9½ hours to do a house wash?

[Guest sprayclean2]

Hello,

My second washed house was a single level, vinyl sided and 1500 square feet. When the job was done the siding was “white glove clean” top to bottom and the aluminum fascia and gutters sparkled white.

Commercial siding cleaner was applied with an x-jet at the ratio recommended from the chemical distributor. Commercial gutter cleaner was applied and scrubed with a brush. Concerned about getting water behind the siding which I thought had inexpensive backing board, I used about 900 psi to rinse. Using the commercial chemicals, I had expected all the dirt to become loose then use a light rinse. I was wrong, so I hand brushed the entire house and gutters.

It seems I'm missing doing something to make this operation go faster while achieving the same results. I’m wondering… How clean can a dirty house be washed without brushing? Are chemicals supposed to loosen all the dirt so the dirt can be rinsed off with low psi? Maybe I should have used more pressure to rinse instead of brushing? I sure would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions that may help speed up the process. (The +... homeowner was very happy and there was no damage) Thank you.

Equipment:

18 ft brush, 8 ft brush, x-jet, 13hp 4gpm washer, Commercial house wash & gutter chemicals, x-jet, 18 ft telescopic wand not used

[CCPC 26]

What kind of "Commercial chemical" were you using to clean the vinyl? Did you add any bleach to your mix? what was your mix ration of chem to water?

Yes. in most cases, pretty much any exterior should be able to be easily cleaned with very little pressure or effort on your part. If you have to muscle it off, you're probably using the wrong chemicals or ratios of chemicals. Give us a little more info on the questions I asked and we can better understand where you went wrong.

[Neil_Asheville 114]

What Lance said. Bleeeeeech in the mix.

[PressurePros 249]

Wow. Most guys on here would probably tell you they can do that in 45 minutes. I don't neccessarily believe that but 9 hours definitely indicates improper housewash mix.

[Adrian 155]

12%

....Then you will love your x-jet

[dk34 14]

9 1/2 hour day....

[Mountain View 14]

Ouch!

[Xstream Clean 14]

We use a homebrew for our house wash mix. We use the X-jet to apply, and then also to rinse. From the time we pull up, to the time we pull off is normally two hours or less.

[Guest sprayclean2]

Hello Lance and others who are offering advice and info… thank you.

• Siding mix contained sodium hydroxide. The mix was bought locally. I have never seen the name on any forum or for sale on any website. It’s a mix that a local chemical supplier gets from a big out of state chemical company to sell to pressure washers. I prefer not to mention names.
  
• No bleach was added to the chemicals.
  
• ratio: 3 gal water to 1 gal chemicals then apply using the red color x-jet proportioner (16 to 1) with 4gpm washer. (per instructions)

It sounds like there may be hope. Maybe I need to get chemicals from a distributor that actually is more involved in pressure washing. Can one person really do a good job on a house + gutters in about two hours?

DK34…

That was a good one. If you had shouted it out your car window four days ago when I was going into my 8th hour I could not have laughed.

[Barry M 73]

I just finished up a 1500 single story home a little bit ago. It took me an hour and it looks good. You definately need bleach in your mix. Normally I don't use a proportioner in the x-jet, so it shoots chems at a 2:1 ratio. I think your mix was waaaaaay to weak. You shouldn't have to brush the whole house, with a good mix the little bit of pressure you use to rinse is enough to aggitate and break loose the rest of the dirt, grime, and mildew. A lot of the folks around here that xjet use this mix. In a 5 gallon bucket mix 1 gallon of 12% sodium hypochlorite, 1/2 gallon of citracleen (house wash soap), and fill the rest of the bucket up with water and xjet with no proportioner. Good luck and keep using the search button to do research.

[PressurePros 249]

sodium metasilicate. It has a "scrubbing" type of effect and will lift dirt. In my opinion it is a crucial element in a housewash mix. Sodium hydroxide is too hot for housewashes and it films.

[Sun Brite of Maryland 14]

There are plenty of high quality house washes on the market for professional power washers. It sounds like you applied your cleaners a bit weak, 12% bleach will also give a huge boost to your house wash mix.

I highly suggest that you "never" scrub a house like you did. If you had been cleaning oxidized Aluminum, you would have created a nightmare involving siding replacement and most likely lawsuits.

If I can help let me know.

[tropical wave 22]

if you got $950.00 for the job, then you had a great day.. :)

loose the proportioners......

add some chlorine, and you'll be fine

[PLD 14]

loose the proportioners......

add some chlorine, and you'll be fine

Ditto on the chlorine. That was BIG part of your problem.

As for the proportioners, that's a personal thing. I used them at first and hated them. After two years of carting around a 15gal bucket, I tried them again and now I will not work without them. Whether you use proportioners or not, you need to know your to-the-wall (ttw) ratios for your setup. 0.8-1.5% bleach is a good start.

As for the house, I could do a good job on that sized house in under an hour with nothing more than kroger bleach and no-name laundry soap. For a total newbie, 2 hours max. Any longer and you need to re-evaluate your chems and your process.

Barry has given you some good advice regarding the mix. Since I'm a proportioner user, I would put 3 gals of 12%, 1.5 gals of citraclean, 1/2 gallon of water in a 5 gallon bucket and use a black (6.5:1 @5.5gpm) proportioner.

With proportioners: For a 4 gpm machine with a, the xjet black proportioner mixes at 5:1. That means that 6% bleach becomes 1% bleach at the wall. So, whatever is in your bucket needs to be at least half 12% bleach.

Without proportioners: For a 4 gpm machine the xjet with no proportioner mixes at 2.6:1. That means that 3.6% bleach becomes 1% bleach at the wall. So, if you want 1% TTW, whatever is in your bucket needs to be at least 30% bleach (12%). For a 5 gallon bucket, that's 6qts of bleach. The mix Barry provided yields 0.67% which is a little weak for my tastes but certainly a workable mixture.

One last comment: Based on the description of the chemical you used, I am going to guess that it was a yellow butyl caustic called "PowerHouse" from SunBrite. Without bleach, you would get results like you experienced. I personally don't use it for general washing because of the drawbacks Ken mentioned, but PowerHouse is a good product suitable for housewashing.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Can one person really do a good job on a house + gutters in about two hours?

We do it all the time. Call Rod. He's glad to help.

Beth :cup:

[John Orr 206]

Wow. Most guys on here would probably tell you they can do that in 45 minutes. I don't necessarily believe that but 9 hours definitely indicates improper housewash mix.

I recently did a house that size, including the (one car) driveway, in 1 1/4 hours - by myself. The house was VERY green. Hot (130 deg) water will take a lot of time off of each wash. If my assistant was with me that day, it would have been 45 min. Thursday of this week, we did a 2400 sq ft, 2 story vinyl home - including gutter wash, 2 car driveway, a large, covered porch and a hot wax rinse - in about 1 hour 20 mins...including setting-up and tearing down. $225 with coupon from the Yellow Book.

P.S. No x-jet, no ladder.

[tropical wave 22]

Ditto on the chlorine. That was BIG part of your problem.

As for the proportioners, that's a personal thing. I used them at first and hated them. After two years of carting around a 15gal bucket, I tried them again and now I will not work without them. Whether you use proportioners or not, you need to know your to-the-wall (ttw) ratios for your setup. 0.8-1.5% bleach is a good start.

As for the house, I could do a good job on that sized house in under an hour with nothing more than kroger bleach and no-name laundry soap. For a total newbie, 2 hours max. Any longer and you need to re-evaluate your chems and your process.

Barry has given you some good advice regarding the mix. Since I'm a proportioner user, I would put 3 gals of 12%, 1.5 gals of citraclean, 1/2 gallon of water in a 5 gallon bucket and use a black (6.5:1 @5.5gpm) proportioner.

With proportioners: For a 4 gpm machine with a, the xjet black proportioner mixes at 5:1. That means that 6% bleach becomes 1% bleach at the wall. So, whatever is in your bucket needs to be at least half 12% bleach.

Without proportioners: For a 4 gpm machine the xjet with no proportioner mixes at 2.6:1. That means that 3.6% bleach becomes 1% bleach at the wall. So, if you want 1% TTW, whatever is in your bucket needs to be at least 30% bleach (12%). For a 5 gallon bucket, that's 6qts of bleach. The mix Barry provided yields 0.67% which is a little weak for my tastes but certainly a workable mixture.

One last comment: Based on the description of the chemical you used, I am going to guess that it was a yellow butyl caustic called "PowerHouse" from SunBrite. Without bleach, you would get results like you experienced. I personally don't use it for general washing because of the drawbacks Ken mentioned, but PowerHouse is a good product suitable for housewashing.

proportioners are probably a good thing, I just dont like messing with them, so I dont.....I just adjust the mixture in the tank/bucket. 1 gallon of chlorine, 1/2 to 3/4 gallon citriclean and water....open M5.....two buckets will do a decent sized house wash for me....and usually 1/2 gallon of gutter shock does it for the gutters

[PLD 14]

proportioners are probably a good thing, I just dont like messing with them, so I dont.....I just adjust the mixture in the tank/bucket. 1 gallon of chlorine, 1/2 to 3/4 gallon citriclean and water....open M5.....two buckets will do a decent sized house wash for me....and usually 1/2 gallon of gutter shock does it for the gutters

Yep, proportioner or open is very personal. I dislike the heavy bucket(s) and time adding water over the hassles of a proportioner. For me, if I could get 100% chems and the proper proportioner, I'd carry a 1qt x-jet "pail" :)

[Howard 50]

Hello,

Commercial siding cleaner was applied with an x-jet at the ratio recommended from the chemical distributor. Commercial gutter cleaner was applied and scrubed with a brush.

I used the x-jet for 4 years now this year I switched to down streaming. I can't ya how much I like it better than x-jet. I still carry the x-jet on the truck and do use it, mainly to rinse now.

1500 sq ft single story house vinyl siding I can wash in a little over an hour by myself from set up to tear down. The only thing I brush is the gutters (if required). I use 12.5% and citrakleen that I mix up on site.

Like its been said in earlier posts, sounds like you applied the cleaner too weak. Get your mix right and lose the brush for everything except the gutters.

[Anthony G 14]

I carry 2-300' feet of pressure hose and love the x-jet.......though I do need to order some more proportioners or adjust accordingly to mixtures in the bucket. Love the x-jet for its On/Off capabilities and not having 25 minutes to clear the rinse water up.

[JohnW 14]

Hello Lance and others who are offering advice and info… thank you.

• Siding mix contained sodium hydroxide. The mix was bought locally. I have never seen the name on any forum or for sale on any website. It’s a mix that a local chemical supplier gets from a big out of state chemical company to sell to pressure washers. I prefer not to mention names.
  
• No bleach was added to the chemicals.
  
• ratio: 3 gal water to 1 gal chemicals then apply using the red color x-jet proportioner (16 to 1) with 4gpm washer. (per instructions)

It sounds like there may be hope. Maybe I need to get chemicals from a distributor that actually is more involved in pressure washing. Can one person really do a good job on a house + gutters in about two hours?

DK34…

That was a good one. If you had shouted it out your car window four days ago when I was going into my 8th hour I could not have laughed.

Don't feel bad, when I purchased my pressure washing equipment locally more than 2 years ago, I was given the same thing. They gave me a container, which I'm pretty sure contained sodium hydroxide and it was under a name they created for their 'own' product. I never did use it, and thankfully I met Steven Rowlett over at TCN and started using his housewash mixture. I've never looked back since then. I'd say put that stuff on the shelf, and take everyone's advice here.

John Werling

Superior Pressure Washing

Fayetteville, GA

[PressurePros 249]

I carry 2-300' feet of pressure hose and love the x-jet.......though I do need to order some more proportioners or adjust accordingly to mixtures in the bucket. Love the x-jet for its On/Off capabilities and not having 25 minutes to clear the rinse water up.

No exagerration there, huh Anthony? It takes about one minute tops to clear a hose. What size machine are you running?

[Mike Williamson 198]

I carry 2-300' feet of pressure hose and love the x-jet.......though I do need to order some more proportioners or adjust accordingly to mixtures in the bucket. Love the x-jet for its On/Off capabilities and not having 25 minutes to clear the rinse water up.

25 minutes? Maybe if you were running a .0002gpm machine and 20000 feet of hose!!!

I run 200' of hose, and it doesn't take more than 10 seconds for chem to get to the gun, or to clear the hose of chem, and that's with 5.5gpm. With the 8gpm machine, it takes even less time.

[CCPC 26]

25 minutes? Maybe if you were running a .0002gpm machine and 20000 feet of hose!!!

I run 200' of hose, and it doesn't take more than 10 seconds for chem to get to the gun, or to clear the hose of chem, and that's with 5.5gpm. With the 8gpm machine, it takes even less time.

about 10 to 12 seconds here too!!!

[Sun Brite of Maryland 14]

When your downstreaming your chemicals, how are you reaching high areas 2 and 3 stories up?

Just curious, I've only been out to a few house washing jobs and all of the guys doing it used the m5 x jets.

[CCPC 26]

When your downstreaming your chemicals, how are you reaching high areas 2 and 3 stories up?

Just curious, I've only been out to a few house washing jobs and all of the guys doing it used the m5 x jets.

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