Keeping up with Jones’: detailing business relocates
Caleb (left) and Corbin (right) in front of their location on S. Marquette Road in Prairie du Chien. Jones’ Detailing’s first day at the location was April 14. (Photo courtesy of Caleb Jones)
Brothers take cleaning business to Marquette road in Prairie du Chien
By Steve Van Kooten
Opportunities come in many forms; they can come from years of blood, sweat and tears, or they can come out of nowhere at the just right moment. Either way, timing can be the difference between an opportunity taken or lost.
In May 2020, when the country was in the throes of the COVID-19 lockdown, Caleb Jones and his brother Corbin saw their opportunity, and the timing was right.
“We were both back home at the same time, and that’s when we started,” Caleb Jones said. “We had some extra time on our hands due to COVID, and we figured we’d make some money. So we thought, ‘What are we interested in?’ That’s what we’re going to do for the rest of our lives.”
The Jones brothers like to “wrench on stuff,” from cars to boats to motorcycles. They decided a detailing business would be a way to break into the market, especially with the lockdown measures in place.
“Everybody was isolated; there was social distancing, and we figured what better time to start a cleaning service?”
Caleb and his brother started the business in their grandmother’s garage near McGregor, Iowa. In short order, they moved to accommodate a ballooning list of jobs.
“That’s when we learned that zoning is a thing,” he said. “We had too much business for a residential area.”
They relocated to their mother’s garage in the Township of Prairie du Chien for a few weeks, then moved to a small shop stall in the city.
“It was one little stall — you could barely fit my truck into it, probably.”
In the winter of 2022, their two-man operation moved to a shared shop space behind Eddy’s Pub, and then on April 14 of this year, they relocated to their own space on the highway at 1511 S. Marquette Road.
Jones’ Detailing provides cleaning services for cars and other vehicles, including vacuuming, wet-vac and shampooing. “We blow out every crack and crevice, the vents, the cup holders, your shifter knob, your blinker stick. All that stuff.”
Additionally, they can do paint corrections for swirls, scratches and small chips.
But it’s spring, and that means their business is boats.
“We can get your boat in and do metal polish on pontoons,” said Caleb, who added that they can clean off troublesome zebra mussels and other invasive species before the boats hit the water. “That’s a big part of it: getting those aquatic hitchhikers off of there.”
