Company Ltd" so that prospective clients understood we handle more than just House Washing. All else in the business remains the same.



Our business is simple and so are our rules.

OUR RULES:
Aim to have every client for life. Repeat business is our life blood. When our clients move property we want them to take us with them.
Specalise and be the best at what we do, which is Exterior Property Washing!
Only hire employees (NOT contractors) train them well and pay incentives for high quality work.

Our guarantee is unique "If you are not completely delighted with our cleaning service we will pay for a competitor of your choice to re-clean it!

Although still a small family business we are proud to announce we have grown to become the largest Specialist Property Wash Company in Auckland! We could not have done this without the support of our staff and clients who are our most valuable assets.