Craig

Wow you've got two very different substrates here. Your question needs to be more specific. What are you trying to clean off? Dirt, oil, grease, gum, oxidation, rust, efflorescence, acid stains, calcium bicarbonate, mineral staining... you get the picture. also, are they sealed with anything? What does your customer want to achieve?

Measure buildings by linear foot, not square foot. Typically the going rate is around $1 to $1.50 for 1 story, 2-2.5 (two story) etc. It must have taken you a while to measure the square footage if it is accurate (Unless you can triangle guess with sight-of-line). To get your linear footage you need to take your measuring wheel and find the distance all the way around the building. Do not multiply anything but add the sides. This will give you linear feet. Take this number and multiply it by your dollars per foot and you've got your money. We generally squeegee the windows for free. Remember to rinse all of your dirt way away from the building. This means if you have concrete around the building it's gotta be rinsed off too! --up to 6 feet into the asphalt. This will give your job a completed look and doesn't take too long.

If you do have reclaim

I would do this job only if you have reclaim, filter systems and flocculants. All that oil and grease down the storm drain is a huge NO NO.

Jeff, There's a reason why you haven't seen me around lately! $$$$$$$$$$ :^) I finally got a chance to surface and logged on. Everything is GREAT and I LOVE THIS BIZ! I'm sure your feelings are mutual! C

Sodium Hydroxide, Sodium Metasilicate, Trisodium phosphate, phosphoric, muriatic, oxalic and citric acids. Gotta know what you're doing with the acids. Keep asking questions! Start out simple and get to know everything about what you're using. Powerstroke works well as well as R-109 and R-202 from Delco. If you mix these in hot water they work even better.

Here's what I have 1 whisper wash 3 Landa Water Jets (20") 2 Hydrotek's (27") 2 Steel Eagle recovery (16") 1 Steel Eagle recovery (24") The Landa's are my favorite for fast surface cleaning. Super fast and they hold up. I love the adjustable feature and think anyone who does cleaning without having a Landa in their arsenol is asking for trouble. These things rock. The whisper wash has its place. I don't use it too much. The new Hydrotek is much better than the old ones. The casters are placed better, much better handle and pretty well balanced. I use it mostly for slower cleaning after an acid wash. It's not adjustable so it's pretty easy to damage concrete, but if you ask them to plumb in a adjustable pressure valve and bleed it back into the surfacer they can. All of my equipment is fully adjustable. As for the Steel Eagles, reference Alan's post. I agree. I love them too.

Itswillist- Your costs will go up as your gross goes up. Just my gas and diesel bill is around $5,000 per month. Overhead is around $25-28 grand. It was just two years ago when I was doing all the work myself and had a gas bill of about $250 a month. Nice and simple. You can grow as much as you put your mind to and your drive let's you.

I'm Gellin like a melon and my smellin feet aren't swellin.

They are great. I own two pairs of the pink ones. I also hold a pink umbrella over my head when I'm power washing. I don't like the backsplash. J/K!!!!! I have the H/D or Lowes black boots. They're fine but very uncomfortable! I put a pair of Dr. Scholls and now they love me back.

Daniel, You're out of your mind. Applying HCL will super damage the substrate, plus will pull out the color in the block. You will be left will a bigger problem than what's at hand. Mel, Call Art Greene with Specialized Cleaning. 714-521-4242 714-273-5798 Send him the pictures. He does this type of stuff for a living.

LOL....yes.

I would personally stay away from this. I've done several split face block and the efflor is a huge problem and very difficult to alleviate.

Congratulations!

Also may be a belt going bad (starting to slip). I recently had that happen to a machine and it had a flame burning out of the exhaust for about 3 hours after it was shut off.

HA HA! LOL! Hydrotek all the way. I have 3 and am getting two more at 8GPM. A 5-6 GPM machine hot water to 200 degrees is the least you'll need. I started with the Hydrotek SS3005VH which is the 4.8gpm at 3000psi. The first time I used one with 3500psi and 5.6 gpm I was amazed at how much faster I could clean. It just ripped. I can't wait for the monsters to come. Landa surface cleaners Suttner st-54 wands M5 X-Jets Tubular framed trailers (min of 6x12).

Check out this one. http://www.nikro.com/products/moreinfo.asp?i=298 I have 3 and love them.

A little advice probably a little too late... I just bought this boat on eBay. It looks pretty nice and the little info I've gotten on these boats they sound OK. It's a good deal from what I've gathered from the used boat values. Does anyone have experience with this boat or have any advice on it? I hope I didn't buy a piece of garbage but I'll have to deal with it if I did! http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&viewitem=&item=140046512643

Thanks! That was pretty much what I had heard as well. It's still under warranty and with only 50 hours it better not start breaking down already. It's a starter boat for me and my daughter so I didn't want to get too fancy. I think it'll work just fine!

1:4 is standard cutting. More or less depending on your situation. If you are X-Jetting full strength then I'd cut it 1:2 in your bucket so you end up with a 1:4.

I believe they're made on the coast- I'll call a dealership and check 'em out. If anyone wants a little vacation on Lake Havasu let me know!

Or the best days for a marriage are the days you're dating and days your divorcing... Hey, I just got your message on the other phone. My secretary wrote it down but I was out of the office all of last week. Give me a call on my cell sometime- 760-397-7722

I'll let you know when I'm going to buy mine, we'll see where you're at. It'd be nice to get the prices down.

John T- I'm definately going to get one, probably in the tune of 6-8 weeks out. Tracy from Sunbrite called me and we worked out some numbers but there's always room for improvement. How far are you out from getting one?

It worth it! Go for it! In 3.5 years (2 full time) I've grown our company into a very solid entity. Here's what works for us now: 1 person doing books, answering calls (in the office), paying bills, payroll and helping with personal bills and organization. 1 Crew Leader. He's responsible for keeping up the equipment and making sure the crews are doing what they're called to do. He get's work orders directly from me over the phone and basically runs the day-to-day operations out in the field. He will do work if an employee is sick and manages their time in the field. 6 laborers. Two of them are very good and can operate rigs by themselves if needed. I do the estimates, problem customers, sales calls and keep everyone on track. This managing technique is working for us very well. The only time things go crazy is when we get the 1 to 2 week jobs at night. We're doing one right now that takes 4 rigs running (6 employees) and will go for 14 days. My solution for this is to cut back on the employees and get a machine that can do the work of 10 rigs....ALAS, the SWABBY!