Mike Williamson

I haven't seen itmuch, but I have seenit alittle. :lgbonk:

By "gutters" are you talking about cleaning them out, or cleaning the outside of them? I can't imagine cleaning a house and leaving dirty looking gutters...in fact, It'd be hard NOT to get housewash on the gutters. I know some have suggested this, but when I walk away from a job, I want people to say "WOW!", not "wow, he missed those gutters" or "is that as clean as he could get those gutters"? I've even gotten to the point where, if the house is nasty, I won't just clean the roof...since the runoff winds up cleaning certain areas of the gutters/fascia and even the siding, and leaving others dirty. The only way I'll do a roof only cleaning is if the house is already clean. As far as windows, I use a rinse aid in the wash mix, and don't have a problem with spotty windows. I've never done anything except Xjet housewash, dwell, and rinse well, and have never had a complaint about the windows being spotty afterwards. In fact, if the homeowner wants a price for the housewash AND for window cleaning, I tell them to wait until after the house is washed and dries to decide on the window cleaning, since the vast majority of the time the windows are sufficiently clean.

Do you use a surface cleaner? I can see it being really mess if you were wanding it. I've unless the water is 1" deep or something, you shouldn't need to remove the water prior to cleaning.

I've never had a problem with water pooling on the driveway from doing the house...and I don't make any more mess of the house doing the flatwork than I'd make of the driveway doing the house...either way, I have to rinse it down...Much easier to rinse the house down (15 seconds?) after doing the driveway than to re-rinse 1/2 the driveway because I now have soap/chlorine runoff all over it.

Yes. I have a seperate "tank" for the chlorine/water mix for the roof, and a housewash mix that is used for the house, gutters (unless they're in need of gutter shock), and driveway. If I have to clean a deck, I just mix up a bucket of wood cleaner (sodium percarbonate) onsite. Most of the chems I use are in 5 gallon jugs, with the exception of chlorine (I keep it in a 30 gallon drum) and housewash soap (I keep that in a 15, and refill from the 55 gallon drum at the house as needed). I have chlorine, citracleen (housewash soap), gutter shock (for gutter streaks), RPC2000 (concrete degreaser), Roof magic (a roof cleaner that I use as a heavy duty degreaser), wood cleaner, wood stripper, oxalic acid, window cleaner, and simple green degreaser.

The problem is that in order to be rated for 3000+ psi, it has to be heavy...I've tried ligher ball valves, and they start leaking (and could possibly come apart in a very nasty way). The one I use is no where near 5 lbs...weighs a good bit less than my wand, so I really don't notice the extra weight. I've heard the weight complaint before about ball valves, but just don't get it...We haul hose and buckets all day long, what's an extral pound?

Yeah. And? What's wrong with 666?

This topic has been beaten to death here and elsewhere ever since the elections heated up last year. I'm really not interested in a nasty political debate, so go look elsewhere. If you don't like him, well, that's your choice. There are things about him I don't like too....The bottom line is, he's our President. I'm not interested in trying to force anything on anyone...If someone is interested in an intelligent debate on the issues, I'm usually game, but I really don't want to argue whether Bush is our savior or the antichrist, which seems to be where you'd like to go with this. I said what I have to say about those who parrot the leftist crap that "Bush is an idiot". Deal with it.

Bill Engvall is better. In fact, a lot of stuff that is attributed to Jeff Foxworthy is actually Bill Engvall...they sound quite a bit alike, and their material is similar. Engvall is the "Here's your sign" guy...funny as hell. I don't like Larry the Cable Guy...just a tad too crude for my tastes, but I did like Ron White. He's funny, but on other tapes where he doesn't have to tone things down, he's a bit too foulmouthed.

But there will be...The general public is fickle, and it doesn't take much to turn them against you...They can get gung-ho behind a president one minute, but as soon as he does or says something they don't like, they're looking for an alternative. That, and many never really bother thinking for themselves...they fall for the scare tactics used by both sides. There ought to be an intelligence test for voters, and other criteria.

Bush is far from an idiot. Anyone using that old sad line really hasn't taken the time to educate themselves about the man.. You may not like his politics, his faith, the way he talks, or his past, but he's certainly not an idiot.

What do you mean? Jeb in 2012, 2016, and Jenna in 2020. :)

this concept was widely talked about on talk radio...the clintons didn't want Kerry to win, since they'd be facing an incumbant in 2008 if he did....Much easier to face a new candidate in the primaries. I don't think she'll win, maybe not even win the dem. nominatin. She's too much out of the limelight now, and too much time has passed.

Or the sequel...the BCCT rides again.

I think anyone who buys into that stuff is crazy...Paying that kind of money to be able to buy your chems from this guy, and then trying to tell your customers that: 1. It's bad to put chlorine on the roof 2. Our solution will clean your roof in a few months, and keep it clean for a couple years 3. If you don't want to wait a few months, we'll be happy to clean it with chlorine like the guys do who we say are damaging your roof. They misrepresent the dangers of chlorine, despite the recommendations by shingle manufacturers to use chlorine. Crazy

Not sure who you're referring to, but the people who sell me the chem that keeps roofs clean for 2+ years is Pinch-a-Penny pool supply....And their chemicals are a lot cheaper than Roofacide.

Aww c'mon...The guy was only missing ONE finger...Not two...So you're safe. :zipit:

Do you try very hard to tell them that it'd be cheaper to just clean it when it gets dirty rather than blowing money on BS coatings that likely aren't any more effective than regular cleanings? I agree with CCPC...people selling services that aren't necessary wind up damaging this industry.

If the customers want a roof to stay clean for years, and are willing to pay to have a roof coating applied once or twice per year, why would they be opposed to having it cleaned every 2-5 years instead? I can't see that it'd be cheaper to coat the roof 1-2 times per year than it would be to clean it every 2-5 years. If anything, I would imagine it would be more expensive. I can clean a typical walkable roof on a 2000 square foot house for around $200.00, in 2-3 hours. Worst case, if they have it done every 2 years, that's $1000.00 to keep it clean over a span of 10 years. If you coat it twice a year, that's $50.00 per application to stay competitive with the price to clean it. I would guess the re-treatments are a good bit more expensive than that?

Yeah, that happened up in the NW...which is where there are a lot of JITB. They have great food, just had some undercooked burgers. It wasn't a cleanliness issue (and it usually isn't with E. Coli, just undercooked hamburger.) It's happened to other restaurants (I remember subway making some people sick or killing them with bad mayo in their tuna about 13 years ago).

http://schlotzskys.know-where.com/schlotzskys//region/US/VA.html

Oh yeah, Schlotzkys is good! There's a burger place here that's great (best burgers, good chicken, great onion rings) called Whataburger...I know they have them in TX, and they're expanding more and more here in FL. They give Wendy's a run for their money.

Ditto everything Don said...I'd lose the shingle coating, unless you're making good money as an add-on with it. Basically, when you're cleaning with chlorine, you're killing every bit of algae on the roof. You're starting fresh. It took at least several years for that roof to get nasty, so doesn't it follow that it will take several more years to get nasty again? I don't want my customers' roofs to stay clean for 20 years, or even 10. I want repeat customers, within a reasonable number of years. I also question the effectiveness of any spray on coating as far as mold inhibition. How long does that stuff really stay on the roof inhibing mold. Years? I really doubt it. Chlorine is, in my opinion, the easiest and most effective way to clean a roof. As Don mentioned, Sodium Hydroxide is a degreaser, and I don't think we ought to be coating an asphalt shingle roof with a degreaser.

I've got about 40 gallons of out in back you can have...I used it for a short time until I started using Citracleen (a NON-d-Limonene based citrus soap). The limonene streaked aluminum, hazed windows, didn't work well as a soap, and was generally crap. Why "get around" a problem with there are much better products out there?

Burning out the motor or the switch isn't an issue, that's what the switch is designed for. I often run mine with a smaller tip, causing it to cycle on and off constantly, and have not had any problems. My feeling is that if you need a higher concentration of chems than the Xjet can provide (or draw either longer or higher distances) and you need more flow than the shur-flow can provide, a roller pump type setup might be in order.