Most DISGUSTING housewash to date

[Able Hands 14]

I did a housewash the other day for a property management company that I do lots of work for. This place was disgusting, inside and out. I'd like to thank everyone here for all of the information that you have given away freely. As a handyman, I pride myself in knowing how to make the best use of my tools. This forum has helped me cut my wash times by more than half, and I'm getting better results too.

This house is about 1400sf. Two and a half sides of it looked like the before picture. Took me two hours to setup, wash, and tear down and have it all come out like the after picture. Can't wait 'til I can afford to upgrade equipment.

Thanks again!!

Matt

[PressurePros 248]

Matt, I love those kind of jobs. The difference is so dramatic you step back with pride and just admire yuor work. Great work.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Great photos Matt! It sure feels good to see something transformed from dirty to clean doesn't it?

Beth

[GymRat 14]

Great job Matt, that will be a good pic for advertising your services.

John

[mikew 14]

Looks great. Those make great before and after pictures.

Mike

[Jarrod 22]

Nice job Matt! Put those photos on your post card ads.

[FullBlast 14]

Got to love it man!!

They make you feel like that you really are a HERO!!!

GREAT JOB!!!!!!! :cool:

[bforbis 14]

Great Job Matt and good luck on future jobs. Those are the jobs (pics) that really help sell the next job.

Go by Staples or Oficce MAX and get a packet of clear sheet protectors and start a portfolio. Keep it with you and show it whenever you get an opportunity. It's like having kids pics, but different.

Want to see pics of my children!!!!

[Adrian 155]

That's one you can puff your feathers up about. Nice work. Good advice about the pics as well . they are a good selling tool. Esp. if you show the pics you have shown us. From "yuk" to WOW!

again.... great work.

[PRESSURE PACKED 14]

I WOULD PUT THAT ON THE FRONT PAGE OF YOUR PORTFOLIO...

P.S. YOU MISSED A SPOT:lgsideway

[Degraffreed 21]

I agree, right next to the left of the window.Ha Ha

[Jeff 232]

Your fairly new to PWing, correct? 2 hours set up to break down is pretty good Congrats on a job well done. Got to love the 12%. Whats your house wash?

Great pics

Jeff

[Able Hands 14]

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments.

Jeff,

The house wash the I am using is off the shelf store bought from Xterior. I'd Like to start mixing my own, but I have experience doing that stuff. Don't want to melt the siding off from someones home, but at $41.00 for 5 gallons of concentrate, I'm going to have to learn from someone.

Anyone care to share? PM or email

Matt

[Jeff 232]

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments.

Jeff,

The house wash the I am using is off the shelf store bought from Xterior. I'd Like to start mixing my own, but I have experience doing that stuff. Don't want to melt the siding off from someones home, but at $41.00 for 5 gallons of concentrate, I'm going to have to learn from someone.

Anyone care to share? PM or email

Matt

I bought the same stuff from Ron of Xterior, then he told me about 12% and soap, Get 12% and some soap or even their Barlox, little pricey barlox.

Ron helped me alot. I can mix a 5 of house wash for under $2.00 for vinyl

Just ask questions here you'll learn, Ron was the one that told me about BB's

Good luck

[James 624]

Mould is a Beautiful thing !

[Able Hands 14]

Jeff,

How far does that $2.00 mix take you in sq. ft. The only thing I like about using the concentrate is that I run it through a proportioner on my M5. Not having to keep going back to mix more chems seems to me a little more efficient. Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps the cost savings on the chems balances it out.

Honestly, I think the fear of messing up someones property is dictating my actions currently. Need more experience.

Matt

[paul-uk 500]

matt.do a search on house washing and you will find out all the do's and donts......plus a few tips on different soaps you can make

[Rodney 14]

Matt,

If you know your draw rate proportioners are great. You can mix a stronger house wash and it will last longer. Like Jeff said 12.5% will give you good results with some kind of soaps. Barlox that is in Xteriors HW runs me

around $60 for 5 gallons but last for ever.You can easy do a 100 houses off of 5 gallons of barlox.Without the proportioners most guys use around 1.5-2 gallons of bleach with some kind of soap and the rest is water in a 5 gallon. Rinse aids and wax are other options.

[Mike Williamson 198]

Matt,

If you know your draw rate proportioners are great. You can mix a stronger house wash and it will last longer. Like Jeff said 12.5% will give you good results with some kind of soaps. Barlox that is in Xteriors HW runs me

around $60 for 5 gallons but last for ever.You can easy do a 100 houses off of 5 gallons of barlox.Without the proportioners most guys use around 1.5-2 gallons of bleach with some kind of soap and the rest is water in a 5 gallon. Rinse aids and wax are other options.

I use 50 gallons of 10.5% and 10 gallons of soap (citracleen currently, fixing to try Sunbrite's citrus cleaner) in a 65 gallon tank hooked to my downstreamer. Works great, and for the rare job where downstreaming just doesn't get it, I use the M5. Just did my parents 2800sf two story vinyl house with a painted deck that wraps around 3/4 of the house in 2 hours, and used about 5 gallons of wash mix.

I do NOT miss the Xjet for housewashing. Pull my hoses, crank the machine, start soaping. Swap tips and rinse.

[Able Hands 14]

I guess the problem I have with purchasing Bleach in those quantities, is that I don't really do enough PWing to justify it. What is the shelf life? If I didn't think it would lose strength over time I might consider buying in that kind of bulk.

Matt

[Rodney 14]

Matt

5 gallons of 12.5 runs $12.50 around here. Shelf life should be couple months. I would start with 5'vers add soap and use proportioners.

[Mike Williamson 198]

I guess the problem I have with purchasing Bleach in those quantities, is that I don't really do enough PWing to justify it. What is the shelf life? If I didn't think it would lose strength over time I might consider buying in that kind of bulk.

Matt

Agreed, if you're not using a lot of it, better to buy in smaller quantities. On a busy week I might go through a couple hundred gallons of 10.5% (12% isn't available in pool stores here). The pool stores here sell it in 2.5 gallon jugs, and that's what I used up until recently. It just got to be a real pain to have to dump 5 or 6 jugs of chlorine into a 30 gallon drum when I needed to clean a roof, or have to run to the pool store every day or so to fill up 15 or 20 jugs. Just a lot of wasted time and effort.

It will lose strength, slowly, but it will take many weeks for it to lose enough to notice.

[dgold42 14]

It's seeing great results that makes us all feel like we did something that day.

Nice Job!!

Dan

[Jonathan Chiplock 14]

What type of waxes are you guys using... The only thing I use is Sil-O-Wet from envirospec. Seems to do the trick. Any others out there worth mentioning?

[mikew 14]

What type of waxes are you guys using... The only thing I use is Sil-O-Wet from envirospec. Seems to do the trick. Any others out there worth mentioning?

I use a wax from Steve Rowlett when i'm washing vinyl siding. Seems to work fine to me.

Mike

[dgold42 14]

I've used Sil-o-Wet for about 5 years and it's always worked good. I think I'm going to try some of Steve Rowlett's wax this season.

Never hurts to try something new and he has a pretty solid reputation. If it doesn't fit my needs I can always go back to Sil-o-Wet.

Dan