By Christine Graf
It was while working full-time as a financial service representative at a local bank that Sacha Lewis took a part-time weekend job at Hogwash Cleaning Solutions, a company she now owns. The Whitehall-based business, one that specializes in residential and commercial exterior cleaning, was established by Lewis’ husband, Andrew Lewis, in 2009.
Lewis enjoyed working at Hogwash so much that she purchased the company from Andrew in 2015. Andrew has remained with the company as an employee, and the couple married in 2021.
“After I took over, I revamped everything. We are now better than we ever were, and we became an LLC in 2018,” said Lewis.
Hogwash had approximately 500 regular customers when she took ownership of the business. Since that time, Lewis said they have expanded their client list to include 4,000 individuals and businesses.
“Every year, we add more customers, and we just expanded into sandblasting. That division has brought in a lot more work for us in a different avenue.”
Hogwash performs both soft washing and power washing using EPA-certified solutions that kill algae and mold. Soft washing and power washing can be used to clean roofs, siding, concrete pool decks, gutters, and other surfaces.
The company also offers air duct and dryer cleaning services and recently expanded its log washing division.
“We wash logs, sandblast them, stain them, chink them, and do log repair,” said Lewis. “We focus primarily on log homes, but we can do wood siding as long as its hearty enough to handle an abrasive blasting material. Cedar is too soft, so for that, we would use a different form of cleaning service.”
When it comes to cleaning log homes, Lewis warns home owners to be wary of who they hire for the job.
“If you don’t know what you are doing, you can cause damage,” she said. “When we wash a log home, we use a special process and procedures, and we do get a lot of referrals for that.”
Hogwash has specialized equipment and recently invested in a new media blasting machine. The machine propels abrasive materials at high speeds against a surface to remove contaminants such as paint, rust, grease, scale and other accumulated deposits.
“It brings the surface down to bare wood so that it can be prepped and ready for new stain. Blasting is a much easier process than trying to do a stripping process with a chemical stripping agent. Our machine can also wet blast, so we can do commercial projects. We recently wet blasted all of the rebar in a parking garage in Lake George so they could repaint it.”
Although the majority of Hogwash’s customers are residential, their commercial customer base has grown in recent years. Lewis’ staff has expanded to include six seasonal full-time employees in addition to her and Andrew.
“We are a seasonal business, and we typically operate from April to November. During the winter, we can do indoor commercial media blasting,” said Lewis. “We used to do labor support for mill shutdowns, and our employees would go out of town to Maine and New Hampshire to help with mill cleanings. Sometimes they did abrasive blasting or power blasting, but because of COVID, last year and the year before were very slow in that avenue. We’re hoping that will pick up again.”
At one time, Hogwash also offered snow removal during the winter. It was discontinued due to the high cost of insurance.
When asked about her plans for the future, Lewis said she is focusing on growing the log division.
“I would like to keep expanding our log division so that we can go farther out of town with it. Right now, we’ve been working in a 4-hour radius, and I would like to do some more work out of town.”
For washing services, the company’s radius is not quite as extensive.
“We will travel as far north as Plattsburgh and as far south as Broadalbin for washing,” said Lewis, noting that her company uses a proprietary cleaning solution that is both environmentally friendly and effective. “There are other companies that just spray water, and that’s not going to give you the same results.”
Hogwash uses different ratios of ingredients based on the material that is being cleaned. For example, a different solution mix is used for vinyl siding versus cedar siding.
“And, if you have oxidation, there is a whole different solution that we used,” said Lewis. “There really is some chemistry involved to figure out the ratios.”
For those looking to hire an exterior cleaning company, Lewis advises choosing someone who has experience.
“Your home is your biggest investment, so you want to hire someone who knows what they are doing. You don’t want to hire someone just because they are the cheapest because you could end up getting damage to your home. I advise people to ask questions to see how knowledgeable they are about what they are doing. You also need to make sure that they are insured.”
For more information, visit www.hogwashcleaners.com