the_GUNN_man

I am in the process of building my own device to hook two pw's together. I know Delco sells one but I am going to make my own. From what I can tell you need two hoses that y into one. Before the y you need to put a check valve on each line then tee them into one line that goes to your surface cleaner. Does this sound right? I was thinking that you could get away without the check valves but if one machine turned off you could blow water into the other pump. The check valves are to keep water from flowing from one pw to the other, correct? I figure that I could build one for around $75. Just need two check valves, 2 short peieces of pw hose, and a couple couplers/plugs. Anyone with any info I would apprecaite it.

What I was wondering about the check valves is what would happen if one machine was to run out of gas? Would it then try and push water back through the other pump?

If you hook two downstreamers one after the other will you draw twice as much chem?

Did the hose spring a leak from the hose itself or from the fitting? If it is from the fitting it is probably a bad o'ring. I had mine spring a leak yesterday and I thought of this post. It is was just a bad o'ring. I use hot water so my o'rings don't last as long.

I also get insurance from Joe Walters/Peerless. If you read the policy you can decline that portion of the insurance but you won't get much back. My terrorism act coverage is only an extra $21.

I did notice it said something about warranty claims. It might be worth it if the company is supplying you with the work, chems and then paying you themselves. I can't see a home owner paying that much out of their own pocket.

On the side of the jug it says for wood use 8 oz per gallon. I have been using 8 oz by volume. I was just curious if it was supposed to be by volume or weight?

I use them when I wash cars. I think they work great. I use it to switch back and forth between my soap and first rinse. I then follow up with a 2nd gun for the DI rinse. I do not use them when I do houses because I use an X-Jet.

I have a LP fired washer. It works nice. Very few burner problems if any. The big pain in the butt is the tank. I had a 100# cylinder to run mine. It is a vertical tank and can't keep up with the demands of running the burner for long periods of time. When you burn propane it is all about surface area for the top of the propane. You only burn the vapors. When you have a cylinder that is about 12" in diameter it doesn't give you much of a surface area for the propane to turn to vapor. If you were to have a horizontal tank you would have a much greater surface area for the propane to turn to vapors. A horizontal tank on a trailer becomes unrealistic. Another problem with getting your propane tanks filled is that if it is on your trailer it has to be strapped down to D.O.T. regulations in order for the propane place to fill it. You could always take the tank off the trailer and then exchange it or have it filled. Dave Olson has the best propane set up. He has big time equipment so he runs it very efficiently. Most small time guys it becomes a big problem. I wish I would have never bought mine. I use it as my back up machine. I have a oil fired machine now. Much easier. The LP burns very clean but it isn't worth the headache.

I am not really sure what heading to put this under so I will start here. I am going to keep the story short because it would take awhile to explain everything. I have a lady refusing to pay. We did the work last July and she hasn't paid. She tried telling me she wasn't satisfied with the work and didn't want to pay. The bill was $440. She agreed to the estimate. She did not sign the estimate but she doesn't have to. It would help my case a little but I will still win without the signature. She is refusing to pay because of something we didn't do that wasn't even in the estimate. She called us a day later complaing. We came back a second time and fixed the problem. Then I heard nothing for months. I just sent her my third notice. She called and offered to pay $250. I said no. She then offered $300 and I said no. I told her we don't give discounts. We fix the problem. Since she took so long and it is now winter there is nothing to be done. I am taking her to court. The filing fee is $60. I know I can add that to the bill. My question is what else can you add? This lady is not hurting for money at all. She is quite wealthy and I feel I should be compensated for having to wait 6 months for payment and the trouble of having to drive 40 miles to the court house, pay a filing fee, and having to go back to court with the guy who helped me on the job. Can I add for wages for an employee to have to show up? My gas and time having to drive a total of 160 miles to go to the court to file and then for the hearing itself? The cost of sending certified letters? I am not trying to get money that is not fairly owed to me. I just want full compensation for a job we did and all the headaches I am having to go through to get paid.

Hey Tony, didn't in another thread you ask me if I was near Spring Lake? It is about a half hour north of me. I have one car lot I do in Spring Lake. Does your Emulsifier plus turn out ok doing it by the batch? I have been making 55 gallons of it every time. This year I had about 40 gallons left over and nowhere to put it to keep it from freezing. I was able to get 4 - 5 gallon containers to save half of it. The 55 gallon drums are cool in the spring but a pain to make a whole batch near fall. I would like to make a couple drums in the spring and then say after Labor Day only do it by the batch. How much Emulsifier do you use per 5 gallon pail? Do you measure by volume or weight?

I use DI water to hit the windows when I am done. It is not very economical for everyone to do that. I get the luxury of having it because I also do car lots and I always have a DI tank on board. I also use a water softener. Spots I don't have a problem with. I have used that Delco wax but had problems with it and just realized why not that long ago. When it said use so many ounces of wax I was using the concentrate. I was supposed to cut it down and then use so many ounces per gallon. That stuffed caked up the windows pretty bad. In a 5 gallon bucket I was using 1 cup of concentrate. It says to add 16 oz to 300 gallons of water. I was adding 8 oz to 5 gallons. So I was 30 times stronger then I was supposed to be. Oops. Oh well. You live and learn.

I was thinking about getting into the window washing side of the biz. I have a couple questions. When you say you charge x amount per window, is that per pane? Because windows in a house that you slide up and down are actually two windows. So actually 4 panes of glass. Inside top, inside bottom, outside top, and outside bottom. Is this considered one window or two?

SHURflo vs. Flojet, is there a preference of one over the other? What is the common psi and gpm most of you use? I want to use it when I wash my cars. Right now I use two guns when I wash cars. I use the first gun to downstream the soap and to rinse. The second gun I use for the DI rinse. I want to eliminate the down-streaming of the soap and I don't want to have a third machine running for the soap. The down-streaming worked good when it was just me and one other guy. Now I have myself and 2 others on the lot with me. It becomes a pain sometimes because one guy is rinsing and more cars need to be soaped and the guy has to wait on the guy to get done rinsing before he can continue. Another reason I want to switch is too much time wasted clearing the line of soap. I was just wondering what is a good psi and gpm for this type of application? I want to go with the 12 volt and strap it to a cart with a 15 gallon tank and a battery. Is that coil hose any good they advertise with the trigger gun? I appreciate any info anyone could give me on these type pumps.

We have been downstreaming. I am going to try and explain this the best I can. This is how we were doing cars a month ago. 2 men and 2 machines. Machine one we downstreamed the soap and gave a soft water rinse with. Machine two is a cold water machine used for the DI rinse. We would soap the cars, then my partner would wash the sides of the car and I would use my wash mit on a stick to do the hoods, roofs, and trunks. Then we would soft water rinse to get the soap off, then go over it with the DI water for the spot free rinse. In the last month things have changed. My dad is retired and has become bored. He says he would help for free as long as it wasn't too physical. Me turn down free help no way. Now we have 3 men and two machines. My dad soaps the cars, I wash the hoods, roofs, and trunks, Jeff does the sides of the cars, my dad comes along and gives the soft water rinse and I come behind him with the DI rinse. The problem is that he isn't very fast. I have plenty of work and my dad ends up with too much and Jeff not enough. Jeff is sitting waiting on him to get done rinsing before more cars can be soaped. If I had a shurflo I could have Jeff soap the car and start washing. That way all my dad has to do is just soft water rinse the cars. I also waste way too much time clearing the line of soap. The repsonses I am looking for are only about the shurflo and not about my procedures. We have our method we like to use.

I use a cold water machine to spray my DI water. I just don't want to have 3 machines and 3 hoses going at the same time. The hoses often get tangled with just two. I thought it would be much easier to have a shurflo to spray the soap. It would stay ahead of everything else and shouldn't get in the way.

I have seen the pics of how they are setup I was just wondering what psi and what gpm. When I downstream I am using a 5.2 gpm machine plus how much comes out with the soap. Would 1 gpm be enough? I was looking at the 45 psi/3.0 gpm shurflo. In washing cars it is all about speed so I need it to soap a car down in about 7 seconds.

I use both

I know what torsion axles are and what spring axles are. My question is, are the torsion axles worth the extra money? Are they worth an extra $190 per axle? Just was curious if anyone had any knowledge on this.

Everyone happy now? This was taken 5 years ago. I will get a new one soon.

The trailer I am getting is a 16' tandem axle trailer. The cost for the torsion axles is $190 per axle. So that is $380. It will be loaded down most of the time. I am just wondering is the $380 worth it. There is 4 way brakes on this trailer. I have a 16' open trailer I use now and I have 4 way brakes on that also. I need to go to an enclosed to continue washing my cars through the winter.

Thanks

The reason the masons don't do their own washing is that the owner of one of the masonry companies told me that he makes $150 per hour per man for his guys laying brick. Why would he want them washing brick for less then that. Most of the time on brick work I make about $100 to $120 per hour for a two man crew. Sometimes more sometimes less. I have a lot of money invested in my equipment and that is one hassle they don't feel like dealing with. It is like saying why doesn't FED EX wash their own trucks. Some companies don't want to have the hassle of doing everything. The masonry companies also must do the caulking. They sub that out too. Different parts of the country do things differently. I always hear of people doing decks for a $1 per square foot and higher. You will not get those prices here. You will get about 60 to 70 cents if you are lucky. I have washed and sealed decks for 50 cents a sq. ft. I tell them up front for that price I can't use expensive sealer. I do get $2.50 per car for washing cars and that seems to be a good price. We usually do about 30 cars an hour with using two guys. You don't get rich off cars but it is consistent.

On the last brick job I did we were knocking out 250 sq. ft. per hour per man. A 50,000 brick building should be done in two days with two guys. I never make less then $100 per hour with two guys. Do you know there is companies out here getting up to 55 cents a sq. ft. cleaning brick pays very well out here. That is why I quit being a brick layer. I started washing brick for the company I worked for on the side. I working a few hours after work and on Saturday cleaning brick. So I worked about 20 hours washing brick per week. I noticed that my washing checks were much bigger then my regular 40 hour checks laying brick. I was getting paid about $18 an hour laying brick. The thing that even topped all that was the fact I wasn't using a pressure washer at the time. I was scrubbing it by hand and I was coming out way ahead. Things have slowed down and the brick jobs aren't coming like they were but I have my car lots to get me by now. I guess by you the General (super) hires the washing company. Out here it is the responsibility of the masonry company to have the bricks cleaned as well as the caulking for the expansion joints. It is actually kind of cool because I have one company that has told me a couple of times to come out and get the washing done fast because another company is putting E.I.F.S. up and they will probably spill on the brick and you can get to wash them twice. Once to get them clean from the mortar smears. Then when the E.I.F.S. guys come in and slop stuff around they are responsible for cleaning the brick then. So they usually come to me and ask me how much to clean up their mess. In construction once you have a finished product and if someone else comes in and messes it up they are responsible for the clean up. I did a school last year and the cost of the school was $10,000,000. I got paid $14,000 for washing it. There was over 250,000 brick in it. A 50,000 brick building should only take a crew of 3 masons and 1 laborer 1 month to build. I think they charge like $10 per sq. ft. to lay it. So that is about $1.50 per brick to lay it. I get about 6 cents to wash one brick. So the masonry company gets paid about $75,000 to build it. They pay out $12,000 in labor, $4,000 to me for washing it, and the brick are purchased by the owner not the masonry company. The block and stuff like that are. The masonry companies come out very far ahead. Like the school where I washed the brick. The masonry company was paid $1,000,000 to build it. It took then about 9 months. I don't know what the masons get paid in your area or what the bidding goes for on building stuff in your area. That would have a lot to do with how much they are willing to pay for a washing. I have two companies I wash exclusively for. I don't bid on those. I just get told to do them. They haven't gotten a lot of brick jobs lately so it has been slow. They have been busy doing block work but that doesn't need to be washed unless it is split face block.

I get between 40 and 55 cents a sq. ft. for cleaning new brick. That is labor only. The lift, acid, and other materials are extra. That comes out to close to $60 per 1000 bricks. I think there is like 6.7 brick per sq. ft. depending if they are nominal size or not. I do not or I should say have not done residntial brick cleaning. I do larger brick jobs such as schools, churches, mini malls, etc. From the other people I have talked to I am the one of the highest paid brick cleaners around here. It is hard breaking into this field since it pays so well the current people doing it for certain companies make sure they don't screw anything up. I work for a coupls companies in the area but times are slow right now. I have only had one bigger job and a smaller one this year. I am hoping for something to pop up in the winter.