Mike Williamson

Here's the after pics...Note that the screened porches are not part of the job...

You might want to dig your Xjet out of the trash and rethink this... Depending on what the house is sided with, and what you are cleaning off of it, a 2 hour 2300 sq. foot 2 story housewash is well within the realm of possibility using the Xjet and the right chems. Dirt and mold/algae on a vinyl house? Easily in two hours, unless the gutters have to be brushed. I just got done doing 6 two story condo buildings, 35 units total, each building averaging about 7000 square feet at the base....Lots of dirt and mold, chimneys reaching up about 30' in some spots, all vinyl siding. 2-3 hours to do each, and yes, that is getting them clean. The gutters were dark grey and didn't need brushing so it was a simple job of Xjetting citracleen and chlorine, dwelling, and rinsing. Here's a couple before pics...

What's unsafe about using pool chlorine on vinyl??? I do it all the time, no problems.

I think the oil companies are screwing everyone, but only to a certain degree...Taxes haven't gone up in the past few months, and the cost of oil right now is actually cheaper than it has been in the past...and yet we are paying record gas prices...where is the increase really? Taxes, oil prices, or oil company profits? I'm not whining, I just don't like being lied to.

I also have a 4 cylinder Nissan, '91, sitting in the yard...150k miles on it and still running perfectly...It sat for a year and started right up...Wish I could pull my trailer with it! I keep meaning to clean it up and sell it, but I can't seem to bring myself to get rid of it.

I'd do a mileage test to see what I'm getting, but my odometer quit working about 30k miles ago (that's an estimate, since I have no way of knowing!) '88 Chevy 2500 5.7L...I get maybe 10mpg towing my rig (of course, that's an estimate)...I wonder if this is something that would help an older truck? It only has 70k miles or so on it, runs great, just lousy mileage.

35%, wow! I wonder how it would work on a roof, and at what strength?

When I'm applying chems to the roof, there isn't enough runoff to soak into the ground, but there IS enough to damage the plant's leaves, flowers, etc. When I rinse, everything is getting diluted plenty, so by the time the ground is saturated with chems and water, there isn't a high enough concentration of chlorine to hurt anything. Thus, the fact that I've never killed a plant. If this were a real concern, I'd have killed at least a few by now.

I've never killed a plant...Like Paul said, just rinse before, during, and after.

Usually when I do a roof, I have to rinse down the drip edge/gutters (keep in mind we only have shingles here), but that doesn't take more than 5-10 extra minutes.

Rob: I haven't even finished reading this thread, but I just had to reply to this...you say you're not ego driven...From what I've seen, you very ego driven...You are the only contractor I know of on any board who consistently posts how much he's making, how busy he is, how stupid others are for not charging the same, etc etc etc ad nauseum... If I had to choose who, between you and Paul, had vastly exaggerated claims in their posts, I'd have to say it isn't Paul. Just my opinion, of course. There are many companies around on these boards who have a much higher volume than you, and who have many many years more experience than you do, but I sure don't see them posting much about it...Most are just like you and me...well, just like me...They've just been at it longer and learned a hell of a lot in that time. Oh, while we're calling names and being critical, learn to spell!!!

I would imagine if you put nozzles in to lower your psi to 500 or less, you wouldn't get a lot of rotation. I'd be damned worried about damaging the roof. Too much pressure. The right chems and a LOW pressure rinse are the right way to go...What the right chems are is up for debate.

If I'm using the M5 Xjet to apply chems, I use that, with the wide pattern, to rinse plants. Otherwise, I'll use a 45100 tip or a soap tip.

Do you use the surface cleaner on tile roofs only, or on shingles too?

Actually, the 80/20 is a bit weaker than what I use on shingles...I use about a 70/30 ratio and I still have to rinse from the roof, and often have to re-coat areas. I don't do tiles, since we don't have any and I'm a bit large to walk tile roofs easily. I may spend some time this week playing around with the shurflo setup and see what I can figure out to make it faster. I made the PVC wand like you and Don suggested. I'll have to look to see what tip I put in it...don't recall right now. Fairly large and wide tip though.

Rick: What is the strength of the chlorine mix you're applying? I find I still have to rinse from the roof. I'd be interested in a pic of the nozzle you use to rinse.

Well, I went with the flojet because they had a higher output (4.5gpm) than the shurflo...But it sounds like I'm getting LESS than I may have gotten with the 3gpm shurflow. Live and learn...I wasn't even trying to save money going with a cheaper brand, it was just that Shurflo didn't have anything that high. I like the roller pump idea, because I can rinse with it too. I bet I can rinse the roof faster with 9gpm too. We'll have to see!

CCPC: I felt the same way at first....I'd get aggrivated with pulling buckets around, tipping them over, etc etc. I've gotten used to it, and it really takes no time at all to set up. I grab my bucket and Xjet, a bucket for mixing chems, set the bucket on the corner of the house, pour in my chems, add water, and I'm ready. I can apply chems to 1/2 the house in a couple minutes, and while they're dwelling (5 minutes, no more) I'm moving the bucket to the other side of the house and rinsing plants. Then I rinse the first 1/2 of the house and start over. Like Rob, I can be in and out in a bit over an hour with doing the gutters. No gutter cleaning, I'm in and out in less than an hour, and that's not being in a huge hurry. I am working on some condos right now that if I had to downstream, I'd never get them clean....I have some very badly mildewed chimneys that are about 30' tall...vinyl sided. On a couple I had to Xjet straight 10.5% to get them clean...you'd never get that kind of ratio with the downstreamer. I had 3.3% sodium hypochlorite hitting the mildew....with the downstreamer, the best you're going to get is between 1 and 2%, closer to 1%. With the Xjet, basically, if I can shoot it, I can clean it, without ladders, extensions, or lifts.

Build up of what? Without the Xjet, I'd not get done nearly as quick doing a typical housewash. My 5 gallon mix consists of 1/2 - 1 gallon of citracleen, 1-2 gallons of 10.5% pool chlorine, and water. A bit of wax and rinse aid, depending on what I'm washing. Anything less than 1 gallon of 10.5% in a 5 gallon bucket Xjetted on just doesn't cut the mold and algae very well. If I use 2 gallons, I never have to do anything but a very low pressure rinse. I just don't see how you get a strong enough chlorine ration through the downstreamer to be very effective.

The pump I installed is a 4.5gpm pump. The flow is great with a short length of hose, say 10' or so. When I run it through the 200' of hose I need to stretch from the trailer to the roof, the flow drops to damned near 1gpm. Maybe I need to take a day and go visit Rick! :)

I tried Xjetting from the roof from a 15 gallon drum on the ground and couldn't get a strong enough solution. I haul 2.5 gallon jugs up the ladder, one at a time. We don't have too many roofs here that aren't easily walkable, so that isn't really an issue. For those roofs, I just Xjet from the ground. I haven't had to deal with one that I couldn't either walk or Xjet from the ground. As many easy roofs as there are to do, I think I'd just turn down anything too difficult.

I use straight 10.5% pool chlorine Xjetted onto the roof using the M5 Xjet with a 5.6gpm machine...that gives me around 3.3% sodium hypchlorite hitting the roof. That seems just right, with little to no re-application needed. Dwell time is 5-10 minutes, if that. If it isn't really bad, I could rinse after a minute or so. It works fast. Right now, I Xjet from the roof. It is a pain hauling chlorine to the roof, but is faster after I'm set up. I coat the entire roof in about 15 minutes, and then rinse. Takes about an hour to rinse. I tried the Shur-flow method, but didn't like it.. with 200' of hose, the pump just doesn't put out much product, and it takes me an hour or more to coat the roof. I'm looking into setting up a roller pump system that will give me 7-9gpm at 100psi or so. That, I think, will give me a mix of the best points of both methods. Anyone have a used 4hp motor they want to part with cheap? :) I get a lot of roofwash requests...I'd say its around 40% of the work I do.

I've used it on aluminum siding with no problems. That may be referring to polished aluminum, or it may mean full strength. Best bet is to call Steve and ask him. He's always available.

Does the acid remove tannin stains? Chlorine is the only thing I've found that will touch them, other than a jackhammer. :)

Classic: The dish soap also performs the cleaning action to remove the dirt and mold/algae. The bleach kills the mold/algae, but doesn't do anything to clean the siding. There are three things I won't be without on my trailer...My Xjet, my surface cleaner, and Citracleen.