help me with gutters please

[mas3372 14]

HELLO,

I am using gutter zap from sunbrite and it works well. I have been brushing it on with a brush on a 24 extention pole. I had some homes today with 3 stories on the back and could barely get the brush up there and not get enough cleaner on or leverage to get really clean gutters.

Is there a better cleaner to use, a better method.

This stuff is expensive so I don't see x-jetting it to be cost effective.

Is there a house cleaner that will also clean those annoying black marks off?

Any help would be great

Thanks

[PRESSURE PACKED 14]

Go To Home Depot Get Formula 88, You Can Dilute Or Just Use It Straight. With A Pump Spayer Do 30 Foot Sections At A Time. Simply Spray On And Pressure Clean Off..ive Only Had To Brush Two Times

[tropical wave 22]

make sure to keep the siding wet while using any of the "serious" gutter cleaners.......

I use gutter shock and I usually brush it after dipping it into a bucket of mix, saves me a lot of chem this way.....I never have xjetted gutter cleaner, im a wuss like that, as I dont xjet deck chems or acids either.....spooks me out a bit too much

many "many" of my gutters come clean with my houewash mix, I'll even drag my big fluffy brush across them while the housewash mix is on there and they usually come out beautiful without even taking the gutter chems off the rig

[Don M. 14]

I've been using Gutter Shock 50/50 and spraying with a pump up, apply my chems for the house wash, rinse windows, brush gutters, then rinse the whole thing.

Just be careful of mixing GS too hot. I have done that a couple of times.

[mas3372 14]

Thanks for the help. I think I will try to locate some 88 locally to give that a shot until I can get some gutter shock from steve R.

Tropical,

You say you use a fluffy brush, what exactly do you use. I am using a small quicky brush from Home Depot and am thinking that perhaps that is not getting enough chem on the gutters or the aluminum facia and most of it is dripping off on the way up.

I wish I could spray it on but when you have a house with a walk out basement and gutters a full 3 stories high, a pump up spayer just does not have that reach.

[Barry M 73]

To reach 3rd story, I stand on a 10' step ladder and apply with a brush on an extension pole.

[tropical wave 22]

Tropical,

You say you use a fluffy brush, what exactly do you use. I am using a small quicky brush from Home Depot and am thinking that perhaps that is not getting enough chem on the gutters or the aluminum facia and most of it is dripping off on the way up.

.

the brush I use on an pole is a yellow car wash brush that I got from an auto parts store.....its big, 2 angles and its soft.....since its for car washing, it holds a lot of liquid.......works great.

it was sold with a short flow thru pole that would be hooked up to a garden hose, I just unscrewed it from that silly short pole and put it on my long extension pole.

[mas3372 14]

thanks for the help. I will check out pepboys for the pole. I carry a 20 ext. that I try to avoid at all cost. I am hoping a better sponge will do a better job. thanks

[PRESSURE PACKED 14]

88 Will Get The Black Steaks Off Without A Brush

[GymRat 14]

Go To Home Depot Get Formula 88, You Can Dilute Or Just Use It Straight. With A Pump Spayer Do 30 Foot Sections At A Time. Simply Spray On And Pressure Clean Off..ive Only Had To Brush Two Times

I use a brush on an extension pole basically as a way to apply my cleaner on 2 story houses without having to use a ladder. Most of the time I don't have to scrub with the brush, just brush it on, and rinse. My concern is it sounds like you would waste a lot of the cleaning solution using a pump up, and would have to use a ladder to apply your cleaner.

[Don M. 14]

The last house I did was about 2300 sq ft and I only used a little over 1/2 quart of GS. I usually mix 1/2 quart GS and 1/2 quart water and fire away with my pump up.

Tons better than a xjet!

[H2O PRESSURE 14]

I went to Home Deepott today, and they'd never even heard of Formula 88. They told me that maybe it's a "regional thing" that only other areas carry. I was pissed. So, I ordered some Citraclean today, and I hope it'll make me very pleased when I get it, Monday or Tuesday. This purple power just isn't strong enough to melt the black that I'm dealing with. Too much use of a scrub brush. Screw that.

[CCPC 26]

I went to Home Deepott today, and they'd never even heard of Formula 88. They told me that maybe it's a "regional thing" that only other areas carry. I was pissed. So, I ordered some Citraclean today, and I hope it'll make me very pleased when I get it, Monday or Tuesday. This purple power just isn't strong enough to melt the black that I'm dealing with. Too much use of a scrub brush. Screw that.

How are you applying the PP? I apply it full strength via a brush and it works just as good as any other gutter cleaner in my opinion.

[Rfitz 14]

I have been cleaning blk streaks from gutters for years, and I have never been able to find a chem that you just spray on rinse off, it takes very strong chems like Bob's soap at Pressure-Tek, and alot of Elbow grease

[H2O PRESSURE 14]

How are you applying the PP? I apply it full strength via a brush and it works just as good as any other gutter cleaner in my opinion.

I apply it full strength also. I think it's an amazing product, but it still requires a lot of elbow grease on textured surfaces. I'm being told that some of these other chemicals are more aggressive, so I'm really hoping they are. I don't want to take the paint off, which is why I don't use MEK or acetone, but it'd be great if anything and everything ON the paint would just rinse off.

[PRESSURE PACKED 14]

Whats The Outcome

[mas3372 14]

Havn't decided what I am going to try yet. I am considering the gutter shock with tighter bristly brush to keep more chem on the brush and not victim to gravity. Can't find formula 88 anywhere. Also considerign all brite as my house cleaner if I can confirm that it cleans the gutters as good as if I brushed them.

[mas3372 14]

Some others that I have been reading about. Ripper from e spec seems to be a non-favorite, but how about gutter buster

[CCPC 26]

Some others that I have been reading about. Ripper from e spec seems to be a non-favorite, but how about gutter buster

Not sure about gutter buster, but yeah, Ripper is crap.

[mas3372 14]

O.K. talk to tracey at sunbrite, great guy, lots of help. He said my dwell was to long at 5 minutes and the dirt was redrying to the gutter, try to do 2 minutes or so.

I also went to walmart to get some motor oil and saw a degreaser in a purple bottle for $5 that contain soduim hydroxide. So I said what the heck and bought a bottle.

I then played the dangerous back yard chemist which I should not do mixed about 3 ounces of the degreaser into about 12 oz of gutter zap. I then noticed a problem with the solution sticking to my brush so I added about 1 oz of palmolive to help create some slight suds.

All in all, the solution stuck to my brush much better which meant I got more solution on the gutters and not the lawn and the best part is it worked great. I would do about 15 feet at a time. I only had to make sure the solution touched the gutters at every dirty spot and then rinsed off. The gutters were black and are now sparkling white.

I am not sure if it was the added degreaser or the reduction in dwell, but nonetheless, it worked great.

Wish I took pics.

[Sun Brite of Maryland 14]

When using gutter zap you should'nt need to add anything to it. If your concerned about wasting it, you can use an extension wand to apply it but with all the extra effort and time it's taking you to do the gutters this way, are you really saving money?

Most of the contractors that buy gutter zap from us are able to do the entire gutter system with one gallon. The amount of time your taking using your method may be costing you more in time and hard work. If you xjet on the cleaner and clean all the gutters on the house in a total of 15 minutes, or take 40 minutes to do it with brushes and buckets, which method is more cost effective? If your cleaning three houses a day your loosing about 90 minutes, that's enough time and energy to do a fourth house.

In this business, wasted time is far more costly than cleaners.

[PRESSURE PACKED 14]

Can Someone Use Formula 88 Spray It On And Pressure Clean Off And Tell Me If Gutter Zap Is Better Or Worse

[mas3372 14]

sunbrite of maryland,

When you say spray it on with an extention pole, do you mean off the pressure washer or a long pole for a pump up spayer. I understand the time vs. saving money and we all know time is money. I am open to ideas. I just see it as a waste to x jet it on and blow all those chems away and risk getting it on windows and so forth. And downstreaming it would weaking it to much I believe.

I am considering the all-brite since it is much cheaper so that I can x jet the gutters and the aluminum facia and aluminum trim and the proceed to wash the the hosue with my normal house wash. How do you feel about the all brite for gutters with an x jet?

[Rodney 14]

Most of the contractors that buy gutter zap from us are able to do the entire gutter system with one gallon. If you xjet on the cleaner and clean all the gutters on the house in a total of 15 minutes, or take 40 minutes to do it with brushes and buckets, which method is more cost effective?

I would like to hear some feed back from the guys that xjet gutter zap or even gutter shock on the gutters. I know it is being done and have seen pics of guys doing it. I am not worried about gutter zap on windows, I talk to Mike Baker every couple of weeks and one of the many uses of gutter zap is window cleaning, My concern is getting overspray on the siding.We all know that gutter zap will leave clean spots on siding and I have even used it to remove oxidation off of siding and or painted surfaces such as front doors.So to me there seems to be a risk of xjetting a chemical that could change the appearance of the siding when you cant controll the spray off an xjet.

[Mike Williamson 198]

Gutter Shock from Steve Rowlett beats Zap hands down...much less brushing, and I've not had the problem with damaging bare aluminum like I did with Zap.

[mas3372 14]

mike, how do apply the shock? x-jet, brush, sprayer. thanks