RyanH

Ebay has traditionally stonewalled any efforts to go after fraudulent sellers....they used to block their account from buying/selling until it was resolved, but over the past few years they have gotten too big too fast. How did you pay? There are some other ways of going after them, like through the postal service if you mailed a check to them for an item you never received.

If your machine can put out enough water to drive more nozzles, it will definitely clean better. On a 2-bar setup, they bars have to make a 180degree spin to make a single pass....with a 3-bar they have to make just 120deg, and with a 4-bar only a 90deg spin. The higher the pressure and higher the flowrate from your machine, the faster these bars will spin, and the faster they will make their cleaning passes, which translates into a faster walking time for you.

I wonder if filling the pump with cheap vodka or gin would work?

The proportioners can really slow a job down, but you can still mimick their use by adjusting the in-line on/off valve on the solution line. The closer you move it to "off" position, the more restrictive the valve becomes for flow and the greater the water:chemical ratio becomes. It's also nice because a slight turn can quickly and easily increase or decrease the flow concentration and you can see immediate results.

I checked some of the stuff when I clean cars.....Marguiers (I think that's proper spelling) has a fantastic foaming ability...1/4 cup in 5 gallons water through the Xjet and I can coat my cars in a solid layer of foam. Turtle wax also works very well.

Satisfied customer once gave me a crystal serving bowl as a "thank you" after a quality job. He also said it was a wedding gift for my wife and me, but I don't think he would have even considered it had the job not been quality. Hearing praise always lifts your spirit and pushes you to be the best.

John, thanks for that tip. Actually, a local washer called me yesterday and told me of a problem he encountered.....for some reason the water supply at the house he was washing had an EXTREMELY high amount of iron in the water....when he went to rinse a side of the house it turned the white vinyl bright orange. He tried strong bleach and caustic and had no results. After a few moments of panic, he put some thought into what rust was, put oxalic on it ,scrubbed a little, and it came off beautifully. Next time I encounter rust on a roof, I'll try this. Thanks, Ryan

Awhile back I put up a list (off topic) of the "top 10" women I would pursue had my wife and I never met. Old post: http://www.thegrimescene.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17442&postcount=28 New news review: http://entertainment.msn.com/celebs/article.aspx?news=169336

Dress like you would when going snowmobiling and you won't have a problem...that's basically what snowmobiling is. I can't imagine that you'll be able to push too much on a slick surface with such little mass (assuming you mean a fourwheeler motorcycle-type), but with no experience that may just be talking out of the mute end.

I found Waldo....

Insulators like plastic and rubber are not "true" insulators....they are just materials that offer very good resistance. If a charge differential is great enough, that thin plastic handle on a wand will not act as a strong enough resistor to stop the flow of current. Think all people who get struck by lightning are barefoot? Current that high will blow straight through rubber sole shoes without so much as stopping to say high. The only real way to ensure you don't get shocked is to not complete that circuit....but if you come up with an antigravity device that allows this, I doubt you will continue in your pursuit of pressure washing perfection.

Just don't spray your water directly around the area in case someone was a little careless when they routed them into the house. I grabbed a "hot" gutter once.....made my entire arm feel like it was both on fire and "asleep," the kind of "asleep" you get when you wake up at 3 in the afternoon with a hangover and realize that you've been sleeping that thing that looks like your arm since 5am. Seriously though, in this case whoever installed the gutters put a nail through a wire while installing and for some reason nobody ever noticed. When I touched the awning overhang, it buzzed my arm. Stupid me, thinking that my arm was just stressed from holding wand high for too long, touched it again. DAMN it hurt. Same effect with the gutters. The only job I ever walked away from, but it was a neighbor so I was able to go back once he had it repaired. Again, no direct water on them and keep the ladder and wand away. Ryan H.

Had a similar problem on my lawn mower (kohler 18hp engine). Plug came out and allowed gas to fill up the cylinders. talk a b*tch to fix....I broke two cords with all of the pulling I had to do to push the oil and gas out through the exhaust. I found the plug on the ground beside the mower though, so no big deal. Do you have a manual? If not, I'll check in mine to see if they have that part listed.

Strange thing about MS default graphics viewers....they try to change the resolution and it ends up stretching the image. I was viewing mine through a graphics program (adobe) and it came out the same size, but it kept the correct dimensions. I think what happens (and this is just pulling out of the air) that the def. gra. viewers adjust the resolution to something like 72 dpi, then when I put up a 150dpi resolution image, it prints out twice as large than what it should be. If you want another one with the perfect dimensions, I can put it in PDF format and it will definitely be correct (damn MS). Ryan

Ah, okay....looking at here (outside of my graphics program) it does look cropped, but it really isn't. Just print it out and connect a line between the absolute bottom of the two black sides and you should be good to go! I had to place it on the edge of the scanner to ensure that it was straight. Hope this helps.

This should work. It may look like it's cropped off, but the very bottom of the image is in fact the bottom of the card. If for some reason when you print it out you don't see a line at the bottom giving clear definition of a cut-off point, connect a line between the two black sides. I assure you that this is the exact copy of mine. It's also scanned in at 100%, so it should print out exactly the same size as the original. Ryan H.

I let Mother Nature rinse it for me with a good rain. Even on a sunny day the water from the bleach will evaporate long before I could ever get to it to rinse it and there is really no chance of the solid salts harming the shingles. Now, if it were in a drought season and there was no rain in the forcast for the next several weeks, or it has been a particularly dry season, I'll rinse it. Then it's just hooking up the PW and putting on the Xjet so I can get a good flow and rinsing with plain cold water. No cedar shingles around here, so I couldn't answer that one. There are many past posts here, however, regarding the cleaning of cedar shingles and you will see many opinions on methods and chems to use. I think someone mentioned awhile back that if the algae growth is severe it is a sign that it has rooted itself in the wood and cleaning it off may actually open it up for even greater premature wear.

I'll scan and email mine to you tonight. Ryan H.

The ShurFlo is designed to just pump liquid from one place to another. It's very robust and can handle a very wide range of materials (no flammables, though). My setup is basically the pump, a battery, 100' of hose, a bucket for source chemical, and my "gun," which is just an extension wand used for garden sprayers. There is no pressure washer involved, it is essentially noiseless and doesn't make any mess unless you have a leak. The roofs around me are just plagued with the algae, so regular 6% bleach works very well...no other additives are needed. Things may be different in different areas or circumstances. I just spray on liberally to make sure I get a nice even coverage and get in a pattern so that I can be consistent. I think prewetting the roof really helps as you will use less bleach, but on a hot day a one-man-op is a little difficult and messy to handle. It really does work just like a pump up sprayer in the amount and pressure it puts out chemicals, but is entirely automated, so the only thing you have to carry around is your wand and whatever hose trails. Basically, I start at the top and work my way down in 4 - 5 foot wide sections from one side of the roof to the other. For show, I like to clean half of the front side of the roof, then work on the sides and back, then finish the front....mainly so it will be exposed as long as possible for passersby to see and think "wow." I definitely think that roof cleaning makes the most dramatic impact in before/after comparison (on really bad roofs). Following that, I think a nice trim/gutter cleaning followed by a siding rinse.

Is that vinyl? If so, do the darker areas indicate removal of surface oxidation? I wonder if you could remove all of the oxidation and clean the entire surface to match the screw up by the first guy. Might make the property owners happy. Kind of stupid....my guess is they probably could have just splashed some bleach up there and rinsed it off with low pressure if they wanted to be cheap about it and it would have come out better than they actually got.

Caustics are usually used to describe basic substances (most commonly hydroxides, "whatever"-ols, and "whatever"-amines, or most any compound that has a metal as part of its name). You will most likely see potassium and sodium hydroxides used for most cleaning purposes. Their primary use is to act as a degreaser. As for what to use when cleaning concrete, you should always progress from the most safe method to a more extreme method, not the reverse. If cold water will work, use it. If you have more grime, hot water will usually be plenty sufficient (from what others have said and my limited experience in using it). If you have stains (like oil or some tannins from leaves) then a degreaser will generally be needed (like a butyl-based cleaner, hydroxide, etc.). Other situations call for a mild acid....read through the board for these situations....there are MANY references, tips, suggestions, and data the pros here have posted. Search for "hydrofluoric" as a starter and read through all results....PaulB and Allen have some really good information on which acids work well (not that hydrofluoric does, but the threads contain the information in ongoing discussion). Then, like was suggested, read on and you will learn much more than you will by just asking questions. If you absolutely can't find an answer, or want more details or explanations, then ask and someone here will more than likely have one for you. Oh yeah, and welcome to the group! Ryan H.

Use the velcro idea to strap a portion of the hose to the wand...that should reduce the swivel quite a bit (I use the plastic ties like they use on Cops when they arrest a car load of teenagers and line them up on the street).

Anyone interested in getting copies of the magazine Nature? I ordered it a few weeks ago and get an issue every week. I'm the type that will read through a magazine once and toss it, but if anyone has any interest in it I'll be glad to send it on to someone else. Mostly current research and scientific/medical discoveries, but there are usually half a dozen interesting topics in it. If anyone wants them, let me know and I'll pass them on when I'm done. Check out www.nature.com/nature for more info to see if you're interested. If nobody bites, I guess I'll have some starter paper for fires this winter.

Actually, I think I do have the past few issues laying around somewhere. I'll check tonight and let you know.

While I was still in school, cleaning afforded me many great opportunities to just think about any problems I was currently working on or things that were just bugging the hang out of me (like computer programming issues). Since I've finished up with the whole school scene, spending 10 hours alone cleaning carpets and vacuuming with nothing to focus on mentally is a little disturbing. SO, I try to find things to do while cleaning to take my mind off it (let's face it, it doesn't take devoted attention to ensure proper cleaning of toilets). While I was in the book store the other day (wife was searching the softer side of Sears) I walked through the section on languages. I've had plenty of study in spanish and german, so I thought I'd give a shot at becoming fluent in them by listening to some CDs. Well, while I was searching a Mandarin Chinese Cd set caught my eye....8 cds designed to be a total immersion course for learning quickly. Stupid me bought it. I went home, loaded the first two series on my MP3 player and took it into work.:thinking: Two hours into my cleaning I could have killed a cow for mooing I was so frustrated!! :dunno: I was so aggravated with myself for not even understanding what the h*** the lessons were trying to convey that the slightest things just worked me over.....drop cord getting hung up under a chair, mop handle falling sideways in the bucket, me stepping on the vacuum cord while vacuuming....ARGHHH!!!:irritated :grrr: Anyone who can learn a language like this, hats off to you. I'm going to give it another shot, hopefully it will get better. If not, I can just go back to belting out off-tune versions of "Friends in Low Places.":zipit: Are there any other good suggestions folks have learned on things "NOT" to do while cleaning? I'd love to hear them. Ryan H. :stupid: