Wood thought he had a solution, and he took his idea to brothers Perry and Nick Benson of Benson Enterprises Inc. on Clinton Highway to see if it would work.

Nick Benson said he and his brother "custom-build stuff that people need."

Preceded in the pressure-washing industry by their father, Frank Benson, who perfected the Jet-A-Way trailer unit in the 1970s that catered to the coal mining industries of Kentucky and Virginia, the Benson brothers have equipped bucket trucks and tractor-trailer beds with high-pressure washers.

For Volunteer Mechanical, the Bensons assembled a Kohler 12-horsepower engine, 300-gallon water tank with 30-gallon chemical tank and attached it to a trailer. The sprayer itself is equipped with an adjustable nozzle and has 300 feet of line.

Using biodegradable chemicals, Wood and his crew - Randy Witt and Mike Smith - are now "test-spraying" the pressure washer before they begin to market Wood's invention.

He hopes to formalize the list of accessories needed to provide the washer in a complete package - gloves, a faucet wrench and so forth - to patent it, and to sell it to other companies.

"We have to work it down to an art," Wood said. "We don't want to sell a product until it's going to fly. Every good service company should have one of these to keep up with the times."

Smith said the pressure washer's power takes some getting used to.

"It's got a kick to it," he said.

When the pressure washer hits its target, pigeons' feathers - and sometimes their nests - are the first to go, Smith said.

But Witt said he doesn't mind when the feathers fly. He said it's better than facing the snakes that sometimes greet them when they service ground units.

Business writer Michael Flannagan may be reached at 865-342-6317.