The 221 in Pro221 Pressure Washing is a chapter and verse. Owner Mark Girdwood named the Valrico company for Proverbs 22:1, which he sums up as a good name being better than riches and gold. “That’s the standard that I like to live by,” he says.
He knows the name takes some explaining. “It’s a weird name, I know,” he says. Ask him where his work ethic comes from, though, and the verse is where he starts.
Girdwood started Pro221 in 2021, after he realized he was missing his kids growing up. Since then, he says, he has “just been spraying water.”
The water goes on differently depending on the surface. Roofs and house exteriors get a soft wash, a low-pressure application of cleaning solution that kills algae and mildew instead of blasting at shingles, stucco or siding. The company’s roof page explains that the black streaks on so many Florida roofs are usually an algae, Gloeocapsa magma, and that the humid climate brings it back every year or two. Concrete driveways take higher pressure. Pavers are cleaned first and then sealed. The jobs run across Hillsborough County, from Riverview and FishHawk out to Plant City and Thonotosassa.
Pavers are where the fussy work shows. After one homeowner removed a hot tub, the pavers underneath turned out never to have been sealed. Girdwood washed the pool deck and screen enclosure and sealed the bare patch to match the rest, and the homeowner later wrote that the deck looked “perfect.” In his reply, Girdwood wrote that matching the existing sealer so everything blends is always the goal.
Commercial properties are a growing part of the work. When he started, Girdwood says, he had no idea how to get a foot in the door with commercial customers. The longer he has been at it, the more of that work he has picked up, and it is the side of the business he would most like to be known for. Homes are still a regular part of the schedule.
He carries an insurance policy with a $2 million aggregate, so a homeowner’s property or a commercial building is covered if anything happens. He says he has never had to use it, knock on wood. He gives every customer a scheduled arrival window and says he has been on time for every job.
Girdwood says the main thing a customer gets is the owner himself on the property. He believes he puts “more heart and soul and care into every property” than an employee working for a paycheck would. As he puts it: “You’re going to get the most qualified guy on the team, because obviously I’m the only guy.”