Here’s a video of our latest power washing job.
//youtu.be/- YouTube
Tony, we seriously gotta talk.
If you can make it to NOLA in August you will save approximately 73 years of PWing out of the rest of your life.
I know, I know. I was worried about the dogs they let run back their. I didn’t want them getting into chemicals and getting sick and/or dying. Am I just being overly cautious? 
Yeah, I would have used a bleach solution that would have been harmless to both the dogs and those plants. The water from rinsing would have further diluted it. It wouldn’t have been a problem at all.
Tony,
Just a bit of constructive advice here, I would remove that video from youtube and do not use it to promote your house washing business. Do a bit more research online, there are better, faster ways to get the job done without using pressure on the house.
I agree with what the others have said, but on the positive side, it sure looks worlds better. We have done painting prep for a major painter in the Vancouver area for years, used a mild bleach solution, left for about 10-15 minutes before rinsing, just melts off. Plants and animals have never been a problem. Even had some official come and test a stream near the jobsite and ask us about dilution, has never been a problem.
I would delay any power washings until you can get set up with soft wash power washing.
Granted, the surface you’re cleaning in the video looks so much better but…
Blasting dirt and grime off of a house with such intense pressure is so risky, not to mention at the pace you’re going in the video takes forever and a day compared to soft washing. Then there’s safety…with the right tools you don’t have to use ladders to go up and spray direct pressure on higher surfaces.
When you get set up for soft wash power washing you can let the chemicals do the work at a fraction of the time and also at a fraction of the risk of damaging property with all that direst pressure.
Check out the recent thread about the [B][SIZE=3]X-Jet[/SIZE][/B] and also visit [URL=“http://www.thegrimescene.com”]www.thegrimescene.com and you can be ready to go with soft wash with very small investment. You can then do the work quickly and safely and get your investment right back in the first cleaning or so.
One other thing Tony,
you should always start from the bottom and work your way up. this will prevent any streaks and lines.
Tony,
Here’s some pics of a recent job we did. Soft washing is the way to go! The neighbors came over and we will do their house in a few weeks. Wet everything down, cover the siding with detergent/bleach from the bottom up, dwell, (scrub if necessary in spots) and rinse.
The pressure will damage things. Sometimes I think the word “pressure” should be removed from the title of the service but it has been in place for so long that people still use it. Soft washing is the bomb buddy.
It’s worth mentioning that the bleach everyone is mentioning is not your normal house laundry bleach. You want swimming pool bleach (Sodium Hypochlorite) it’s more powerful 12% solution compaired to household bleach’s 3%. Also worth mentioning the higher cost. But that is comspenated because of the speed you gain. I have read people cutting off 2/3 rd’s time spent on job. At about $4 per gallon you will need about 4 gallons for a 2500 sqft home.
2 gallons 12%
1 gallon of degreaser (cleaner)
2 gallons water
This mix is for a 5 gallon bucket of which you will go through 2 buckets. I have been reading pretty much over the last few weeks about softwashing. Pretty amazing stuff. Make sure you wet down the surrounding plants, flowers etc. Rinse before and after very well. I rinse the whole time cleaning. I have a helper constantly spraying off the plants but that’s just me not wanting a customer freaking out on me over plants.
Ray,
thanks for this info…this is the info I was looking for as far as ratio and what solution. One quick question…With the “soft” wash…is the GPM and PSI important? Thanks
I’m not 100% up on the softwash so I can’t really answer. I would go with my gutt and say yes they do matter. But I would think they would matter more in regards to the dilution ratio. IE a 4000 psi machine is doing to dilute differently then a 2500psi machine. I’ll let one of the experts answer though.
I talked to Micah today and we were discussing this very thing - do I need to upgrade my pwer. He said the fact that my pwer is 2700psi and 2gpm works well w/ an x-jet since the chemical won’t be a diluted coming out from my machine. Time to buy an x-jet and some Simple Cherry!
Volume over pressure always. 4gpm minimum. If you guys are learning this way try to keep the pricing standardized as to not lower the value of the service. A 2000 - 2500 sqft house runs $500 for 2 hours. Do not cheapen the service there is plenty to pay for.
I’m all for not lowballing things but talking standardized pricing could be construed as racketeering which is frowned on by those in legal circles.
Tony don’t kid yourself, seriously you need to upgrade. Save the money from the xjet and sell your 2gpm washer and buy a used 4gpm machine. You do not need the xjet.
So you’re thinking more like downstreaming then? I don’t do that much pwing. Maybe one or two a month max!
Well when you figure out what you are getting into and you have torn up equipment by using bleach you will find out how much you need to charge or if you want to work for free. If I had a 2gpm machine I wouldn’t use it much either.
I’m sensing some hostility here. If I offended you somehow that wasn’t my intent. I have been talking w/ several other guys who do or have done varying levels of pwing and described what I do. There suggestions were an x-jet. Very little investment and an improvement over what I’m doing now. My main business is wcing and if I’m going to make larger investments it will be in the area of wfp.
WOW then I must be the highballer. I have a repete customer, twice per year on a window clean and PW. They are charged $800 for the PW. I don’t think anyone here would look to cheapen the industry. Of all industries I am willing to bet a window cleaner knows all to well about the types to cheapen a service. At least with a pressure washing the customer understands there is an overhead and thus expects to pay something over $100. With window cleaning a lot of people think $50 would be fair for a 20 window home because there is a bum who will do it for $50. You won’t find many of those types here.
