[Steven Butler]

Does anyone do this on a small scale?

Had a few customers ask me about this over the past month, just wondered if anyone knew the minimum machine spec required and also anything about re sanding and sealing???

[Mike Halliday]

15lt/min @ 250 bar pump Usually driven with  a Honda gx390 13hp engine. Don't struggle with anything smaller

If it's sunny I usually pop back  after tea to re-sand. Don't offer sealer unless you want you get really serious into PW

[Stoots]

Agree with Mike.  I used to have a gx390 15lpm but sold it ages ago due to lack of work.  bought a 11pm machine not long ago just for the odd job. Yes it does work but it's very slow compared to a 15lpm machine.

[elliott cleaning]

Yes, you need a flow of at least 15l/pm - 3500psi adjustable down when required should cover 99% of jobs

[Tony Stewart]

Probably need a whirlaway as a lance you will have it half way up the walls before you start. Dont try and carpet clean afterwards as you get filthy dirty....apart from that easy peasy!

[Mike Halliday]

Pressure washing is not something you dabble in, unless you are going to get into it seriously  then it's not worth the investment to buy the professional gear. It's a bit like a Window cleaner asking about buying a portable to clean a few of his customers carpets.

 I know a couple of carpet cleaners who have give it a go but ended up selling their gear as they did'nt want to give the time needed to make it successful 

[derek west]

i bought all the gear to do PW and hated it, soaking wet, sweaty in water proofs, splash backs in your face. noisy, wet, yak, give me a nice clean carpet anyday of the week, although saying that, i do like a nice indoor hard floor job. 

i bought a bowser trailer mount for about £2500 off ebay, did about 5 jobs and sold it for £2700 a few months later.  so not all bad 

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

I looked into buying virtually new equipment a few years ago from a fellow member on here.

Using the spinner was very hard work and made sucking with a wand seem as easy as sipping a cool beer on a summers evening.

It's good fun cleaning chairs etc with a PW but I'm sure the novelty would soon wear off.

The CC was very honest as to just how hard PW is and if I was going to do it I would buy a very powerful machine and set it up as a separate venture with staff. Far too hard work for for an ageing CC like me.

Cheers

Doug

[Stoots]

Strange why anyone would think pressure washing is any harder than sweating around in a red hot house moving furniture and pushing a wand.

[Mike Halliday]

At the moment I am turning away away any new customers that call ( actually I'm telling them I have a 5 week backlog  so if they are willing to wait 5 weeks I could fit them it, no one wants to wait that long ) existing customers get booked in.

This is to totally concentrate our time  on PW.......which has a higher average job value and higher hourly rate, most of our PW Jobs are in the £350 range and if I did'nt like to finish before 3pm we could do 3 a day easily.

PW is easier and less stressful than carpet cleaning and the job satisfaction is incredible....,,,  we never have a customer who is not gobsmacked how great the clean turns out (compared to cleaning a 'clean ' carpet that hardly looks any different when we finish)

It helps that we work as a 2 man team using a massive trailer mounted machine which runs a tri-jet 24 inch spinner.

If I wanted to work long hours I could earn enough in the 6 months of summer  to take the rest of the year off.

[davep]

How is a 2 man team any faster mike? Do you both jw at the same time?

[Mike Halliday]

1 man never stops cleaning, the other brushes up the crap or brushes the waste water towards the drain.  Once we get most done my helper takes over the spinner and I start applying the hypo'

The longest part of most jobs is the clean up. Plus moving & replacing pots and garden furniture is sometimes a big job.

We do have a 2 machines on the trailer so if we can't reach with the trailer unit we can demount the spare and move it closer... So we can sometimes use 2 spinners or lances

[Steven Butler]

Cheers for replies.

Mike that last post is very interesting.

[davep]

Mike we've never used hypo. Is it used on slabs?

[Mike Halliday]

We use it on everything, it finishes off the clean beautifully, takes away any stripeness  and removes any lichen spores (blacks spots )

[davep]

Can you let me know does it damage the plants etc, do you use it as a post treatment? What dilution and where can it be bought. 

[Mike Halliday]

Don't put it on the plants a light mist won't do any harm, it's more likely to stain Tarmac if it runs off into the gutter

Spray down after cleaning at  4-1

Local farm suppliers usually sell it or search google

[davep]

So you don't rinse it off?

[Mike Halliday]

usually no. just let it keep working just warn the customer to be carefuil walking on it until it dries

[Deep Cleaning Solutions]

I hope you warn owners of dogs after leaving hypo on the paving. My dog often licks water off the paving in the garden and I don't think licking hypo is going to do it much good.