RyanH

Mike, Oops! Guess I should reread my own postings before I go off on a rant. I forgot what I said about the driveways. Yes, I can only acheive decent results with the mix on driveways. I still haven't found a mix that will "melt" away the grime and mold on a driveway and allow cleaning without having to spend alot of time on the area. Even with my surface cleaner it takes awhile to get a really nasty driveway to look like new. I welcome any suggestions on driveway chemicals. Apologies, Ryan H.

Eric posted the following in a private message. Reposted here in case anyone has anything to offer: "thanks for your help. A few questions if I may. What is TSP? Using a detergent like citracleen, how many sq ft. can i expect to get out of it. Lastly, doe steh x-jet control how much detergent gets pulled from the detergent bucket? People say you can apply a stronger ratio of detergent w/ x-jet. How come??" TSP is tri-sodium phosphate and is a good general purpose cleaner. It's stated purpose is for paint preparation, but it also works well as a detergent. I use about one cup per 10-15 gallons of house wash mix. I have never used citracleen, so I can't give any information on it. I know that 10-15 gallons of the mix I make is more than adequate for a 2500-3000 sq. ft. two/three floor vinyl house (the most common house call I get). The X-Jet (and any downstreamer) works by a physical phenomenon discovered quite awhile back by a gentlemen named Bernoulli (won't go anymore on that). Basically, the downstreamer on a pump or hose allows an exchange of pressure between the area outside the hose and the inside. As the water moves inside the hose (speed increases when you hold the trigger and the water flows), its pressure drops....if the pressure drops to below atmospheric pressure, then the air from outside will move into into the hose line to try and balance that pressure. That's why you get alot of air in your stream when you switch to the black soap tip on your gun. If you attach another hose to the downstreamer and drop it into an bucket of chemical (open to the atmosphere), the hose acts like a straw: the air pushes on the chemical, which is pushed into the "straw" and into your pressure hose. The chemical mixes with your water and comes out of your gun at a lower concentration. The amount of chemical that goes into the downstreamer is dependent upon the size of the orifice and the pressure difference between the flowing water and the atmostphere. Since the pressure difference is usually constant when you use the same tip, changing the orifice size of the downstreamer will change the amount of chemical. To control this, X-jet comes with proportioner tips that allows you to change the water:chemical ration from approximately 2:1 up to 1000:1 (or maybe 10000:1, can't remember). I don't care to change the tips, so I just leave them out and stream everything at a 3:1 ratio and mix my solution to give me the final concentration I need for a certain project. So, in answer to your question: Yes. The X-jet can control the amount of detergent pulled from the bucket (with the proportioner tips), and increasing the amount of detergent flow will increase your concentration. I hope I explained the reasons well enough above (if you want the nuts and bolts of it, check out google or howstuffworks.com for "Bernoulli's Principle"). Ryan H.

No aluminum siding on houses in my target areas, so no worries there. If there are any aluminum areas/structures nearby (such as awnings or decorative work), I take precautions to keep them safe. Purple power works on gutters perfectly well. It removes the black streaks and there is no scrubbing involved. The key is to limit dwell time to no more than 40 seconds at full strength. Applied with a pump up sprayer, I can reach up to 25-30 feet with a directed stream. I've only had one situation in which it performed less than perfectly and it was on a house with 20 year-old gutters (never cleaned says the homeowner). The paint was a different type of paint than on gutters now (looked more like a cheap hand painted job), so I assumed that the streaks (oil based themselves) had penetrated the paint. Full cleaning would have required removing the paint. As for "decent" results, there is no such thing in my work. I pride myself on having integrity and providing top-quality work. Because I don't use a pre-packaged cleaner does not by any means indicate insufficient quality. I don't use outdoor bleach on my houses; I was using it as an example of products containing biodegradable material and does so by a different chemical reaction path than chlorine gas escaping the solution or radicals reacting with surrounding material (the free radicals are one of the reasons for the belief that chlorine adversely affects roofing materials, and possibly a good reaon given enough time and exposure). I use pool chlorine and can mix it to the concentration I need to give quality results. Please don't make the mistake of assuming that because someone chooses different materials than you have found to be adequate that they sacrifice quality and offer "decent" results. It's somewhat degrading and unprofessional (check some of my last posts and you should be able to understand that quality and customer satisfaction are my primary concerns). I also have other chemicals in my "arsenal." Greased Lightening is invaluable for window sills and such...things that can't be cleaned by pressure and require scrubbing. Window cleaner is an absolute. What good is a clean house if you can't look out of your windows without obstruction. I haven't had any requests for deck work (everyone is content with their pressure treated decks) so I don't have a need for any wood care products. Ryan H.

I bought the X-Jet (adjustable tip, I believe called the M5) and have not had to use any of my tips since. It is a phenomenal tool and is by far the most important part of my kit. It's even reduced the number of times I've had to use my 24' extension pole by over 90% (I used to use it on almost every house, now I use it in very rare situations). I now use a bleach/TSP mix with water for my house wash mix. I usually X-jet my mix on so that the bleach solution is around 1% when it touches the house. I've had no need to use any dish detergent. All (commercially available) chemicals are biodegradable given enough time, so almost anything will fit this description. Clorox Outdoor Bleach has additives to break the solution down to water and salts to make them relatively harmless. I use Purple Power for gutters and they claim to be biodegradable. My house wash mix does a decent job at loosening the grime and mold on driveways and stone.

See if you can get contact information for the new owner and talk to them about doing a complete strip/seal to last for a long time and be a beautiful job instead of doing a half-job that will need to be replaced in a short amount of time. No sense selling them a lemon.

A good builder *should* have a provision in the contracts with the sub-contractors that each one will remove their own trash (drywall removes all drywall scraps, framers remove all wood scrap, etc.). In reality, this hardly ever happens to an acceptable degree. I've helped some friends who are building houses with their cleanup (never done it for a contractor or builder, and never for money) and have found that it's best to do it several times on the interior while the house is going up and maybe once or twice on the outside. The biggest mess you will probably find is pieces of wire from the electricians, MANY wood scraps from the framers/carpenters, and LOTS of sawdust EVERYWHERE!!!! If the builders are concerned about offering top quality on the houses they build, then I would suggest you do a very good cleaning before the insulation people come in to put up their stuff. This will remove any dirt, dust, bugs, etc. from inside the walls. Another cleaning after the drywall is up but before the painters come in (you don't want any dust getting stirred up and getting into the paint). The carpet people will probably do their own thing before installing it, but you might want to make sure. The basic answer would be to clean just before the most crucial stage of the houses completion (typically before the walls are finished since you can't do anything once they're in place). If you want to get into this and optimize your speed, I would suggest investing in a high-capacity vacuum unit (so you don't have to constantly empty it), a few push brooms and large pan, a few rolling trash cans, and one of those big trash dumpsters on wheels (around 100 - 200 gallon capacity) so you can put larger scraps of wood, insulation, drywall, etc. in. Maybe a generator if no electricity in place yet. Cleaning in phases would definitely save you some time if you are doing tract housing and can do many houses in one day. That sounds like decent money for cleanup work if it can be done in a single day. Just wear a mask while you clean....I was blowing dust and dirt out of my nose for a week after one project (where I didn't have protection).

You should realize that there is no special skill involved in post construction cleanup, so you shouldn't expect anymore pay than a contractor can get away with for cheap labor. I don't know about your area, but a contractor in the Atlanta, GA area can get away with paying a group of people less than $300 to clean up a site. This is for a group (team of 3 - 5) men working VERY hard and getting the job done in a day. The contractors don't usually care about thoroughness, just enough to get by, so selling them on your top quality will usually not work. Sorry if this sounds bleak, I'm just trying to point out the facts.

Clorox Outdoor Bleach is available at The Home Depot and Lowes definitely, and possibly at some other places (I haven't checked them). Comes in 196 oz jugs (I think I have that value right) at a cost of around $6 or $7. Seems pretty effective at a 10:1 ratio. 2 of these containers is plenty to do an average 2500 sq. ft vinyl siding house.

Damn, Philip! I was going to see if you wanted to meet up at the shooting range in your area for a few rounds sometime. I might need to reconsider that :) Hope you get better and back up to full speed. Ryan H.

This has been brought up in some other threads. Possile reasons were: Water getting behind the seams in the siding (where two pieces join along the horizontal). Water being forced under the vinyl by high pressure or an angle lower than the siding Water getting into weep holes and washing dirt out from behind

I have toyed around with the idea of posting this type of question in the past, and this may a good thread to put it in. If anyone feels like it will be offensive, I'm sure a moderator will remove it; good sense should tell me that if I'm apprehensive at all then I shouldn't post it to begin with, but I think it's a valid question on evaluating customers. Here goes. Is there any group of people you feel are "better" customers than others? For example, do you feel more satisfied when your customers are very wealthy and have elaborate homes, or average income where the homes are standard (I know this will vary with geography, but the principle should remain). Or, is there any particular "race" of people (I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that classification, but atleast everyone will know what I'm talking about). For example, my favorite type of customer is a middle to high class black man or woman. I have found (in my area) that they usually know what they want and they let you know ahead of time. Also, they express their gratitude and awe of a job well done with concrete claims like "I had no idea it could look this good" or "my gutters are actually white under there!" I guess my second runner up would be upper-middle aged and upper middle-classed white women. They have similar claims in the end, but they aren't as forthcoming with their expectations up front. Also, it takes a little prodding to get them to realize that there are problems with things like the trim and gutters (they usually just see the mold on the patio and sides of the house). Third would be the busy man (any age) who is always on his way to or from work and always has to call someone. He'll pretty much give free reign on the house and say "everything looks good" when the job's done. Good money, but not much in the way of feedback. Fourth would be single white men. The absolutely bottom of the list, the customer I know I will have the most trouble with, the one that I almost dread when I hear the voice......indian women or asians in general. Don't get me wrong, I'm around asians all the time (taekwondo school) and my best friend's wife is asian (my wife and I love her dearly), but for the most part, when it comes to being customers, they are the most ambiguous with their desires, the most picky when the job is done, and the most apt to ask for extras in the middle of the job. When I try to tell them there will be an inflated cost for the extra work, I usually hear something like "it's not worth having ______ done if you can't do ______. " You can insert anything for the ______ you want (gutters, roof, windows, deck, etc.). It's mostly because of this type of customer that I changed my approach to business and offer an all-inclusive cleaning so there can be no dispute or changes and they know the cost of everything up front. And when the job is done, they just look around and either nod saying "okay" or say nothing at all. Maybe a communication issue, but it still feels good to hear some type of feedback. I would have to say the Indian (from India, not the Americas) women are the worst of that group, though. Single women, women who live with other female roomates, older white couples who harken from the depression and WWII era and appreciate a "hard days work" (primarily the men over the women) are all good customers. I feel I should point out that all of my jobs are priced solely upon the condition of the house and property, not the people who live there. All of my pricing is indiscriminately set and is fair, so there can be no judgement about my like of one type of customer paying more than another based upon these obversations. The only thing that affects price is house size, tasks involved, and the condition (how dirty). I know this is a long post, but I'm just curious if anyone else has any similar encounters in their work.

A nice looking awning next to a set of dirty windows would look worse than when you started. Best to include the window cleaning in your price and tell them that it is a necessity due to the runoff. I have a similar problem when I do gutters...customers are understanding and like the additional service (increased price doesn't phase them much either for the extras). If you are worried about the glass getting the sealer on it, either rinse the windows every few minutes or cover them with painter's plastic (don't know if that's the official name, but it is a very thin sheet of plastic that is intended to be disposable and can cover large areas). Then clean when you are done. Mr. Clean has just started advertising a product you can use when washing cars that is supposed to remove minerals from the water when you do the final car rinse. You hook your hose to it (low pressure) and run it (like you do with some pesticides). I'm pretty sure it's based upon a cheap ion-exchange device to remove the stuff from the water (like a deionizer). Maybe you can rinse with that to prevent hard water deposits.

Don't know much about the large machines, but could the valve be stuck? Or could there be some pressure behind that's not allowing it to be freed?

I don't do decks nor wood restoration, so I can't give specific recommendations on what setup would be best, but as a general rule you should consider the conditions under which you will be working. If you go with a truck and trailer, will you feasibly be able to get into and out of the driveways of your customers, or will you have to park on the street because of the size of your bulk? If you had to park on the street, how much "running around" would you have to do to adjust your hoses and nozzles when you switch from one chemical to another? Dragging your equipment to the deck itself? With a truck and trailer, would you have to have two licensed vehicle tags (as opposed to one for a van)? Try to sketch out the things you know for a fact you will need and see if you can fit them into a van in a manner that will allow you to easily reach your equipment. Do a little research on the sizes of some of the equipment (water tank dimensions, footprint area of your pressure washer, rough estimate of how much space your hose or reels will take up, ladders, etc.). If you can put together an idea of how much space you need to make it work, you can make the decision between a regular van, extended cargo van, truck, trailer, etc. I know others on here will be able to give more specific information based upon their own setups, so hopefully you will be able to get a more accurate idea of what will work best for you. As a side point, I wouldn't think your water tank is necessary. Unless you are doing a deck on a new construction home, you should assume that water will be available. It's not a bad idea to keep a few gallons around for rinsing out your equipment, though (or just a few buckets you can fill up on site). Good luck! Ryan H>

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Chances are I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I will venture to say #2. Keeping all "normal" variables relatively constant (power, flowrate, and pressure), they should be the same price. BUT, the revolutions on the motor on #2 is almost half that of the first, which suggests that it is most likely a belt drive. Everyone who has given an opinion on which is better says that belt drive is the way to go if you intend to use your machine for business. If it's just for around the house stuff, go with #1. As for pressure drop, I think the number I saw on here awhile back is approximately a 100 psi drop per 100 feet of hose (about 23 bar per 100 m). Choose your hose such that you won't drop below your desired end pressure.

Steve, here's the personal mumbojumbo in case nobody wants to read it with the relevant stuff above. Yeah, close in age. I just turned 25 a few months ago (wife is 26, though). A few years ago I started a commercial janitorial service so that I could have better working hours while I as in college (took me 7 years in case you were wondering about the time/age thing). Fast forward to last year. One of my accounts had some really bad mildew growing on their main entrance, bad to the point of being slippery in when it rained. I talked some things over with them and worked it out that I could pressure wash it. Trouble was, I didn't have a pressure washer. I bought the machine, did the job (which paid for half of it), did a few jobs around my neighborhood to get some experience and make enough money to pay off the machine. After spending entire days doing what now seem like simple tasks, I started investing in some equipment to help. Extension wands, extra hoses, hose reels, sprayers, a ladder, etc. The entire time I was reading almost every thread that was ever posted on this site and a few others (this has by far been the best for me, though) and learning. Starting advertising, bought some more equipment, made my wife mad because I never accumulated any money, I just reinvested it in more equipment. Now I have most of what I need, I'm finished with school, so I guess I will put it to work. I've never had a complaint on my work, so I guess that's sign that I'm doing something right. I'd like to teach, but the schools around here are funny. They would rather hire someone who has a teaching degree than someone who *really* knows what they are talking about. It's like they would rather have someone who will be understanding of kids' faults and pamper them (keep in mind that I'm in GA, the worst in the COUNTRY for education in public schools). I'd teach chemistry and physics, and math (I really like calculus) if they would allow it. Oh well. I'll still keep the equipment to do work here and there. I just need something a little more stable for the time being (we're supposed to have three kids according to the pencil test). I'm looking at getting into real estate in the very near future, but one never knows. I'll keep at the washing, though. Believe it or not, it's rather relaxing (especially on sunny summer days).

Steve, Actually, it's chemical engineering, which pretty much means that the only thing I can do is tell you anything you want about steam and how to distill alcohol. You'd think we would do alot of stuff with chemistry, but it focuses mostly on the properties of chemicals (nothing useful when you want to actually make stuff). I guess you are referring to chlorine bleach. I'm not sure of all of the stuff they put in it, but I do know that in addition to sodium hypochlorite you will also find sodium hydroxide (in smaller amounts). After that it get's a little tricky. Clorox makes an outdoor bleach that has some stuff in it to really remove dirt and grime. I don't know exactly, but probably some surfactants and detergents. Regular bleach like you use in your laundry doesn't contain all of the extra stuff. Thanks to the advice from some people here, I started using TSP in my house wash. Now I use about 10 cups of calcium hypochlorite (from the pool supply store) and about 1.5 cups of TSP per 20 gallons water and X-jet at 2:1. I have found that this works well for vinyl siding and asphalt roofs. The only thing I've found is that I usually need to clean the windows after I wash the house. Since this is a service I do anyway, I don't find this to be a big deal. From the post Paul posted a few days ago, I take it that hypochlorite (the active portion, whether it is bound with sodium or calcium) is okay for the roof. I just make sure I rinse very thoroughly. I try to leave the strong degreasers (hydroxide) off the roofs.

I have read the same information Paul put up from many different places. Owens Corning has begun using copper-coated granules on roofs to prevent any growth of algae, so they have some idea of what's going on in that department. Steve, Small world. My dad graduated from Clemson (some years ago). I just graduated from Georgia Tech last week. I don't care much for college sports, but if I did, can you imagine the rivalry that would be in our house?

I know what you mean!! My wife complained about her 14" CRT moniter and slooooow computer. So I gave her my 15" LCD and rebuilt a computer I had sitting around for her. All she wanted was an internet machine. It screamed because it was more stripped down than mine and actually runs faster than mine (even though the processor is half the speed and it has half the memory). I bought a new 17" LCD for myself, and now she has taken over mine!! No big deal though, I turned the other one into a jukebox for the kitchen; I also put all of my music (cd's, only one record, and no tracks of any kind) onto it and, with the network, can have good swing music playing all over the house, atleast until she comes home.

The oil is pretty much sterile, so bottle it up and keep it (or leave it in the frying container and cap it). Use it to make buffalo wings for New Years or french fries. And even if it become contaminated, getting it to the point at which it will fry something will kill anything in it.

No no no, not actually make it backwards like a "b," rather instead of beginning at the top and working your way down to make the loop join the original line (like most people do), you begin with the loop and work your way around to the top (basically making in a clockwise fasion, like kids with ADD or ADHD do). Another cool left/right brain experiment is trying to say what the words color the words below are in: Red Blue Green Black Yellow Red Yellow Green Red Blue Yellow Green Green Red Yellow

You never want to keep rinsing to try to "force" all of the grime out. The dirt is most likely residual from when the house was being built, when they put up the insulation and the dirt and dust adhered to it. The siding goes over it and all of the dirt stays, so you will most likely never get it to "run clean." If you keep trying to wash it out, the water you are using to displace the dirt will remain behind the siding and can cause problems for the homeowner down the road (mildew, rot, mold, etc.). If you do happen to get some under the siding and the grime runs out, do like CCPC (not sure of his real name) said and go on to another area, then come back and *gently* rinse with low pressure (far away) the dirt off, and if any more dirt comes from under the siding, use a towel to clean it off. Same with the eaves and vents. Think about this, when it rains on the house, rain comes from above and nothing comes from underneath the siding. If you are washing a house, you should be mimicking the flow pattern of the rain, and you see something that is normally not present after a rainfall, the pattern you are using to clean might not be correct for the job (doesn't really matter with brick or stucco, or other solid sidings). Even spraying straight on with the siding could force small amounts of water under the siding directly above your point of impact (water will move equally in all directions). It's best to have a slight downward angle to avoid this situation. Something that *is* a pain is when the grime runs from behind shutters. This is usually from dirt from the wind or from bugs (the flying kind that sting) making homes behind it. This will come out and is fine to clean since there is usually adequate ventilation to dry out whatever water you put behind it, just rinse it from the top and let the water wash everything out at the bottom until it runs clear.

It would be a devastation to the industry if this was a common problem. How did your machine come packaged? Was it in a box or already put together and you just rolled it out of the store? If it was in box, could you have knicked it with a knife while opening everything? A small score in the hose will weaken it at that point and could cause a rupture over time. If it was pre-assembled, there is a possibility that either the same thing happened with whomever opened it the first time or maybe it incurred some type of damage while in storage or on display. If none of these things seem plausible, you might consider your working environment. Did you drag it around a sharp corner (corner of a brick house, concrete sidewalk, aluminum siding or downspout, etc.). Perhaps lay a piece of equipment on it in your truck or trailer that could have cut it? Hoses are pretty resilient, so these things typically will not damage a hose (atleast not in 5 minutes), so maybe something a little more harsh. Allowing the hose to come in contact with a hot engine can ruin it immediately. I don't think 2400 psi would be enough to cut a hose, so crossing your stream over the hose probably wouldn't have damaged it to this point. I have used the same three hoses for the past 8 months or so and have been VERY rough with them (pulling on them and dragging them through all types of terrain) and have had no problem with them,but they may also be a different type or quality. I think mine are made by goodyear and are black (many of the 2400 psi machines I see come with grey hoses and aren't quite as tough on the weave). If any of these things sound like possibilities, play stupid and take the hose back to the store for a swap out (there should be a warranty) and learn from your mistake. Of course, there is always the chance that it could have just been a bad batch of hose.

In GA (and possibly others) you have to be licensed to apply pesticide to any property other than your own and, in some extreme cases, to even buy a commercial/professional grade pesticide. I would check with some pest control companies in your area and see if maybe you can work out a cooperative effort with them to refer work of this type to them (for a split fee). With their contacts (customers), you might be able to pick up some work from their end as well. Networking works great if you can get with the right and reputable people. Also, you have to consider the time factor. Most pesticide (the kind that are sprayed on) are only effective for a few weeks at the most and you don't want to get in the business of having customers needing to call you back for your "side" service (not enough money in that for you).