SHURflo setup for roofs

[RyanH 14]

Been wasting good time all week and not doing what I should have been doing. I'm supposed to do a roof tomorrow and I'm going to try and do it completely with a SHURflo setup. I called the friendly folks there and talked with the tech guys and we determined that the 60 psi, 1.8 gpm, 7 amp pump (currently $49.99 at Northerntool) will be sufficient. Got home tonight and hooked it up and it put water up over 15 feet with no problem. Got to go in the morning and find some braided poly hose about 100' and I should be good to go. 115 amp-hour batter from Walmart (approx $60) should carry me for quite awhile on a job. I'm going to order a 12.5 gal plastic upright tank from Northern ($20 online with $10 shipping) unless I can find one cheaper, but it won't be necessary for tomorrow. Just need to find a good way to attach the battery to the hand cart. I may just make a platform above the tank.

Many have asked here how well a setup like this works on roofs....I should know by next week how everything worked. Roofs are getting more and more steep nowadays and blasting with huge volumes of water just isn't cutting it without a dwelling compound, and that costs money. Hopefully I can get someone to take some pictures and I can put some pics of my rapelling gear like some have asked for. It'll only be one story, but the roof is very steep. I'll also be able to give some numbers on how much bleach is required for a given area.

Ryan H.

[CCPC 26]

I have wondered about the old chlorine theory. I get my chlorine from an Ace Hardware and I fill my tank directly from the two huge 5 to 10 thousand gallon tanks in the back. I asked the manger how often they fill the tanks and if they let the tanks empty before they fill them he said no. So basicly, they cap off the tanks on a weekly basis weather they need it or not(could be some pretty old chlorine mixed in those tanks). I use a 4GPM maching, so I don't think it is a draw problem. I'm thinking that maybe The two times I tried it I did'nt give it enough of a chance. Meaning, I started the roof with it and after trying it for a few minutes decided it was not doing a good enough job. How long are you leting the chlorine dwell?

About the step stool set up. I installed a hose with orings for the lid which also has a quick coupler that connects to a plug that I fastened to the lid, basicly the lid is aire tight around the line going in. Well, when I designed it I forgot to add an air hole in the lid, so the first time I used it I went back to see how much chlorine was left in the bucket and found that the whole 5 gallon bucket had imploded from the air suction of the chem line (looked like a crushed tin can).

[Mike Williamson 198]

I have wondered about the old chlorine theory. I get my chlorine from an Ace Hardware and I fill my tank directly from the two huge 5 to 10 thousand gallon tanks in the back. I asked the manger how often they fill the tanks and if they let the tanks empty before they fill them he said no. So basicly, they cap off the tanks on a weekly basis weather they need it or not(could be some pretty old chlorine mixed in those tanks). I use a 4GPM maching, so I don't think it is a draw problem. I'm thinking that maybe The two times I tried it I did'nt give it enough of a chance. Meaning, I started the roof with it and after trying it for a few minutes decided it was not doing a good enough job. How long are you leting the chlorine dwell?

About the step stool set up. I installed a hose with orings for the lid which also has a quick coupler that connects to a plug that I fastened to the lid, basicly the lid is aire tight around the line going in. Well, when I designed it I forgot to add an air hole in the lid, so the first time I used it I went back to see how much chlorine was left in the bucket and found that the whole 5 gallon bucket had imploded from the air suction of the chem line (looked like a crushed tin can).

Possibly your air hole isn't big enough? It may be big enough to keep the bucket from imploding, but small enough to restrict the flow out of the bucket? Just a thought.

It is very possible you're not getting strong enough chlorine. I've seen posts, and I think Rod posted one of them, about studies done on the loss of chlorine strength over time and under various conditions. It doesn't lose strength as quickly as some believe, but who knows how old some of that chlorine is. It would depend a lot on how much they use between fillings, etc. You might want to try getting some at a pool supply store and see if there's a difference.

I coat the entire roof first, and then begin rinsing where I started coating. The dwell is usually at least 20 minutes, sometimes more depending on the size of the roof. Sometimes I have to recoat bad sections, but you should see pretty dramatic results within a minute.

How do you get the chlorine from your tank to the drum on the roof?

[staudend 14]

Is there good money in wood shingle roofs?

Sorry about Tetris RyanH- I'm a tetris professional... lol

[RyanH 14]

:grrr: GRRRR!!!!

I'm going to hold you personally responsible for the night I will be spending on the couch because I will be too late getting to bed trying to top that score!! I thought I had it whipped. Oh well, congratulations. I'll be back.

Ryan H.

[Henry B. 4]

Hey Guys, What about just using a double downstreamer on your rigs that feed from a large tank? I've got pics of my rig on my website with the tanks on it that I use.

I just use a foamer for doing roofs, decks and other large areas and with the double feed I get excellent results with a good amount of draw from both downstreamers. If I want, I can also use one downstremer for each chemical I carry and automatically mix up my chems when I want. I do have to take into consideration that I've got two hundred feet of chemical in my lines so I have to change out tips before the whole thing is coated. It does work well though and I don't have to carry around any chemicals or buckets on roofs or anywhere.

[Mike Williamson 198]

Have you tested your draw ratio with both downstreamers?

If two downstreamers work together, what about three, or four?

From what I've heard from several folks, Adams downstreamers are hard to beat for their draw ratio.

[Rick G 14]

I have seen one from Espec that pulls from three lines. I dont know what the final % is though.

[Mike Williamson 198]

I've seen that, but I don't know if it would work as well, since you're still basically using one downstreamer that is sucking from three ports.

I'd really be curious to see if two or more downstreamers would give me a 50% draw rate like I get from the Xjet. The only drawback to this is that I'm not crazy about running a 3% sodium hypochlorite solution through my hose reel, hoses, fittings, and gun. It would, however, solve the problem I have with the 12v pump deal.

[CCPC 26]

I used the X-Jet again today on a roof I did. It came out better than the previous attemps but I still was'nt completely satisfied. I let the chlorine dwell for at least 20 minutes and I used roughly 11 or 12 gallons on a 1,300 square ft house. Put up to three coats on certain areas, but I still had a few dark areas that I had to remedy with a pump up.

On the bright side, I used the X-Jet today for the first time to wash the exterior of the same house: OHHH MMMYYYYYY GGGGOOOODDDD!!!! WAS THAT FASTER!!!!

I have had it for 2 months, but had yet to use it on a house. I got it initialy for doing roofs and had my reservations about using on the exterior because I figured that the extra prep work of filling and setting up buckets would eat up to much time. Well let me tell ya, even with my inefficency due to it being my first time using it on a housewash I was still able to cut my cleaning time down by a 1/3.

I don't want to even think about all the hours I've wasted in the past 2 months. I am now a believer.

[Mike Williamson 198]

I used the X-Jet again today on a roof I did. It came out better than the previous attemps but I still was'nt completely satisfied. I let the chlorine dwell for at least 20 minutes and I used roughly 11 or 12 gallons on a 1,300 square ft house. Put up to three coats on certain areas, but I still had a few dark areas that I had to remedy with a pump up.

On the bright side, I used the X-Jet today for the first time to wash the exterior of the same house: OHHH MMMYYYYYY GGGGOOOODDDD!!!! WAS THAT FASTER!!!!

I have had it for 2 months, but had yet to use it on a house. I got it initialy for doing roofs and had my reservations about using on the exterior because I figured that the extra prep work of filling and setting up buckets would eat up to much time. Well let me tell ya, even with my inefficency due to it being my first time using it on a housewash I was still able to cut my cleaning time down by a 1/3.

I don't want to even think about all the hours I've wasted in the past 2 months. I am now a believer.

Glad to see you're now a newly converted member of the church of the easily applied chems!

I'm wondering if you shouldn't try getting some fresh chlorine from a pool place and see if that makes a difference. I'm using 10.5% and the MOST I ever need to coat any part of the roof is twice. The dwell really doesn't need to be more than a few minutes....I can usually start rinsing after 5 if I need to, and this is on some pretty nasty dirty roofs.

Have you checked the draw rate on your Xjet? That's another possibility..If you have the wrong size orifice (internal part) for your size gpm, it will affect your draw rate. I'd time how long it takes to drain a 5 gallon bucket of water, and compare that ratio to your gpm to the xjet nozzle chart to see if you're fairly close to where you should be.

[CCPC 26]

The draw rate should be right. I bought it from Beth and she did ask what gpm machine I was using to make sure I got the right one. I think I will check anyway, just to make sure that it is accurate.

I am not to concerned because of the fact that I plan to use a Shurflo set up as soon as I have time to rig something up. I am still torn between doing a cart mounted setup with about 60ft of hose or truck/trailer mounted with about 200ft. of hose. I just got my Shurflo pump yesterday from Northern Tool (1.8 gpm).

An update on my X-Jet housewashing chronicles:

I used it again yesterday on a 2,500 sf. home and shaved about 45 minutes off my time. My rinsing time has'nt changed that much, but my application time has reduced dramaticly. I get that sucker going and I can coat 1 1/2 sides of a 2,500 sf house in a couple of minutes. The other time saver I've noticed is the dwell time. I'm using 2g chlorine 1g emulsifier plus the rest water in a 5 gallon bucket. The mildew and dirt almost melts away on contact. My setup and breakdown time takes a little longer, but the time I save washing definitely makes up for it. Mike, do you use buckets or do you use a cart mounted setup for x-jeting?

[Mike Williamson 198]

That's what I noticed with the pool chlorine. I used to use about a gallon, maybe less, per 5 gallon bucket, but didn't get the results I wanted on heavy mold/algae areas. Then one day I had a 15 gallon drum of chlorine on a hand truck set up while I was doing a roof from the ground (about 2.5 stories tall and unwalkeable). I figured I'd shoot the side of the house with the chlorine first, then soap it, then rinse. I hit it with the chlorine and the algae just ran off. Soooo...I figured out I needed to up my chlorine content in the housewash. Now, I typically just dump a 2.5 gallon jug into the bucket, add about a gallon of citracleen, and water (and a foamer, rinse aid, and wax as needed). Just upping the chlorine and using the citracleen has saved me a lot of time. On vinyl that isn't dirty, just covered with algae, I can rinse with the soap tip. Makes it much easier to rinse, since I'm not forcing water behind the vinyl like I'd do if I was using high pressure to blast the algae off.

I use the buckets, since it is a pain to drag out a cart and wrestle 120lb drums of chems. The time I lose doing 5 gallon buckets is more than saved in the time I'd lose fighting a handtruck. With the machine and a 225 gallon water tank, there isn't a whole lot of spare room in the trailer. It is just one less thing I have to drag in and out of the trailer. Some guys use the handtruck setup and love it. It just doesn't work for me.

[daryl 14]

Hi guys Daryl here I have a xjet and had a chance to use it on a 4000 sqr ft house

and i was ok with it but i need to realy learn the tricks of the trade.the next house is stucco and i wont to do a very good job on it with being on the job for 6 hours.

any advice you give would be great

thx Daryl

[Firedkm 14]

I also use the handtruck set-up with about 35' of hose. I have a 30 gallon drum I use but its very rarely full of the house wash I use. It does get heavy but its not that bad to haul around. On another board a member is using 200' ft of house connected to a small shurflo to push the chems to the x-jet. This will leave your bucket or tank of chems on the truck or trailer. I will try this out myself to see how it really works. I will let you all know after I try it.