Mike Williamson

Hey, we're fine! Some folks in Port Charlotte got hit hard, but for the most part, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. We got a steady rain here all day, until about 2:30pm...and then nothing. No real impact from the storm at all...which is funny since it was supposed to pass more or less directly over our house, based on NOAA tracking models.

I agree...in fact, one line in a mailer I use frequently is "I will not try to sell you a service you don't need." I've talked customers out of work before because I could not in good conscience charge then to clean what was already clean. Example...I washed a house last week...The husband mentioned the wife wanted a price to do the windows...So I wrote up a proposal. However, when I gave it to her, I noticed all the windows came out sparkling clean just with the house wash. No need to clean the windows. I told her this, and asked her to just hold on to the proposal until she felt the windows needed cleaning, and I'd honor that price. I couldn't honestly have done any better by cleaning them with a scrubber and a squeegee...so I'd have been dishonest in charging her to do so. I do agree with CCPC though...If a customer is adamant, after all my efforts to convince them otherwise...sure, I'll wash it if you insist. They're going to pay someone to wash it, why not me, so long as I've done my best to explain to them that it isn't needed.

For about $300.00 more, you can get a good belt drive cold water machine, which should last you a good bit longer, and will be more reliable. I agree with Tony...His price list is at $1000.00, and that doesn't include the hose, wand, tips, etc. I'd say you'd have at least $1200.00 in it when you were through, not including any shipping you might have to pay, and the time it will take you to put it all together.

I use between 1 and 2 gallons of 10.5% pool chlorine, and between 1/2 and 1 gallon of citracleen. This works well at removing bugs, webs, cocoons. I've never run into any type of bug debris that won't come off with this mix.

That's like saying "What did high-rise construction workers do before OSHA and safety gear? They FELL! Let's leave the good old days in the past. Oh, and I don't even want to THINK about life before the Xjet!

Stucco will hold up to a lot more pressure than Dryvit.

I don't believe the person offering these invites is a Google rep. He's posted here before on various issues. It is funny to have an invite to access Google's webmail experiment but not make it available to those with webmail only (the ones who'd be best served by it). I already have an ISP based email account, and a lot more than a gig of space to store my messages. Why do I need google to store my mail? It isn't available to just anyone...they're only allowing those who've been invited to test it out. As for this board being "better than the others", everyone has their preferences. I don't think any particular board is "better". It is all in what you're looking for.

There may be other replies to this, I haven't read that far yet...I just had to jump in here. I TOTALLY disagree with this statement, and this viewpoint. While I agree that SOME folks may not have the ability or aptitude in many different areas to do a high quality and professional job in all of them, that is certainly not the case for everyone. If I decided to pull out my carpentry tools and begin doing deck building, or pull out my paint sprayer and decide to do painting, etc, why would I not be able to do a high quality and professional job? Does being a pressurewashing contractor make me less capable as a painter? I get what you're saying, I just don't agree with a blanket statement like "There's no such thing as a high quality jack of all trades". I've known a few. People who are very very good at many many things.

I've tried Xjetting pool chlorine (meaning it is 3+% when it hits the concrete) on the black spotty mold that grows on concrete, and it helps, but doesn't clear the spots up completely, even with repeated applications. Using straight pool chlorine will do the trick. I suggested a pump up sprayer to help avoid the possibility of damaging grass/plants. I WOULD suggest prewetting any nearby vegetation, and then re-wetting after applying the chlorine.

Well, hey, I don't think the tips are THAT good... :)

I'm my favorite charity! :)

Cool website! Not being critical, but it is Patrick Swayze (unless there is someone else named Patrick Sways?) Do you get a lot of demand for inflatable stuff like that? Looks like you have a wide variety!

eric: To get rid of those green and black spots, spray STRAIGHT pool chlorine on them. You can use a pump up sprayer for this. You may need to spray them more than once, but this will get rid of them completely. If you try Xjetting it on, it won't work well. It needs to be very strong (I use 10.5% pool chlorine). I struggled with a way to get rid of those too, and for a long time I just figured they weren't coming up. Xjetting chlorine didn't touch them, so I didn't think anything would. Then one day I got really frustrated with a particularly bad walkway, so I just opened a jug of pool chlorine and poured it on the sidewalk. Wala! Like magic, the stains were gone in less than a minute. As far as dirt streaks, sometimes that can't be helped, usually due to drainage problems. I usually try to point out any areas like this to the homeowner, so they don't think I'm just being sloppy, or hoping they don't notice. Whenever there's something I can't get just right for whatever reason, I make sure the homeowner is aware of it, and aware of the reason. Don: Why wouldn't a person accept tips? That's simply a homeowner's way of saying "Thanks, I'm very very happy". I would think turning it down might offend some. It makes the homeowner feel good. In fact, I had a homeowner a couple months ago walk down the street to the house I was doing two days later and tip me, because he said he had trouble sleeping knowing I did the job as well as I did for the money I charged him (which was a fair rate).

Is your machine trailer mounted, or do you drag it around behind you? Either way, keeping a couple hundred feet of supply hose and a couple hundred feet (at least) of pressure hose should keep you from having any problems with most residential jobs. I have 300' of supply hose and 350' of pressure hose on the trailer, and have run into jobs where I've needed every bit of both. I'm planning to add another 200' of pressure hose soon.

I agree here...If you're proficient at repairs, then by all means, do them yourself if you have the time. On the other hand, I'd rather pay a mechanic $50.00/hour to do a repair that takes him 3 hours than spend 8 or 10 hours (or more) figuring out how to do it myself, running down parts and tools, etc. I can make way more in that 8 or 10 hours washing than I'll pay the mechanic to fix it and get me up and running quick. I'm not proficient in small engine repair, though I'm sure I could fix any problems I run into. How long it will take me to fix them is the question. It just isn't economical to spend my washing time piddling around with something I'm not efficient at fixing. I do agree, though, that it is smart to learn as much as you can about repairs. Many problems you'll run into are fairly simple to fix, once you know how, and knowing how may mean the difference between finishing that job today or having to waste another day coming back after you get your machine fixed. Like Tony said, why is $50.00/hour too much to pay the mechanic but it isn't too much to pay me to wash something? I guarantee it took a skilled small engine mechanic a lot longer to learn his craft than it did for me to learn mine.

Another thing to consider when pricing is the method by which you're going to clean the roof (Chlorine, sodium hydroxide, etc. Are you going to apply from the roof or the ground...How are you applying your chems? Xjet, shur-flo, downstream, pump up, etc) Also, is the roof one story, or more? Is it a fairly complicated roof, or pretty simple? (Meaning are there lots of different angles, valleys, etc, or is it a pretty simple 2 or four sided roof?

It depends on what I'm washing. Usually I rinse with the zero tip, or with a 2515 tip. Sometimes I rinse with the Xjet, if it is an easy rinse. The one thing the zero tip is nice for is removing cocoons, wasp nests, and cobwebs, especially on 2nd story eaves that are hard to reach.

Damn....wished I'd checked the boards earlier...was busy upgrading my system to XP Pro. The best way I've found to do this is to use a large zero degree nozzle. I use a size 20. It seems to work well for driving the needles back out, or breaking them off so the outer part flies off and the inner part drops off. It does take some time, but you can get all the needles off. It is the same tip I use to rinse while washing houses most of the time. I never tried the rotary tip..someone suggested it, but my method seems to work fairly well.

That's what I noticed with the pool chlorine. I used to use about a gallon, maybe less, per 5 gallon bucket, but didn't get the results I wanted on heavy mold/algae areas. Then one day I had a 15 gallon drum of chlorine on a hand truck set up while I was doing a roof from the ground (about 2.5 stories tall and unwalkeable). I figured I'd shoot the side of the house with the chlorine first, then soap it, then rinse. I hit it with the chlorine and the algae just ran off. Soooo...I figured out I needed to up my chlorine content in the housewash. Now, I typically just dump a 2.5 gallon jug into the bucket, add about a gallon of citracleen, and water (and a foamer, rinse aid, and wax as needed). Just upping the chlorine and using the citracleen has saved me a lot of time. On vinyl that isn't dirty, just covered with algae, I can rinse with the soap tip. Makes it much easier to rinse, since I'm not forcing water behind the vinyl like I'd do if I was using high pressure to blast the algae off. I use the buckets, since it is a pain to drag out a cart and wrestle 120lb drums of chems. The time I lose doing 5 gallon buckets is more than saved in the time I'd lose fighting a handtruck. With the machine and a 225 gallon water tank, there isn't a whole lot of spare room in the trailer. It is just one less thing I have to drag in and out of the trailer. Some guys use the handtruck setup and love it. It just doesn't work for me.

Glad to see you're now a newly converted member of the church of the easily applied chems! I'm wondering if you shouldn't try getting some fresh chlorine from a pool place and see if that makes a difference. I'm using 10.5% and the MOST I ever need to coat any part of the roof is twice. The dwell really doesn't need to be more than a few minutes....I can usually start rinsing after 5 if I need to, and this is on some pretty nasty dirty roofs. Have you checked the draw rate on your Xjet? That's another possibility..If you have the wrong size orifice (internal part) for your size gpm, it will affect your draw rate. I'd time how long it takes to drain a 5 gallon bucket of water, and compare that ratio to your gpm to the xjet nozzle chart to see if you're fairly close to where you should be.

I've seen that, but I don't know if it would work as well, since you're still basically using one downstreamer that is sucking from three ports. I'd really be curious to see if two or more downstreamers would give me a 50% draw rate like I get from the Xjet. The only drawback to this is that I'm not crazy about running a 3% sodium hypochlorite solution through my hose reel, hoses, fittings, and gun. It would, however, solve the problem I have with the 12v pump deal.

Have you tested your draw ratio with both downstreamers? If two downstreamers work together, what about three, or four? From what I've heard from several folks, Adams downstreamers are hard to beat for their draw ratio.

Anyone interested in seeing exactly how this "accusation on another board" really went down, check it out... http://www.thecleanernetwork.com/showthread.php?t=1686&page=1 You had plenty of chance to retract those statements, but never did. Glad to see you've had a change of heart. I don't care whether the customer who has been rooked into overpaying for services they really don't need at prices they really don't have to pay "thinks" they're getting a value...Ignorance on their part doesn't equate to value. For example...A recent customer was happy with the price he paid for his last roof cleaning...over $400.00...Until he found out that I'd do it for $175.00....See, his perceived value was just that...perceived...not real. eric: I don't waste time measuring. I eyeball it, and can tell how long it will take. I multiply that times what I want per hour, add any out of the ordinary expenses (like stain for a deck, etc etc) and that's what it costs. The one thing I WILL measure is decking or fencing, because eyeballing it just isn't good enough when you're figuring how much to charge for stain, etc.

Possibly your air hole isn't big enough? It may be big enough to keep the bucket from imploding, but small enough to restrict the flow out of the bucket? Just a thought. It is very possible you're not getting strong enough chlorine. I've seen posts, and I think Rod posted one of them, about studies done on the loss of chlorine strength over time and under various conditions. It doesn't lose strength as quickly as some believe, but who knows how old some of that chlorine is. It would depend a lot on how much they use between fillings, etc. You might want to try getting some at a pool supply store and see if there's a difference. I coat the entire roof first, and then begin rinsing where I started coating. The dwell is usually at least 20 minutes, sometimes more depending on the size of the roof. Sometimes I have to recoat bad sections, but you should see pretty dramatic results within a minute. How do you get the chlorine from your tank to the drum on the roof?

Cool idea on the stool! I usually put my bucket on the ridge vents, most here have them. How much chlorine would you use on a typical roof on a 2000 square foot house? I'm wondering if you're getting the proper draw. Maybe air leaks in the line, or maybe not enough venting in thel bucket with the lid on? I use between 15 and 18 gallons of 10.5%, meaning I have to fill my 5 gallon bucket 3-4 times. Sometimes I'll use a bit less, but typically I start with 6 2.5 gallon jugs and sometimes need to haul one more up to the roof. The first place I'd start is checking that the draw rate is where it should be for your machine. Unless you're running higher than a 5.5gpm machine, you should get great results xjetting 10.5% straight. If you're using a smaller gpm machine, you'd get even better results, due to the lower ratio of chems/water. The only other possibilty I can think of is that you're getting old chlorine. ??