It’s a dirty job…

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This article was published 19/12/2022 (1202 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At Wash Method on St. Anne’s Road, you can treat your dirty vehicle to a European-style cleaning.

“Just the way (the European equipment) moves is different than any equipment in North America,” said Justin Sabourin, the company’s manager.

Sabourin and his brother Jeremy imported equipment from Germany for their “highly advanced” car wash — one with technology Winnipeg has never seen before.

“Everything is to the millimetre,” he said.

He walked down a 155-foot conveyor belt, past machine after machine meant to spray, brush or otherwise polish vehicles’ exteriors.

“We’ll definitely have some Christmas shows, and Halloween,” said Sabourin, indicating soap spouts and 40 lights that will illuminate the soap; the lights can be customized to provide seasonally appropriate colours.

He’d just walked on a 120-foot conveyor belt on the other side of Wash Method — the interior detailing side, laid out for a European-style assembly-line cleaning.

“It should be a much more consistent product,” Sabourin said there, pointing to a dial that changes the belt’s speed.

Vehicles should move a foot every four seconds; a quick clean will last roughly eight minutes, Sabourin said.

Workers take their stations on the belt’s sides. One will pull out and clean the mats, another will vacuum; over there, they’ll wipe down the dash and doorjambs.

Customers wanting fine detailing — maybe an hour’s work — will have their ride pulled into one of two bays, off the conveyor belt’s track.

There’s free coffee in the client lounge, Sabourin noted.

“I’m very, very proud of what we built,” he said. “The more you work on it, the more happy you’re going to be.”

He and his brother have chipped away at the concept, at 690 St. Anne’s Rd., for roughly five years.

“It was certainly a process,” Sabourin said.

The siblings wanted to build a car wash for semi-trucks. Sabourin comes from the trucking industry; his brother is an online marketer.

The duo began researching, but it became apparent their dream was out of reach.

“It was too expensive to get that much land, to be able to service so many trucks,” Sabourin said.

Still, the research hooked them — if they couldn’t open a truck wash, maybe they could open one for passenger vehicles.

They travelled to view car washes in Vancouver and Toronto, spoke with European car wash owners and devoured YouTube videos on the topic.

Sabourin was enthralled.

The brothers took possession of the St. Vital land around five years ago. At the time, the land was zoned for housing, he said.

The following years included community consultations, lengthy processes to get the area rezoned, and thousands of dollars spent on European equipment.

Various architects and builders helped the Sabourins map each piece of machinery to fit in the roughly 15,000-square-foot space. There’s a touchless wash area that cars go through before a second wash with brushes. Nine pieces of equipment are dedicated to wheels alone.

In one section, high pressure nozzles “contour and follow” the shape of a vehicle, spraying it with water from 35 to 50 centimetres away.

Sabourin had hoped to open Wash Method in the spring of 2021. However, the city didn’t greenlight the site’s construction until Sept. 22 of that year.

Then, last September, a Hyundai Tucson crashed into the new building. The collision shattered windows and knocked over the Hydro boxes, Sabourin said. Hydro power was only restored mid-October.

“It was shocking,” Sabourin said. “The level of damage, and seeing the car completely destroyed like that.”

The brothers needed to replace window panes within the car wash, too — the glass came from its manufacturer chemically damaged.

Sabourin wouldn’t disclose the final price tag of Wash Method but said “it’s several million.”

Wash Method quietly opened a couple weeks ago. It will have a grand opening celebration in 2023, Sabourin said.

Northern Lights Car Wash, which also brands itself as technologically advanced, opened near Ikea last year.

The business did not respond to Free Press interview requests.

Sabourin said he’s not worried about competition, given the distance between his site and Northern Lights.

Such car washes are “nothing new” globally, according to Chris McKenna, an international car wash consultant with McKenna Assets, based in the United States.

Still, bringing European car wash machinery to North America is “not common,” he said. Germany is known for its rollover equipment, where robotic systems go around the car, he noted.

Wash Method stands out by having a flat belt conveyor where vehicles’ wheels don’t turn, McKenna added.

The car wash will recycle its water, Sabourin said. It sells memberships, ranging from $30 to $79 per month, which covers unlimited car washes. Single washes start at $12.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com