Rick G

This is the type of thing the PWNA should already have a handle on, in my humble but not very often popular opinion.

Good reading, except I apply from the bottom up to prevent streaking.

I have a 0 deg tip I drilled out and it will throw chems pretty far. Thats what I used for a long time before I got the XJ. I still prefer the XJ because of the ease of changing the pattern and stronger chem.

Please let us in on you new method. Thanks. If you dont want to post it feel free to E-mail it- www.claytonsbest@aol.com

The x-jet is the most important tool next to my surface cleaner. Alot can factor in to time. Dont compare yourself to others, just do a good job no matter how long it takes and price accrordingly. Your speed will increase. Alot of time can be saved by the proper chems. If you have the right mix its a simple as apply, dwell and rinse. No pressure. Sometimes some pressure is needed, thus more time needs to be added. Sometimes it takes longer sometimes it dosent, dosent matter if you price it right. Rick G

In four years I have yet to kill a single plant doing a roof cleaning. I also leave the house and grounds just as I found them. I have shared a great deal here and I hope it helped someone but am board with this issue. Hence, my last post on this topic. Good luck to you.

It doesent sound like you wasted to much time to me. Hose reels would help save time. Heres my way. Pull up to the house, set up ladder, un roll 3/8 in shurFlow hose off the reel- up the ladder- pulling off all Im going to need and leaving it on the roof. Get customers garden hose, if its not long enough I un roll off my feed hose reel what Im going to need and hook it to the customers hose and attach the fire hose nozzle- pull it up the ladder- all im going to need- and wet down landscaping walking the edge of the roof- just on the side I am going to be doing- put that down pick up shurflow wand and apply chems. When I am done applying chems to that section I pick up the hose and wet down the lanscaping again - being VERY careful beacuse now its very slippery. Then wet down the lanscaping on the next side or section I am going to do. Repete. When Im all done, get off the ladder and flood each section with water from the ground. Sometimes when I am done I flood one section down from the roof and do the other from the ground, depending where the garden hose is hooked up. Then I replace customers hose, roll up my hoses and drive off. Idealy I try to do more than one roof on the same day and then I bring a helper to do the rinsing of the landscaping. Its just not cost effective to bring a helper when I only have one to do. Keep at it youll get it. Rick G

Heres the artical- Just use you head folks... Briefs Worker severely burned in chemical explosion By Times Staff Writer Published January 17, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TAMPA - A container with an acid residue exploded Friday morning in New Tampa, severely burning a 36-year-old man. Investigators say Kenneth Toledo, a Tampa man who owns a pressure washing business, poured chlorine and water into the container, which had previously been used to apply an acid wash. The container had not been properly rinsed, and the resulting chemical reaction caused the explosion, officials said. The container exploded as Toledo scaled a ladder to clean the roof of a Hunter's Green home in the 17800 block of Osprey Point Place, pelting Toledo with chemicals and shrapnel. He was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital. His condition was unknown Friday. The explosion also blew a 2-foot-wide hole in the roof. Tile was scattered about the driveway. __________________

There was a artical in the Tampa Paper about a pressure cleaner who used a bucket to acid wash the driveway and then poured chlorine in the bucket to do the roof, half way up the ladder and BOOM! Blew a hole in the house and just about killed himself. Ill find the artical. Rick G

Here a 1700 sq ft one story shingle roof would get between $100-150. If it took me four hours I would pass out. That roof would take me about an hour and a half- two hours worst case. Thats from pulling up in the drive to driving off. I dont understand how it could take you that long. You say 'flow pump' What kind specifically? What gpm and psi. Do you have it on a cart or mounted on your rig with the hose on a reel? (like I do) How big is you chem tank? You said you use 50/50 mix. Did you ever try a stonger mix? I adjust my mix to the point where after I apply it, within 10 min the mold 'dissapers'. Then I flood the roof with water to get most excess off. More info and I may be able to help. Rick G

I started ignoring Rob along time ago, when he insulted one horse operators. Rob who?....

"more later...be kind to each other...all of you have something to offer" Thats the best advice I've heard yet. Thanks Jay. Ill see you in the chat room. Thanks Beth, for hosting it.

To each his own. I have done it both ways, well many ways, and FOR ME, chem is much better. I could smoke someone with a surface cleaner on the same roof. My bottom line has jumped up significally after changing my way of doing roofs. Thats whats great about the good ol USA. Differance of opinions. Good luck.

I would participate in that chat Beth. Ill check back for details. Thanks, Rick G

I would not reccomend it, I think it will do alot of damage. I know you know this but I was posting it for people who may not. Mike, good talking to you today.

Yes, the nozzle is just to flood the roof with water to get the excess chlorine off as to not to damage the plants or anything else if there is a light rain. The chlorine does the cleaning. In extreem cases with large size growth spots you may want to use that same nozzle to rinse from the roof or your pw with a soap tip. That is the MAX pressure I would put on a roof. I appliy the mix from the roof with a shur flow hooked to a chem tank. Heres some pics of the wand.- You must drill a hole in a cap to insert the tip-

Heres a pic of me with the firemans nozzle- Ill try to post a close up- this is the plastic one from WM- Its in the Garden Section. It reaches the peak of most all one storys I do.

Alan, sorry I missed this. Happy B Day! Rick G

Thanks for the info Paul.

Paul, what products or type of products do you recommend for stripping and neutralizing concrete? Also is there a good source on the web to educate me on the care of concrete? This is a field I would like to add to my service, specifically brick pavers but I would like to be prepared for all types I may encounter. Thanks and keep up the good work here. I have learned a great deal from your past posts. Rick G

Mike it depends on the roof. Remember I almost always clean tile so I use a 60/40 water to chlorine as a starting point. I try a test spot and go up or down from there. I dont use that strong a mix on shingles, proably more like 80/20. I know it still seems strong but remember, normally when chems go up time goes down. Funny, I did a roof last week. I passed a rig unloading to do a roof, nice rig too. One guy alone and I saw him with his surface cleaner already on the roof. I had nothing eles to do that afternoon so I unloaded and waited for him to start, about five mins. I heard him start his washer and saw him get up on the roof. (he was five houses down, cookie cutter homes so the roofs were roughly the same.) I 'pulled the trigger' seconds after he did. I was done applying my chems and was on the ground rinsing when he was just turning the corner on one side. I was done rinsing and rolled up and he was just apporching 1/2 way on the second side. I pulled past him leaving and he was less than 3/4 of the way done. I wounder if he was like "What the he-- was that all about?" Made my day. Funny thing is this has happend to me over a year ago. I watched a guy pull up and clean a roof in 1/2 the time I did on the same type of roof. Thats when I knew there was a better way and I starting asking questions to roofers, homeowners, called other cleaners acting as a homeowner, anyone who knew anything, and they where all tight lipped. Finally I got a large, well known roofing contractor that is friends with my mom to call some of the larger compaies in the area and say 'I have many roofs that need cleaning, tell me what you use on them or you dont get my buissness'. All of them said stong chlorine. Some said they added TSP to it. A couple still wouldnt come out with it. This is how I came up with my method. Right? Wrong? Dont know but it works for me and is profitable. Come down sometime and well go out on 'Grandmaw's boat' Rick G

I run mine on 200 ft of 3/8in hose and I keep two 25ft lengths in the truck when needed. It does drop the GPM quite a bit. I apply it with a six ft PVC wand with a 60-degree spray pattern. That tip helps it cover a lot and with the six ft wand in back and forth pattern I can move at a steady pace. I would like to shave some time off so that’s why I want to up the gpm. Mike I think you just are so use to the speed of the x-jet the shur flow just seems slow. And it is slower. But I seem to use less product with the shurflow, I believe to the 'mist' or 'wind' factor. Joe, on tile my 'solution' is mixed to strength that when applied the growth disappears within minutes. By the time I am done with one section of the roof the part I started on is clean looking. Sounds like you need to up the strength or change solution. I think you said you use SH which will not produce these results. A respirator and protective clothing is a must. Dale the nozzle I started with I got from Wal-Mart, of all places, and shoots a steady stream about 50-60ft or so, depending on the pressure from the house. On two story roofs it will not reach and must be rinsed from the roof. So I just get up there and apply chems, get down and roll up my hose and then flood the roof from the top down with water from the ground. The fire hose nozzle I have now is brass (the one from WM is blue plastic) and I got it from a specialty plumbing shop and it had to ordered. Ill try and put together a pic. I must credit Don Phelps with this application idea. It may not be the absolute fastest way, but it is light years ahead of what I was doing. And compared to the companies here that shoot strait 10% from the ground and walk away (no rinsing) I think its a good alternative. I think that is the absolute fastest way to clean a roof, spay it and forget it, but I don’t care to leave that strong chem up there. Most of the roofs I clean stay that way for over two years and don’t show signs of re-growth until year three. Mike keep in mind BigPete has a roller pump but prefers the ShurFlow, you may want to call him before making your final decision. Rick G

I find the surflow to be the best on roofs. I dont even start my washer when I clean a roof any more. I will be replacing my 1.8gpm shurflow with a 3.0gpm (or more) soon. I apply with shur flow and rinse from the ground with fire hose nozzle. Nice and quiet and fast.

Good advice, Henry, no matter what you use.

Travis, I told you the name of the caulk in my last post. Please re read. Again I have to disagree- this time with Joe. Using ANY pressure on these roofs will damage the tile. Why? The tiles have a baked on topcoat that gives the tile a 'sheen' and enhances the colors. Some colors don’t even go all the way through the tile they are just baked onto the surface. When you use a surface cleaner or pressure on them you are destroying that coat. Can’t you feel the sand blowing up as you run your cleaner? Do you not see the red or whatever the color of the tile on the drive when your done? You may lower the pressure but to get the surface cleaner to spin at a high enough speed to be effective you still need pressure, too much in this case. You may see other cleaners doing it this way but it does not make it right. I see them all the time as well. It’s old school thinking. Also doing it the correct way is done in 1/3 of the time. Do the math. I don’t even start my pressure cleaner. In addition tile manufactures don’t recommend you use pressure. Why do you think you see ad’s for ‘no pressure’ or ‘low pressure’ roof cleaning? Consumers are starting to get educated on the effects of pressure on roofs. I have never destroyed any plant life doing this way. (knock on wood) But you must be cautious. It takes no at all time to wet down landscaping. You would be well advised to research the proper way, if not for your customers, for your bottom line. The above picture was done with no pressure. The gross take on that roof was $110.00 per hour. As to Sodium Hydroxide cleaners on roofs. Rod is 100% correct. I can’t figure out why this just isn’t common sense to people. They will degrade the roofing materials. Period. Noticeably? Maybe not. Over time? Absolutely. Will it come back to bite you? Probably not, but way take that chance with your customers?