Gutter Squad

thanks!

I like Super Iron Out. Can't beat $11 at Lowe's for some fairly strong phosphoric acid.

Guards Red/Black Leather(ette) 1978 Porsche 924 Turbo. Probably the slowest and lowest valued Porsche ever built... but man was it fun to take off in that when I was 16! There are days when I miss that car still.

I picked up an old Landa hot water portable unit to be cannabalized for parts (couldn't beat $300 for a VERY GOOD running 13 HP Honda and a vertical coil in good shape). Anyway, I haven't tried to fire the unit and am assuming the burner is not working... I like the idea of running this off of LP so that I don't need electric. Does anyone have any experience converting/setting up an LP hot box using some parts from a diesel/oil-fired unit? Thanks for any thoughts/suggestions.

Paul, Do you carry the "bridge" hose for running two units together?

TEST PATCH - TEST PATCH - TEST PATCH Do what they all say above, but do a test patch for the prospective customer. Show them how clean it can come, that way if the oxidation is too severe you know and so do they before you begin. Plenty of aluminum sided homes are past the point where they can be washed. I just did one last week... if you got the siding wet and rubbed your finger along it, the paint came completely off... but using VERY gentle pressure and NO chemicals that remove oxidation (i.e.- hydroxides and butyls), I was able to make the home look very nice (not like a vinyl home, but not dirty anymore). Used ONLY simple cherry and 12.5% downstreamed. Be careful on aluminum as said above. I average about one aluminum sided home a week over the summer - no one else around here will touch them. As long as you test patch and give the customer realistic expectations, your results can be good and you can have a happy customer that can put off painting (or switching to vinyl siding) for a few more years.

Are those the Dickies button front shirts that are about $15 at Walmart? I was planning on doing the same thing as said above (buying them and getting them screen printed with a local guy I use). Just want to make sure I am buying the right ones that are fairly bleach resistant - I bought a dozen shirts from Queensboro this year and hve been fairly dissappoitned with how long they hold up.

I use 12.5% - pretty good, fresh stuff. I get it directly from the chemical manufacturer (luckily for me, they are only 12 minutes away). I downstream now, but previously have used the X-jet. When I was using the X-jet, I used the mix off PressureTek with good results (2 Gallons 12.5% chlorine, 3 gallons water & 10oz of Simple Cherry). What is the GPM on your pressure washer & are you using the X-jet open or with a proportioner? If you have a unit at or over 4 GPM, you almost need to be putting just straight 6% + Simple Cherry in the bucket in order to hit the house with a high enough concentration of SHC. The mix off PressureTek ends up being about 5% in the bucket.

I've asked Bob at PressureTek how long a Simple Cherry mix was good for - if I remember correctly, he stated that it will begin degrading after eight hours. However, I use a mix just like yours (in the stantard ratios, though - 3.5 gal SHC, 1.5 gal H2O, 4 oz F-13, and about 12 oz Simple Cherry) and have been able to use it two days later with no real problem.

In the spirit of a recent posting showing some flatwork - thought I would put a pic on from today. Cleaned 400 linear feet of gutter on this home and followed by removing some heavy green moss/lichen on the roof.

And at another stop - the surface cleaner strikes again. This 100 year old home had about 1800 sq. ft. of brick.

...and yes that is a telescoping wand in the foreground with a gutter cleaning attachment. The entire home had gutter screens (completely clogged on top or collapsed). We were there and gone in just under two hours - we do a lot of gutters and have gotten very VERY fast at it.

Jeff If you are interested in any other "testers," I've got three houses I did last week that had AF on them. Customers got the standard "can't do anything about it" from me. Would be nice to go back and surprise them.

Hey - can I get some recommendations for a good source for 15" pads, etc. for a 15" floor buffer/sander - just bought one. Using it to get rid of the fuzzies of course, just switching up from a smaller handheld sander. We've starting getting regular estimates for decks and am upgrading equipment all around in turn.

Thanks - checked out their selection online - looks good - good prices (grainger) ---- bonus, there is one just 5 miles from me.

Wow... this turned into some ugliness... Just get a high-draw injector for your pressure washer and use the recommended mix on pressuretek for Simple Cherry & F-13 (aka Wild Cherry). Chemicals (including the 12.5% SHC) should cost you about $12 or so per house & it shouldn't take you any more than about 1 to 1 1/2 hours to complete the average 2000 sq. ft. home (and not that much more time for a place twice as big). I've tried to reinvent the wheel many times with many methods (roller pumps, various electric diaphragm pumps, hand pumps)... downstreaming is the way to go in my opinion (x-jet is fine to use if it suits you and the end result is basically the same with both - I have an x-jet, don't like the "mist" it creates). Frankly, there is nothing better than standing a good 15-20 feet away from the house you are washing.... spraying.... letting the chems do their work... rinsing... and done. Big tips, low pressure = no worries.

If it is a yellow telescoping wand, the probable cause of the "lock-up" is either a slight bend on the aluminum portion of the pole or some dirt getting into the the collar that tightens. Find someone else to push one side while you push the other... it'll give and slide back in (of course my crew is me 6'1" 195 lbs. and my helper 5'10" 240 lbs - not small guys). Also, try spraying into the collar with moderate pressure from your washer, if caked up dirt is in there, it'll break free.

Can't stress the website enough! In my area, I always show up with a pagerank between 1 & 8 depending on which city/town name is used in conjuction with "pressure washing" "power washing" or "gutter cleaning." I have multiple yellow pages ads, but I am as of this year (2008) seeing 75% of all my jobs come from the internet. I have Google analytics running on my site and have found also that 67% of all hits to my site came directly from "organic" search results in Google. Yahoo, AOL, MSN, etc. were pretty sad - way down in the single digits percentage-wise.

I use my telescoping pole for gutter cleaning. After scooping the big stuff out, I run it up the gutter really quick to get the small debris out & then "jet" the downspout to get out hard clogs. Using this method, we can do about 400 linear feet of gutter per hour no problem.

They carry it in Ohio Walmarts. I pick up the 4 gallons boxes both there and at Meijer when in a pinch. Boxes run anywhere from $8.99 (on sale) up to $13.99. High prices, but again, good in a pinch. Never as fresh as what I get from the various pool supply stores in 2.5 gal packs or larger.

Jeff- I've got a few different butyl-based cleaners (mild to strong) that I keep in my truck's arsenal. Just didn't think about using them on vinyl... I've washed hundreds of houses and two things about this: 1.) I have never seen siding that looked like this siding (has no "grain" to it and is rounded at the bottom of each lap). 2.) I again have to say how odd it seems - it really looks just like cheap walmart vinyl furniture that is over 10 years old. Thanks for the tip on windows - way back when I first used butyl based stuff I did two dumbs things: took the paint completely off a 10 foot run of gutters & etched a window quite nicely (razor blades and windows = no fun). I have a good deal of aluminum sided homes in my area and they account for about 20% of my housewash jobs, so I am familiar with oxidation remove from that aspect. I just didn't put 2 and 2 together to think of using that product on vinyl that same way. Would have come back for replies sooner... but got a great father's day gift - Red Sox @ Reds tickets today and yesterday! Great seats - four rows up from the Reds dugout! SWEEEEEEEEET!!!! Loved watching the Sox kick the crap out of them today!

I have a custom ladder rack (welded for me) made from 2"x1 1/2" rectangular steel pipe. Works great - have additional welds to hold my high pressure reel and low pressure reel from the ladder rack. I was carrying a 40' aluminum ladder on it, no problem. The truck is an F150 (with a longbed, though).

Al & Rick- I agree with you... I have fairly low set prices (1 st. $149/ 2 st. $199) on house washes - covers a ground floor area of up to about 1916 sq. ft. (175 linear feet). It covers about 90% of all homes within 45 miles of me. I close people all day long on the phone. Other guys set an appointment, go look at the house for an estimate, then set an appointment for the wash... next thing you know - it is two, three, four, or more weeks before your house gets washed! When they call, I look them up on Zillow.com and see if they fit my price - if so... when would you like me to come out? We have a couple crazies up here (Western Ohio) doing the $75 wash and we have people charging twice what I do. The LONGEST I have ever spent on a house in my flat rate brackets was 2 hours. Most of the time, washes are running 45 min. to 1.5 hrs. About half my people up sell on an offer to clean out their gutters as well ($40-80 add on).

I've got to agree with Jeff... the box stores do have some kick-butt stuff if you add it into your arsenal the right way. Add Westley's Bleche Wite (for tires) to your Hypo instead of other stuff & watch how nicely the combination of sodium metasilicate, butyl, and alcohol go to work. I add it on top of Simple Cherry for a seriously charged up house wash mix (great on aluminum siding). The alcohol in the mixture makes it act like a dulled down, but still working version of "Apple Cider." It makes a great gutter cleaner, too. I've got F-13 and the potassium hydroxide works really well (I sometimes to the "Wild Cherry" thing suggested by pressuretek & it works on gutters that aren't horrible)... but sometimes some of that paint needs to come off to really get them looking good.

Butyl can reaaly get you if you aren't careful... I had to repaint a 20' section of gutters one time... didn't realize just how oxidized they were/how strong I had made my mix!