RyanH

Nah, I guess I'll hang onto it unless really wants one....I'm selling mine for $900. It's a fantastic unit, I just don't have the machine to power it properly. But if I find out that I have a terminal illness and will be short-lived, I'll let you know where it's kept and you can come on up for it! nobody in my family/friend circle will know what to do with it.

Yeah, I found that out the hard way. A little too much for anyone not currently doing research in those fields....don't know what I was thinking. They usually have three or four really good articles that apply to everyone....last week they had two articles on alzheimers, this week they interview Bush's/Kerry's views on science and medical advancements, some good stuff. Other than that, it was a complete waste on my part. Oh well, maybe a donation to a library for a tax deduction..

Nobody? Man, I try to *give* away cell phones and magazines, nobody bites. I bet if I offered to give away that barely used 30" steel eagle surface cleaner I'm still trying to sell someone would jump on it!

Hello John and welcome. Your solution sounds like it will work fine on your siding. Depending upon the severity of algae accumulation, however, you may need to hit it a few times to get it completely. On the issue of prewetting your awnings, this effectively just reduces the concentration of the bleach in your solution. What color are your awnings? If they are a dark color, you may get some fading if your concentration is too strong. Try this: prewet your awnings (as you suggested), apply your solution to the surface of the awnings, and rinse from *inside* the awnings, blasting the chems away from the material (since the cloth is porous). Don't allow too long of a dwell time....you may need to repeat this step several times. Something like greased lightning and a scrub brush will be safe and useful, as well. Perhaps I'm being overly cautious, but that's not a bad thing me thinks. Does your car wash have wax in it? If so, I wonder what that will do to the cloth if it's not completely rinsed out? Perhaps someone here has input on if that's even a relevant concern or not. Good luck. Do you have any way of taking and posting before / after pics? Ryan H.

Babelfish says the simple translation is 杏仁雞 for almond chicken. 繁體中文版 is the traditional translation. Now, since I'm trying to learn everything in spoken rather than written (I'll be illiterate), I couldn't tell you how in the WORLD to pronounce it. Oh man, I may need to rethink this and just go back to listening to U2.

No, generally they look in the direction of the warning to see what's up.

Nice work Celeste. I really like these types of neighborhoods....there are a few job offers in NC I thought about taking a look at....if I could find a stead like this to stay I'd be happy. RyanH

Never underestimate the usefullness of good chemicals.....pressure alone will do little to clean anything other than concrete (and even then chemicals are a good pal to have). A bigger, "better" pressure washer will do the same job as a smaller one, only faster. From what the wood-care experts on this board say, you want very low pressure for washing decks, so something like your unit will be ideal for that (with the proper chems). Also would be good when cleaning vinyl siding, windows, and cars/trucks(this is what mobile detailers use). I don't know if I would want to run out and start doing driveways with it, but there are many other options other than that.

Just check out the thread-starter.....6% bleach. More specifically, Clorox because I was able to get it from Sams for a decent price. It would be more convenient to order it in larger quantities, but the frequency with which I do roofs is not great enough to warrant buying in large quantities. Still, it works great.

In the case of the house with multiple roof lines I anchored to trees on either side of the house. My rope is 300', so I had plenty to span the distance. On the white roof, the pitch was so small that I wasn't worried about using a line. Sometime in the next week or two I will be [trying] to get to a barn-style garage near my house...the broad side of it looks to be angled at around 75 - 80 degrees. It has some pretty bad moss on one side, but I'm doing it mainly to see how well my harness setup works. I'll get my wife to snap a few pics of this as well. I'll also be using trees for this setup. Ryan

Thanks Celeste. That house with the white roof was a bear!! I was a little dissappointed because some of the rust stains and metallic deposits remained, but the owner was absolutely thrilled at the difference when the black algae was "gone."

A few more pics

more pics.

Hold the tip farther from the surface to impart less force on your target area. Change the tip, that helps...unless you have a fixed-type which is typical of the craftsman units I've seen. Can you lower the throttle on your engine?

Something you can try is using both a shurflo AND an Xjet. The Xjet works like your mouth sucking a straw....have you ever squeezed a Hi-C box while trying to drink from teh straw? MUCH more than you anticipated comes up. By using the shurflo to push the chems up the hose, and the Xjet to provide a lower pressure against which the shurflo pushes, you can get greater distance with the shurflo and a greater draw with the X. Position a ball valve near your Xjet inlet so you can adjust the opening (valve throttle) and increase or decrease the chem flow through your outlet. The downside to this is you will have to tug along on two hoses...high pressure water and low pressure draw line. Just a cheap thought.

http://www.thegrimescene.com/Store/product_info.php?cPath=22_45&products_id=136

I have the M5 and LOVE IT!!!! The best complimentary equipment I've purchased thus far. I do notice that I get a degraded distance when I'm pulling chems, and that may not be a problem on the original, but the convenience and ability to stream at higher concentrations overcomes that little drawback. Degraffreed, what part of GA are you in? Ryan H.

Hmmm. You (like me) are in GA, which is notoriously humid, suggesting that the mildew/algae spots are from residual water...I've never seen a tennis court other than the Wimbledon type that was perfectly level, and there are usually numerous dips where water can gather and sit. Being that this is a smooth surface, I'd doubt it would be the tough black mold that is nearly impossible to get out without chemicals and hot water. Most likely, a mild bleach solution will be sufficient. Just downstream or Xjet it onto the surface at a final concentration of around 1% - 2%, let it kill the stuff, and rinse off. I haven't had problems with bleach discoloring painted surfaces in low concentration (I have had the outdoor bleach weaken the paint on painted metal, though....but it was my own stuff, so no big deal).

Haven't done tennis courts but I have done some similar surfaces....they are usually painted surfaces. Some nicer courts will have pigment mixed into the cement. Use relatively low pressure if it's painted....you don't have any oil or tough stuff to worry about so your housewash mixture should work fine. The dirt and grime on surfaces like this I've done in the past have come off VERY easily and made for a quick job. Do it on a hot day with some pre-wetting and a few minutes for your cleaner to work and you should be out of there in no time. If you use a surface cleaner, just raise the deck (if possible) or lower the outlet pressure on your machine (unloader). Watch the lines, too, as they will almost definitely be striped on. Ryan H.

Whadya know....they do have one. http://www.folexcompany.com/

It would have been better only if you had made a circle back around to realizing the car needed to be washed....then it would have been an endless circle of chaos. I have those days quite often, and I've only just begun!!

The wife works for a law firm....they refuse to take any of these cases for those reasons....most clients claiming this are just looking for a quick buck.

Had similar problems with the extension wand available through Northern Tool...piece of junk when it comes to construction durability but otherwise very useful. I fixed it by drilling some small holes through the twist lock receiver and the shaft and putting a few pop rivits in it....never had any more problems and treat it like an unwanted invasion of ants after a heavy rain. You'd think for $180 they could put a couple pieces of this ancient technology into the contraption for a few cents and make it work.

I use straight 6% bleach solution applied with a shurflo pump. No other additives, although I may prewet the roof as a cooling method so the bleach doesn't evaporate too quickly. I have some pictures of before / after I'll post in the next day or so. I've promised this in the past,now I need to actually do it. Ryan.

They're probably like I was a few years back.....high school left me with ample free time (outside of taekwondo), so I spent it building player levels for the then-popular Doom and Duke Nukem games and putting together web pages (which were nothing more than HTML back then with sparse JAVA applets). I wouldn't know where to begin with the new stuff...like you said, no more time!