dave

has any one had any experience cleaning shade sails like the picture below? do you need to wash both sides? The height would make cleaning the top side difficult without the use of a lift and this would be to expensive for small jobs.lots of these sails around just not sure how to go about cleaning them thanks for any help.

In case you didn't know there are other counties with soldiers fighting in iraq ever heard of Britain or Australia?

Travis, you should not need your pressure washer for a test patch. Apply stripper with a small bucket and brush allow dwell time then you should be able to see the coating soften and bubble if the stripper is working, then a light brush rinse and neutralize with a little oxalic acid.

we dont have many vinyl houses where i am but a lot of painted timber weatherboards i assume the oxidation of the paint is similar. on a job recently which was painted boards light grey type paint. The boards appeared darker in most areas, as i began to wash what i thought was just ingrained dirt, some areas came back to the light grey others did not. After showing the customer a completed area she said that she thought that all the darker areas would be removed. I explained that i performed a low pressure wash and that to remove the darker areas i would either have to increase the pressure and risk some possiple paint damage, or brush the whole house. (not an option as some areas were over 20 ft high) She told me to increase the pressure and try to even out the siding. anyway i ended up doing as the cuustomer wanted most of the house came out good except one wall very patchy. Bad news is the job took twice as long as i estimated. do you charge extra for oxidation removal? if so how much more campared to your standard wash? how do you explain this to home owners that dont know what oxidation even is? sorry for the long post.

hi john, thanks for the reply i thought there may have been a quicker way than brushing lol. most customers nearly faint when i give them a price for hand washing. nice to hear from another aussie cheers.

phillip i went through what your contemplating a little while ago i have a 16 ft tandem open trailer they can be a pita in some areas i went with a small float tank and a 200 gallon holding tank which i use for reclaimed recycled water on sensitive jobs, or as a large float when water pressure is low. i have a ball valve to switch between tanks. i also have a backup cold water portable machine that i take in my pickup without the trailer on jobs that the trailer would struggle may not be as professional but gets the job done hope this helps.

today i took on a 4000 square foot driveway when i quoted the job i failed to notice all the little paint and tradesman spills they were only small droplets but boy did they add some time to the job some were very stubburn to remove without doing damage to the surface my question for those with more experience how would you handle this stripper and brush with a large upcharge ? i was concerned that if i used some stripper the end result may end up patchy or should i have ignored the spills and just cleaned the dirt and mould? thanks for any advice

thanks guys this guy wanted it sealed as well so i tried to remove as much as possible. the house is worth over 1.2 million stupid me should have got a lot more but the rich can be so tight lol

brent, this is my first year and others here have much more experience but i have also had these issues and have found a system that works for me may not be the fastest but seems to work i pre wet windows and dont apply any soap directly to the windows during the house wash keep misting windows as soap falls onto the windows from the siding and after completing the house wash i pack up most of the gear allowing time for drips and any weeping to finish i get my window washer, bucket and extension pole a dash of dishwashig liquid in water and scrub each window rinsing with a garden hose straight away on really poor windows any soap that gets through would not be strong enough to streak only requiring a quick buff off and i explain this to the customer before

Alan, I like that section of your contract do you also include a waiver i'm in the process of putting a contract together and would like to see some examples if you don't mind sharing email grimecontrol@yahoo.com.au Regards Dave

i cleaned my first asphalt driveway yesterday 2500 sq ft 3000 psi 4 gallon hot water unit using turbo nozzle after cleaning the surface it looked fine however after it dried the surface appeared very patchy i went back over these areas again spending more time while i did improve the result i was still not totally satisfied it was a very time consuming task my question is asphalt a more difficult and time consuming task or is it just my lack of experience any advice would be appreciated. regards Dave

thanks adrian i will look into it.

thanks adrian, john and craig for the advice, i did hire a surface cleaner for the job but i was not happy with its performance i think the problem may have been it was set up for a 4000 psi machine it had double nozzels on each end it was struggling to clean the area any faster than the wand so i continued with the wand everyone raves about surface cleaners i think i will have to just bite the bullet and buy one that suits my machine. i was very careful not to go to close to the surface with my turbo but i think craig was right i may have taken a very thin layer of the surface and the only way i could get an even finnish was to redo those areas with the tubo sorry for the long post but i hope others may learn from my mistake thanks again. regards dave

when using acid/alkaline washing how strong should my mixes be so far i have not noticed any real difference from my regular house wash i used citric acid followed by a caustic based soap if any one could explain how they go about a two step process for oxidation removal it would be much appreciated thanks in advance.

Wesley, i recently completed a paint removal job on a brick wall, be careful with your quote it can be time consuming i only charge by the hour on paint removal jobs also be careful with the turbo nozzle or you may blow out the mortar i used a heavy duty paint stripper 70% methylene chloride based about 5min dwell time agitate with a stiff broom then turbo off from a safe distance you may not get everything off as sometimes the paint can eat into the brick and stain it.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with chemicals other than chlorine for removing mould and mildew my chemical rep has suggested a product called moss kill which has the chemical alky dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride as far as i can tell the longer dwell time and cost seems to be downside however i thought it might be handy to have an safer alternative to chlorine in certain conditions eg: windy days sensitive plants

thanks cujo i will ask my supplier.

could anyone help me out with some advice on aluminium siding cleaning i have to prepare a quote i have not cleaned this surface before and have read they can be difficult do i use my normal soap mix or does it require an acid and what type of pressure any help would be much appreciated.

when two stepping aluminium siding can i use citric acid followed by my regular house wash if so what strength do i mix citric acid ?

do any of you guys have any issues with to much foam in your recovery vac? while i was collecting runoff from a house wash i noticed that foam was overflowing out of my vaccum i used 1/4 cup of defoamer did i not use enough defoamer or do i need to use a low foam mix for my soap at the moment im using bleach dishwashing soap and some degreaser.

i put the defoamer into my vac unit before i started i'm a bit confused should i have added the defoamer to my soap mix?

i saw that episode lol

Yesterday i had a call from a house wash customer who said that there was some white powdery stuff that appeared on a tiled porch that i cleaned for him i used a mild truck wash and some bleach he said that it came back after he cleaned it off it was coming up where the tiles ended next to the rendered house i told him to dilute the area with some water it seems to have fixed the problem just wanted to know what it was and if i did something wrong so this doesn't happen again thanks for any help dave.

alkybenesulfonic acid 10-20% coconut diethanolamide 5-10% sodium lauryl ether sulfate 5-10% i was hoping it was just poor rinsing.