PressurePros

Good lookin' out, Ant. Thank you.

I have to get serious about upgrading my equipment as everything is starting to show its age. You guys are way better at this stuff than I am. Given the following parameters what would you recommend for vehicles and machine? If you wouldn't mind also recommend reserve tank size. Vehicle One: Commercial/Residential duty. Scope of work includes 75% residential housewashing and concrete. I want something upgradable to larger flatwork jobs and increased commercial. Min flow would be 10 gpm and two men should be able to wash simultaneously. Vehicle Two: Deck Washing. Again a two man setup that can offer simultaneous washing capability. This vehicle just needs cold water (or am I being shortsighted?) No surface cleaners. Should hold extension wands up to 8' and have accessible ladder racks. Vehicle Three: 4-5 year old vehicle with good gas mileage. Maintenance deck washing and stain rig. Will house 4 gpm CW portable and small motored high flow stain pump. I have three deck tones so I was thinking of also having three 50 gallon tanks to carry each. I am looking for all self-contained vehicles to be driven by employees so no trailers.

John, excellent advice thank you for taking the time to post. When I read prices and maintenance costs I get a lump in my throat. Everything we use now is owned outright and maintenance costs have actually been pretty low. Gas mileage and age of vehicles (mid 90's) is what has spawned my quest for updated vehicles for '08. I don't want to start adding big nuts with new vehicles. My experience thus far has been with box trucks and vans. I like the Sprinters. Rod and Beth, you guys have one right? Any input?

Thanks to Don Marler for an excellent event. If you did not log your email address at registration and you want to get a copy of the Power Point presentation on sales and marketing as well as receive more information from Michael and Jarrod's presentations, please list your email addy here or pm to me here on TGS. Thanks to all whom attended. Feel free to call on Michael or myself if we can help guide you further resources on making you profitable in 2007.

3 months booked = time to raise prices

Jeff ask them in which way their toilet flushes and drains.. I use enviromentally and landscape friendly cleaners, detergents, surfactants and mildewcides.. never chemicals ;-)

Gar I'm looking at Sprinters and NPR's.

I'll give you a ring over the weekend Jarrod. I appreciate anyone's input. You don't have to answer every question. Even if you say "Don't buy a sprinter because I had a buddy who....."

Tony, you don't want to sell. You'd drive your wife crazy with too much time on your hands ;-) Rick, if I can pull the trigger on this, Tom is where I will most likely get the equipment. Congrats on the new van. You gonna bring it up next Friday?

Randy, give it an honest shot. For every Ken and Mike I am sure there are ten guys that swear by it.

I have had the same experience, Mike and was told I mixed too strong. I diluted it further and it became equivalent to dish soap in cleaning power. At that point I used up the rest of it cleaning concrete at full strength.

Don, that's exactly what I'm working on. Edit: Starting new thread.

Dan, you want to really make your housewash work? Add sodium metasilicate. If you look at it on a molecular level you wil understand why it has a "scrubbing" type of effect. Its excellent for lifting away the pollen that the mold is bonding to on siding. Rinsing is much easier.

Those would be excellent for sanding drywall. Cool Shane.

John, thats much more likely to happen using an X-Jet. If you you use a good soap (with the right surfactants) it rarely will dry. I think part of Jarrod's problem is his soap. E-plus is not a great product. It dries very quickly and I found it to be an inferior housewash. The guys that swear by it always are X-Jetters. Downstreaming will let you know if you have the right mix and product.

Multi house washing, decks, fences, children's playset. You will either work as a sub side by side with my guys or I will sell you entire lead. PM me if you are close.

When I said the temp wasn't warm enough I wasn't talking about ambient temperature but the substrate of the house. There are a whole bunch of rasons why you may have had issues. The primary one is that it is new to you and you are't efficient at it. Another is your machine. For the record, I have never used hot water though I'm sure in this situation it may have helped. Keep in mind that yeah, you can nail a house with 6% sodium hypochlorite and the mold will be fleeing the siding before the solution even makes contact. Bleach is corrosive and drying. Its much better to use the lowest possible dilution and set up your system to work for you, Jarrod. Soap down two sides before you rinse. It has to take you more than ten minutes to soak down two sides of a house. That should be enough dwell time.

Not enough to make it worth your while AJ. Its about an hour north of me. I did a resi job as a favor for a builder. Well they must not have any companies to choose from because I got two calls ("saw your truck on my block" etc) and the builder got two more calls. I really don't want to expand into the area so I am looking for a local company to maybe hande it after this round.

The houses are still too cold Jarrod. What soap are you using? A little TSP and sodium metasilicate in the mix helps.

If you know what "scrapple" is, (Rick you know that one right?) Composites are like scrapple. Everything that is swept up from the floor compressed under pressure.

5 year old PTP.. come on up.. its about an hour from me.

I use bleach on Trex.. have done about 25 of them (called by Trex for warranty work) You just can't go too high in strength on the bleach. Here is one I sealed last year or two years ago. I don't even remember the sealer.. customer supplied. This deck was one year old but a roofing contractor fudged it all up.

Writings on the wall for composites too. The majority of builders are using this crap to build decks. They require just as much maintenance and are harder to clean. I charge more than I do for wood. There are much better composites out there now and maybe thats what you guys are cleaning. Around here its Gen1 T-Wrecks (Trex) and its soft, it scratches, and it fades. Six percent sod hypo will soften the color dramatically. Pressure washing (over 200 psi) makes it even worse. If I tried using an X-Jet I would be signing my work.

Awesome. I wanna get my hair cut there too. I can donate 1/4" if it means that babe will do the cutting.

This is one time where bleach and dawn does the trick. Caustics will remove the color so be careful of housewash mixes. Its best to apply 4% and use a soft brush to scrub and rinse with a garden hose. Pressure washing even with low pressure can leave wand marks. Oxalic acid for tanin bleeding. Upsell sealing. So much for "maintenance free" huh?