Mike Williamson

I use 1/2 gallon per 5 gallons of housewash, mixed with 1-2 gallons of 10.5% pool chlorine, and water. Depending on what I'm washing, I may add some wax. It is a detergent, intended to clean dirt, not kill mold. There's nothing wrong with chlorine, just keep any plants rinsed. I've never had chlorine harm anything (except my clothes!). Maybe there is some all in one product out there that kills mold AND cleans, but I haven't found it. The citracleen works much better than any soap I've tried, and I've heard that same comment from quite a few others who use it also. In fact, those comments were eventually what made me overcome my skepticism and order it. Wish I hadn't waited. I've cut my wash time WAY down by using this soap and using a bit more chlorine. Windows come out good, depending on the water they may spot up a bit. I don't let the wash mix dry on the windows, I keep them rinsed pretty well.

Tony: I use Citracleen from Steve Rowlett. Best soap I've found.

using a top notch soap, increasing the amount of 10.5% chlorine I use, using the Xjet to prewet, apply, and rinse, and using the 4' wand, I rarely get wet doing a housewash, and then it is usually because I have the underside of a porch or something where I get a lot of "rain" while I'm washing. For a typical ranch style house, I don't get wet at all.

Sorry...forgot my email address.... oneness@gator.net

I think someone else mentioned it already, but get a 4' wand for your gun. It'll make a big difference in how much water, dirt, and mud you get on you. Spray at an agle also, as Jon said...That way most of the blow back won't hit you.

I've tried the d-Limonene from espec...it is ok, but I've found something much better. I still have 1/2 a drum of the Limonene if you want to buy it... :) email me if you're interested in what I'm talking about.

Phil: Actually, your prices aren't that much lower than mine for a typical 2000 sq ft. ranch style house. I'm actually lower for the driveway (usually), about $25.00 higher on the roof (and I understand Orlando is a tough market for roof cleaners), and about $25-50.00 more on the housewash...the difference is that you are throwing more manpower at it, and getting it done quicker. We're both accomplishing essentially the same thing, you're just getting done faster. As I said, the vast majority of my customers aren't even home when I do the work, and I ALWAYS make it clear that they don't have to be. So if it takes me 4 hours to do the house, roof, and drive, no one is bothered by that except maybe you. You say your comments aren't meant to degrade or demean anyone, but your comments say otherwise...Here are an example: "and yes, I am also glad you are not in my area, but I am in YOURS, maybe you would like to come watch a professional company in action when we come to Gainsville every year to do apartment complexes in a day and a half?(that would be 7 weeks on your time frame, kinda like dog years.)" Maybe you truly didn't intend to be offensive, I really don't know, or care. You act like you've found this new-age way of cleaning houses that makes you so damned much smarter and more progressive than most of the rest of us...and yet the only difference I can see is that you throw more manpower at it...and get it done faster. Wow, that's something none of the rest of us have ever thought of. Of course we don't think everyone who beats us on a bid is a lowballer. You can't even determine a lowballer by price alone. A lowballer in New Jersey would probably have a hard time winning bids here because his prices are too high. I get $100.00-$150.00 for a typical housewash. I'd be a lowballer in many other areas around the country. The guys most of us refer to lowballers are the ones who are actually doing sub-par work with no chems, usually take longer than most of us do, and charge much less than what most washers in the area are getting. They're the guys who are happy to be making $15.00/hour when they're done. Those are the ones who hurt the industry.

Rob: He's saying a full housewash, roof wash, and flatwork take 45 minutes. I just can't see it, but hey, I certainly don't know it all. Beth: Sorry if my post is in that category, please email me if there's anything I need to edit...I responded very early this morning after getting some disappointing news, so I wasn't in the best of moods (no, nothing major, just someone cancelling a trip for the day with us). At any rate, I don't want to start anything with anyone, at least not right now....earlier was a different story... :) Cannon: Email me at oneness@gator.net

Naw, guys, let the jerk rant. He has such a high opinion of himself, and absolutely no respect for anyone else. Phil: You contradict yourself...you say that the owner is ONLY concerned with price, and then you say they are worried about their plants. Sounds to me like you think you've gotten it all figured out. Glad you think so. No, I've never searched for this same soap anywhere else cheaper...Don't plan to. As far as coming up to Gainesville, great. There's plenty here to clean. Which complexes do you wash (answer quick, without looking any up on the internet!)? You seem to have a lot of issues with smaller contractors. Of course I don't have employee issues or WC insurance etc. I AM a one man show...happy with that, hope to stay that way. I'm sorry you think my $150.00 housewash in two hours is absurd both in pricing and speed. You know what's great though? The people's opinions who I actually give a rat's ass (the customers, not some jerkoff keyboard cowboy) about are more than happy with the time it takes (most aren't even home when I do it, so don't know what the hell you're talking about wasting someone's day off), the price, and the quality of the work. I didn't mean to imply that you do sub-par work, if that's how I came across. There ARE many lowballer's such as yourself who DO do sub-par work. You apparently are a lowballer who does excellent work, at least according to you. To wash the roof, clean the house, and the flatwork in 45 minutes AND do a top-quality job is something I'd have to see to believe. HOw many guys does that take? As I mentioned, we must have different type of folks here...I get letters all the time with my checks thanking me for doing such a good job...I get folks going out of their way to comment on how much cleaner things are than they expected. You can degrade someone trying to do a good job, and that is fine with me....Just makes you an a**hole. You can doubt what I say, and that's fine too. I really don't care if you believe me or not. Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to bother calling...I prefer to spend my time talking to productive members of our industry, not those who think they have it all figured out and anyone who disagrees is just an amateur and is "being passed by". Sorry. Maybe one day you'll really get it all figured out. Until then, go on lowballing and hurting the industry for the rest of us.

Phil: First, getting a bid doesn't mean you're the lowest bidder. It means the customer was happy with the price, with you, with how they perceive you and your company, possibly how you presented yourself to them, how well you sold them on the job, whether you showed up on time to look at whatever it is you're washing, etc etc. Second, I don't know about down there in Orlando, but here in Gainesville many folks I run into are primarily concerned that you're going to get their home cleaned, that you're not going to kill their plants, and that you're going to actually show up to do the work. Price is a factor, of course, but not the only factor. Maybe some folks "lowball" the price on supplies...not all of us do. I used to think that way. I've since found the value of quality over price....I used to wash with a cheap housewash soap...It worked OK. Maybe took a bit longer, but what the hell, I was saving $50.00 on a 55 gallon drum of cleaner, right? I've since "seen the light". I've found a great soap that works great on everything I've tried it on. I've cut housewashing a typical 2000 sq ft. home from 3+ hours to 2 hours max. So, is that $50.00 worth the time I save? Absolutely. There's also a vast difference between merchandise and service. If I buy a 2021 pump, it doesn't matter where it comes from...it will be a 2021 pump, regardless of price. An $80.00 housewash often is not the same quality as a $150.00 housewash....If I'm making good money on a job, I'll be much more likely to pay close attention to details...If I'm barely making $30.00/hour on a housewash, I just want to get soaped, rinsed, and out of there. I won't do sub-par work, so I won't bid that low. The vast majority of my customers are ecstatic with the results, and certainly don't mind paying the bill. I go out of my way to assure the home is as clean as I can get it. If a customer just wants a cheap $80 housewash at the expense of quality, they can hire someone else. I'm glad I'm not in your area, though I know several who are and they dont' seem to have the same pricing issues you do.

These are pics of a house I washed for a friend a couple months back. I just re-washed the heck out of it today to see if I could get rid of the streaking...I had assumed the streaks were un-rinsed soap (it is chalky, and comes off if you wipe your thumb across it), but it doesn't appear to be. What it looks like is oxidizing vinyl...I'm not even sure if vinyl does this. If I take a wet white rag and wipe the streaked areas, it comes off on the rag, and is the same greyish color as the siding. The strange thing is that the streaks are in regular intervals, about 16=24" apart..I didn't think to measure while I was there. They're also not lined up with any particular part of the wall (seams, etc). This wall is on the south side of the house, which gets sun most of the day, most of the year. That, in my mind, might explain the oxidation, but not why it shows up in streaks like this. The rest of the house is vinyl/brick, and the vinyl didn't do this on the other three sides. I've never had vinyl siding do this, and I washed this house with the same soap/bleach mix that I always use. I tried a pretty strong wax mix (1/4 gallon in 5 gallons of water) and applied that with the XJet, to no avail. It appears to come off, or at least look better, if I scrub with with soap and a brush (and I mean REALLY scrub). I'm hoping to avoid having to do this. Is there a cleaner that will work in this situation, and can anyone give me some insight into why it looked like this AFTER cleaning, and not before?

Nope, the rain didn't help, nor did re-washing it.

What would you use to "cover it up"?

Well, if it oxidation and nothing I did wrong, I'd hope the owner has $200.00. :)

Henry: Normally I would do that, but this was something I did for a friend, not a job I was hired for. In this case, it won't be a problem. I've talked to her, and she doesn't have a problem.

John: Let me make sure I'm understanding what you're saying. What I'm getting is that ALL the siding was oxidized, but the portions of the siding where the nails were placed were REALLY oxidized due to the heat of the nails etc...so when I washed it I removed the oxidation that wasn't very bad, leaving the oxidation that was REALLY bad? If it were nails, wouldn't it show up as round spots of oxidation where the nails are, rather than even stripes? It'll be a few days before I can get back over there to check on the weep holes and remove a section of siding to check what's behind it.

John: That would be a possibility, but the streaks weren't there prior to the first wash. The weep hole idea is a possibility, I hadn't even realized vinyl siding had weep holes (we don't have a lot here, and I've never messed with it much). I'll check that first.

Rick: Depending on who you talk to, bleach is bad. Same things with Sodium Hydroxide...I've no idea which, if either, is true. I do know that I've read on the boards many times that bleach is some manufacturers' suggested cleaner for asphalt shingles. I have also read that some manufacturers say bleach is bad, and damages the shingles. I don't know that anyone has adequately addressed this topic.

Ok, makes sense. I'm doing some testing on my own roof this week with a few chems to see which gives me the best cleaning with a low-pressure rinse (like what I'd get with the XJet from 20 feet away). I have a roof job coming up that will be impossible to get close to without a lift, and the owner isn't paying that much... Chlorine did a nice job today on one section of my roof...We'll see what the SH products do this week. Thanks!

Alan: I'd be interested to see what Steel Eagle or Landa (or any other manufacturer who uses this rotary union) has to say about that. I mean, some guys are running well over 5gpm on their surfacers...though I can't really see how gpm would have much impact on the reliability of the swivel...I would think rpm and psi would have much more impact.

Why does cleaning with Sodium Hydroxide take longer?

Rob: Not in your area, but I agree...I'd say $150.00 is my minimum, and that's for a SMALL house, wash only. Most are between $150 and $300.00 for a wash. A lot of these guys are in and out in a couple hours...so $125.00 isn't bad money for what they're doing. The problem is, they're not doing the same quality job, and the homeowner doesn't understand that. That's where educating them comes in...for some it will make a difference, others are interested in price only and they'll never get it. I suppose if things were slow enough, and I needed the money bad enough, I'd wash a house for less than I do right now...maybe much less.

My handtruck/drum setup is for the Xjet, not a shur-flo, so no battery needed!

The ONLY reason I can see to buy a 15, 30, or 55 gallon container is if you need a specific shape for some reason. For a chem tank on a hand truck, a 15 or 30 gallon drum should do the job...You should be able to find 15 and 30 gallon drums free...check with car washes, hotels, dry cleaners, etc. I've not seen 55's free, but I can usually get them for $10-$15.00 (the white poly drums).

Do a search on the various boards for this information...there is plenty out there, but I can't recall all the particulars.