No, you don't have to be home
You don't have to be home. Every service here happens outside the house, so the work doesn't need you in it. Plenty of jobs get done while the homeowner is at work, out of town, or three states north waiting for the season to start.
The longer answer is what that actually looks like, because "you don't need to be there" is an easy thing to say and a harder thing to trust. What people want to know is what happens on their property when they're not standing in it.
Why this is the question people ask first
Two things sit underneath it. The first is the workday. Sitting home for a four hour arrival window is the part people dread more than the job itself, and a lot of exterior work gets put off for years because of it.
The second is less comfortable to say out loud. Having a stranger work an empty property is a real thing to be uneasy about, and it isn't paranoia. Stories about crews hitting the wrong address exist, and they spread because they're plausible. Wanting to know who's coming, when, and what happens if something looks off is fair. The answer is a phone number that a person actually answers, a job that's licensed and insured, and a text before and after rather than silence.
What he needs to get in and get it done
The access list is short and none of it involves the inside of the house.
- An outdoor spigot that's turned on and works. If the water is off at the main because the house sits empty, it needs to be on that day.
- Gates open, or a note about where the latch is and which one sticks.
- Cars off the driveway and away from the walls being worked on.
- Pets inside for the visit, or at least out of the section being cleaned.
- A clear path around the house, meaning trash cans, hoses and anything leaning on a wall moved out of the way.
Nobody goes in the house. No power from inside, no bathroom, no key handed to anybody. If somebody asks for indoor access for an exterior cleaning, that's a question worth asking twice.
What to do before, if you're going to be out
Five minutes the night before covers almost everything.
- Close and latch the windows and sliders. Older windows especially, since a latch that looks closed isn't always closed.
- Move what you care about off the lanai. Cushions, rugs, anything electronic, anything that shouldn't get wet or take overspray.
- Take down what's hanging on the walls being washed. Flags, wind chimes, a wreath on the front door.
- Move the car, and tell whoever else parks there.
- Run your irrigation.
That last one matters more than the rest and it's the one people skip. He dilutes the mix, which is the half that keeps a cleaner from being strong enough to hurt what it lands near. You run your own irrigation before he arrives and for a week to 10 days after, so anything that reaches the soil gets flushed back out before it can sit at the roots. If your system runs on a timer, this usually just means not turning it off that week.
What happens while you're not there
You get photos. Before and after, of the surfaces that were worked on, so you can see the condition he started with and what it looks like now. Then a text when the job is finished.
If something turns up mid job that changes the picture, a screen panel that's already torn, a soft board in the fascia, a section of siding that was damaged before anybody got there, you hear about it while it's happening, not after the fact and not never. That's the part that makes an empty house workable. Nothing gets discovered by you a week later.
The schedule helps too. Work runs 8am to 7pm Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday, so there's usually a window that isn't in the middle of your workday if you'd rather be around for part of it.
You already didn't have to be home for the quote
This is the part most people don't expect. There's no in-person estimate here at all. Nobody drives out to walk your property, look at your roof and hand you a folder. You send photos, and a real number comes back by text or over the phone.
That's the whole reason this post isn't a compromise. In a lot of businesses you take one afternoon off for someone to come look at it, then another for the actual work. Here the first one doesn't exist, and the second one is optional. How the pricing actually works from photos is written out in full if you want to see the mechanics of it.
Some people would rather be home, and that's fine
None of this is a preference for an empty house. Plenty of people want to be there, and there are good reasons for it. You get to point at the one spot that has bothered you for two years. You also get to see what low pressure on a roof cleaning actually looks like, which surprises people who were expecting a loud machine and a lot of force. And you can ask what's going on the driveway versus what's going on the walls.
Ask anything you want on the day. The business runs the same either way. Stay if you want to. You just shouldn't have to rearrange a week around it.
What being away does change
There are a few real tradeoffs and pretending otherwise would be useless.
A locked gate, a spigot that's been shut off at the main, a car nobody could move, or a dog loose in the yard can each end a visit before it starts, and with nobody home there's no fixing it on the spot. So the five minutes of notes ahead of time matter more when you're out than when you're in.
You also can't point at the thing that bothers you most while somebody is standing next to it. Put it in the text instead. "The north wall by the air conditioner" or "the strip of driveway by the mailbox" is enough to make sure it gets attention. And if there's something on the property that needs explaining, an old repair, a section of screen already torn, a plant you'd hate to lose, that's worth a sentence before the day rather than a phone call during it.
Common questions
Do I need to be home for the estimate?
No, and there isn't an in-person estimate to be home for. Photos get sent, a number comes back by text or over the phone. Nobody walks the property before the work is booked.
What if my water is shut off or my gate is locked?
Then the visit can't happen, so it's worth sorting before the day. If the house sits empty part of the year, a neighbor or whoever checks on the place can turn the water on and open the gate. Say so when you book and it gets planned around instead of discovered.
How do I know the work actually got done?
Photos before and after, and a text when it's finished. If something looked different from what the photos you sent showed, you hear that during the job rather than reading about it later.
Text a photo and pick a day
Send a couple of photos of whatever needs the work and you'll get a real number back the same way, no appointment and nobody walking your property first. Call or text (941) 257-8624, or use the contact page and say whether you plan to be home. Either answer is fine, it just changes what gets left in the text.