Paul B.

Morgan, I have the MSDS sheets for Gutter Shock, Gutter Zap, AllBrite, and Krud Kutter Original along with scores of others. They don't really tell you which product is better as they only list the hazardous and carcinogenic substances above specific levels. Example: <5% (less than 5%) Sodium Metasilicate does not tell you if it's 0.5% or 4.9%. MSDS does however get you in the ballpark as usually (although not always) the key ingredients are hazardous. Again, I was curious as to what in specific made you say that Gutter Shock is twice as strong as Gutter Zap?? As for the economy of the products (without shipping costs or taxes): 5 gallons of Gutter Zap is about $49 or $9.80 per gallon 5 gallon of Gutter Shock is about $49 or $9.80 per gallon 5 gallon of AllBrite is about $21.00 or $4.20 per gallon 15 gallons of AllBrite is about $55 or $3.67 per gallon If you need a product with Sodium Hydroxide boost, adding 1/2 oz. of HD-80 per gallon (for example), would cost you less than $0.25 (less if you purchased HD-80 in 30# bulk - $0.18). Again, I'm not saying which product is better (I have tested and have used all 4 of them) but I was in the same boat of looking for alternatives when I considered the overall cost (especially when blowing chemicals with an X-Jet). You can go thru 2 gallons of product very quickly just shooting it at gutters and downspouts. You have to do your own evaluation and tests as there are a lot of variables such as: water hardness, type of stain, length of stain on substrate, climate, etc..

Morgan, Just out of curiosity, what in specific makes Gutter Shock twice as strong as GZ??

Hudson makes some good pump-ups. The 3 gallon for example, it's plastic with viton seals and a relief valve. You can get repair kit for it for about $8. The kit has o-rings, seals, etc. The key to making the pumps last longer is to rinse it out at the end of each day. Rinse the tank, put clean water in it then pressureize it and clean out the hose, gun and wand with the fresh water. www.SunBriteSupply.com sells a product which is more economical at about $21 per 5 gallons plus S&H - it's called AllBrite. It does a great job of cleaning streaks off gutters. At that price it may be economical enough to X-Jet. If not, you can brush it on with the truck brush.

What you invision can be done if you have design / engineering skills. The cost will depend on your design skills. A set-up like that will take up a lot more space than most folks have on their trailer or on a truck because you will need a jackshaft with guarding around it and guarding to all the units that are driven from it. The maintenance will also be more cumbersome and costly due to the jackshaft, bearings and clutches you would need. Best bet is to keep the units separate as said by the others.

Every 4 years Tall Stacks comes to the Queen City for 5 days of 19th century dress-up and fan-fare. This year, 19 boats of all sizes and shapes were here along with some of the best entertainment this country has to offer such as CJ Chenier, Creedence Clearwater, Ricky Skaggs, Dilbert McClinton, Emmylou Harris, John Hammond, Los Lobos, Bo Didley, John Mayall, B.B. King and many more. Here are a few photos I took: The Belle of Louisville

Creole Queen - Louisiana

Anson Northrup - Minneapolis, MN. Colonel - Galveston, TX. General Jackson - Nashville, TN.

Celebration Belle - Illinois and PA Denny - West Virginia

Majestic from Pittsburgh:

There are many good products out there that will take care of your house siding cleaning needs. Here are a few that I know work well: - AllBrite (www.SunBriteSupply.com) - Ripper I (www.Hotsy.com) - Limonene (www.EnviroSpec.com) - R-109 or DNB-1430 (www.DCS1.com) - RPC-226 CitraCleen (www.RowlettPressure.com) You'll have to find what works well for you including overall cost after shipping.

Has anyone cleaned aggregate with these type of stains? I think I know what it is and what to use to remove the stains but am interested in input.

The customers were very happy with the results and were patient thru the ordeal. We are doing a deck in the rear of the house that's also challanging. The last photo in the series:

Another view:

Because of the location of these steps, after 5 days of no rain, the moisture content of the wood was still above 18%. It took us about 8 weeks from the time we started, till we were able to complete the job because it kept raining after 3-4 days of no rain. We ended up re-washing the steps and brightening again with Citralic. The Citralic was applied without rinsing. It took 6 dry days for the wood to dry to 15% moisture content. Here are a couple pics of the finished product.

This photo shows the masking (typical for washing and staining).

Another area of trapped water.

As you can see from these next photos, the step design is poor, not allowing the water to drain.

What to use to strip the failing finish and how to mask the surface below to keep from stripping the gray finish were a few of the original questions as we started this project. We tried a boosted percarbonate cleaner that cleaned some areas but did nothing to remove the finish in some of the areas that were protected from failure. We also tried EFC-38, wetting the surface below (without masking) and quickly found that the mix was starting to strip the gray paint. We switched gears, and quickly masked the areas below the steps. EFC-38 did not remove the stain so we switched to HD-80. HD-80 quickly removed the Behr semi at 8 oz. per gallon. The steps were ready for neutralizing with Citralic. Citralic was applied at 8 oz. per gallon.

Follow-up on the original post. I'll attach the original photos again as it looks like they were lost in the shuffle. If you are interested, bear with me as this will most likely be fairly long (my typical posts). This was a major headache restoration even though it looks simple. - The steps are poorly designed to the point where water stands on the boards, having no place to drain. - The steps are 100% in the shade and only get a glimpse of sunshine as the wind blows the branches apart for a peek at the sun. - Very high humidity as this is in the middle of heavy woods. - The gutters were always overflowing onto the steps. - Leaves and branches were always on the steps. The customer cured some of the problems: - Cut back tree branches. - Replaced gutters with a covered type system. - Sweeps steps regularly. - Selected Genesis as their restoration and maintenance contractor. - Selected Ready Seal "Dark Brown" as their stain.

Remember that a 100 psi deviation is 3.3% of the specified rpm. Also remember that a motor will run slower under load than without a load (as in having a pump attached). I would check the pulleys first (calculate at pitch diameters) and save the cost of the tach. for the second round. Check both the engine and pump rpm's. Check your belt - if it's a v-belt, it could be worn enough to give you a speed difference. As for increasing the speed for the pump: if it was a CAT, I wouldn't think about it twice, as the safety factor is there. Without knowing the design perimeters of the Italian pump, it's hard to tell, but having spent over 25 years in design engineering, I would guess that you should be OK increasing the rpm. There are a bunch of things that go into the design perimeters such as: - Bearing size / speeds - Heat generated / dissipated - Seal sizes / materials - Rod size / shape - Balancing

Now this is the way to go!

With the real X-Jet, cleaning the TALL side of any house should be no problem. But you have to have the original, REAL X-Jet.

It looks like water seeping thru the concrete and I would suspect rebar to be the causing the corrosion on the surface. Looks like the expansion joint and concrete are failing in one area. Is the grass wet or muddy on either side of the concrete (in line with the expansion joint)? Water lines are normally under frost line (in MD that must be at least 2 ft). That doesn't mean it's not leaking, but the customer can usually tell a leak by differences in their water bills. The water company can also check at the meter to see if there is a leak before/after the meter. (If it's before the meter it's the utility co's. $$ to fix, if it's after the meter, it's the homeowners $$$.) If it's a sprinkler system, the homeowner can turn it off and leave it off. Newer power lines are normally at least 3ft underground and are not encased in corrosive pipes. Again, if it's an underground water leak, it should be repaired first. Looks like the concrete should also be repaired and the rebars that are exposed during the repair should be coated before concrete is poured, otherwise the problem will remain. "The Must For Rust" is a pretty decent corrosive inhibitor and provides a coating. For cleaning the concrete, a phosphoric acid based product is most effective, but there are others out there such as Oxalic acid, White Ox, Prosoco's Ferrous Stain Remover, etc.

It looks like water seeping thru the concrete and I would suspect rebar to be the causing the corrosion on the surface. Looks like the expansion joint and concrete are failing in one area. Is the grass wet or muddy on either side of the concrete (in line with the expansion joint)? Water lines are normally under frost line (in MD that must be at least 2 ft). That doesn't mean it's not leaking, but the customer can usually tell a leak by differences in their water bills. The water company can also check at the meter to see if there is a leak before/after the meter. (If it's before the meter it's the utility co's. $$ to fix, if it's after the meter, it's the homeowners $$$.) If it's a sprinkler system, the homeowner can turn it off and leave it off. Newer power lines are normally at least 3ft underground and are not encased in corrosive pipes. Again, if it's an underground water leak, it should be repaired first. Looks like the concrete should also be repaired and the rebars that are exposed during the repair should be coated before concrete is poured, otherwise the problem will remain. "The Must For Rust" is a pretty decent corrosive inhibitor and provides a coating. For cleaning the concrete, a phosphoric acid based product is most effective, but there are others out there such as Oxalic acid, White Ox, Prosoco's Ferrous Stain Remover, etc.

Seeing the drawing would help. Deublin makes a bunch of rotary unions. You may have to have the bearings pressed off and pressed on. Make sure they press on the inner race of the bearing when installing it, otherwise the bearing can be damaged. You may need a mandrel to press the bearings on. Sometimes we used an oven to heat the bearing, then it would slide on but you have to make sure that the specific temperatures are not exceeded. (If the person picks up a hammer instead of a mallet you better take your parts and run!) I would suggest calling Deublin customer service (847) 689-8600 and talk to a repair tech to review the disassembly and assembly procedures. The process is not complicated but those unions are fairly expensive if you damage the shaft or housing.