Atlantic Power Washing

Right back at ya bro...HAPPY NEW YEAR!:D

Whatever you are comfortable with, that is all that matters, but I have never had a problem with the throttle except for when I was running my 12 volt burner, now I’m running propane so the charge is not as big a deal. As for down sizing the tip, I know this will reduce the flow but you will be putting out the maximum pressure that your pump will allow. I want to reduce both flow and pressure. If I use a # 4 tip with my pump (8.5 GPM) I will get about 4 GPM at 3600psi..the extra flow goes into bypass. Happy New Years to all.

One tough pressure...... If you are running an 8 gpm pump and plan on cleaning decks, then you need to cut back on the gpm and the pressure as well, the only way I know of doing this is to cut back on the throttle….At this point you are not running the burner anyways and the charging system should not be affected by throttling back to ¾ throttle.....How would you add a valve to bypass extra water flow?

Sounds good......I wish I knew this trick about 20 years ago. I used to get tickets about every other month when I was a teen but haven’t had one in the last 8 years or so.....my daughter’s driving now but no tickets yet thank God. The 13 year old boy is the one that scars me, “ drive faster Dad” “ just go thru it” and he wants a 65 mustang with a beefed up 289...

Impractical...

I would try using painted aluminum.

It depends on what type a cleaning you’re doing. If you’re cleaning kitchen exhaust you want low volume. If you are cleaning houses then you are doing the right thing by going to high volume machine, it will cut your time in half. You will however need to tank feed the pump. I use a 225 gallon tank ( 500 gallon IMO. is too large and heavy and makes it more difficult to back the trailer.) with my setup and I have no problem keeping up with the 8.5 GPM. You should try leaving in the mornings with at least a 100 gallons in your tank incase your first job has a slow running spigot … make sure you feed hose going to your pump is at least ¾ in. I use a 1” with mine just to stay on the safe side. You should also keep in mind that it is going to be a lot harder to heat the 8 GPM. verses 5 GPM. Becket make two burners, one that uses 2.5 gallons of fuel an hour and one that uses 5 gallons an hour, or something like that, I would have to get the manual out to be for sure. Anyways, you want the one that uses 5 GPH. You will also have to add about 80ft. of coil. and for that reason I recommend getting a lay down verses a vertical. The verticals are too top heavy. I ended up going with a regular size burner and just cutting my flow back by using a smaller tip size like 4.5, this way you keep your pressure @ 3500 PSI and the extra flow of water goes into bypass. Keep in mind that 8 GPM @ 3500 PSI is going to be more physically demanding on you arms and shoulders…what I do most of the time is use a 20 size tip for most of my rinsing ( houses and flat work) and for decks I use a white # 10 tip and only run about ¾ throttle, this cuts your flow down to about 6 GPM and maybe 1800 PSI. Upstream verses downstream…..upstream is pulling chemicals before the pump (high pressure) , and downstream is pulling chemicals after the pump ( low pressure). Personally I only use a downstream with my setup. If you’re going to use a downstream, there are things you need to know. First off make sure all your components are rated for 8 GPM., unloaded, gun, chemical injector. The key having a downstream chemical injector work properly is to have as little pressure at the injector itself, larger orifice sizes and shorter hose. I think this is why the x-jet works the way it does, there is no pressure at the injector but there is still water flow. Sorry guys, I didn’t mean to write a book, I just got carried a way. I hope this helps.

The only time we us ours on decks is when there a large area to cover, I wouldn’t waste my time on smaller decks like 10x10. We cleaned a 5,600 sq ft deck (camping resort) about 5 years ago and I used the wand on the whole thing. It took me three days. We cleaned that same deck 2 years ago and this time we used the whisper on it and it only took a day. It does take practice but you will eventually master the technique .

http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth?imgsize=320&opt=-l&lat=32.75&ns=North&lon=94.8333&ew=West&alt=164893&img=learth.evif Pretty neat!!.....Real time.

We have one......great spayer and very reliable, worth it's weight in gold.:cheers:

.Acid neutralizers are for lowering the PH levels in the wood. There are ways of checking it but you can usually tell by the red color of the wood and also by the feel when it's wet. High PH (sodium hydroxide)feels silky and slick. Low PH (oxcilic acid) feels just the opposite, gritty and leaves the wood a bright color. I’m not sure what the level of PH is in an oxygen based cleaner like ox clean. I think it is a little high and most places that sell the oxygen cleaners recommend using a brighter after the cleaning.

I'm sorry i just started reading these boards again now that the house wash season is slowing down....I have to ask you, where did you buy these vidios from that were $150? Tim is right about the vidios. In my opinion some of these vidios are desighned to sell thier product....i bought one years ago that teaches you to not to use bleach and to apply your chemicals under high pressure. I can give you at least 5 reasons why this is wrong but first let me finish what i was saying.......So i spent $180 to convert my pump into an upstream(high pressure soap), then went out and washed a house just like the vidio showed, it was a large house about 6,000 sgft but i used about 40 gallons of a citrus bases soap.The job took me 7 hours and i don't work slow. 1 week later i got called back to come and get all the streaks off his windows because his window cleaning man could not remove the blue vainy looking streaks i left behind from using too much soap. i ended up having to buff out the streaks from $100,000 dollers worth of windows. well i found out the hard way learn on your own and use you common sense. The next time i washed this guys house i used 12.5% chlorine bleach mixed with a little bit of soap and down streamed it on to the house..the windows turned out nice and it only took me 4 hours. Good luck, stick with it, this a great bussiness to be in.

8.5 gpm, 15 degree (not 65) 40 size tip, down streem, 50 gallons chlorine mixed with 5 gallons r109 1 cup dish soap, mix all your chemicals and leave them on the trailer. Use no more than 150ft of high pressure hose. At 8.5 gpm your chemicals are there in half the time and gone in half the time( about 7 sec.) drill out a o degree for anything over 2 stories. use a 20 size 15 degree for rinsing, the 20 is just large enough to stop the chemical pull at 8.5 gpm. you will wash a house in half the time with half the hassel....if all you have is a 5.5 gpm buy a 3 or 4 gpm and run the two together into one large vol unloader like the 2140.

well guys i am happy to say that i think i found somthing that works.......i used R-109 mixed at 5 lbs. per 10 gallons and added about a quart of HD-80 and sprayed it on full strength......15 sec. dwell time and rinse..no scrubbing...gutters looked brand new...i did this on three houses today and i was very pleased with the results and the best part about it is the price, it works out to about less than a doller per gallon..

I have been in bussiness for 6 years now....I have an ad in two different phone books, and the local paper. I keep my ads as clean as i can without alot of mumbo jumbo. If an ad is too busy, the eye will automatically move to the next ad. I state what i am selling first, then my name at the bottom. My adds read: Exterior House Washing Deck Cleaning and Sealing For rates and Info vist www.atlanticpowerwashing.com ATLANTIC POWER WASHING 540-785-9828 My ads are black with yellow lettering, stands out alot better. also when choosing a name, always choose a name that starts with A, That will put you at the top where most people start, anybody with the name X-terior Power Washing doesn't get alot of calls from the phone book. I also make sure all my calls are answered by my wife who has the most frendly and professional phone manners i have ever met. People don't like talking to recorders, so usally the firt resonable estimate they get, they will schedual the job.

I do about 50% house washing, 30% deck cleaning and sealing, 20% commercial. I perfer house washing over anything since that's where i make the most $$$ (over $100 an hour) so natually i markit it the most.

Another great product for removing black streaks is Purple Stuff from USA Pressure. This is not the same purple stuff from the auto parts stores, it is 10 times stronger! I mix it 1:3 and apply it directly to the gutters and rinse, no srubbing necessary. I have never tried Gutter Zap or Gutter shock but i have tried Ripper. In my opinion, the Ripper did not work at all to my satifaction.......I ended up using it for somthing else other than gutter cleaning.

No I’ve never tried Windex before……What I have found before in the past is that there are some gutters that will come clean very easily (newer subdivisions less than 2 years old without a lot of trees) and some that are next to impossible to clean ( over 10 years old with a lot of trees) It seem that the more over flow the gutter has due to whatever reason such as steep pitched roofs or being clogged with leafs, and the longer the black streaks have been there, the harder they are to clean. Most of your degreasers like simple green, spray nine, 409, grease lightning, all work ok, but who wants to pay $7 a gallon and then have to scrub them out by hand? Like someone else said, you would have to charge around $1 per ft. What I like about the R-109 HD-80 recipe is that it is cheap and easy to apply…..just get you a hose reel, 120 ft of 3/8th chemical line, a straight thru gun with a 3/8th coupler on the end so you can attach different lance lengths, and a 15 gallon shur flow tank, use a 15 degree tip on the end of the lance. I only do the front of the house and I don’t charge extra for this service since there’s no guarantee that the black steaks are going to come out every time. I do this because I know they will call me back the next time they’re ready to have their house cleaned….½ my business is from repeat customers. Check out my website that Beth designed, she did a great job!;)

thanks Beth...you mentioned the HD-80 thing in our phone conversation last night, so i figured i would give it a try today with the R-109..