[VSP Home Care]

Hi folks, I'm considering buying some new kit to do driveways block paving mainly.  I've seen quite a few kits online and would like to know what people use professionally.  Budget wise I don't wan't to spend more than 1200 at the moment, if we get plenty of work then I'll upgrade later.

I wan't the flat surface cleaner head on wheels as well as the petrol washer, just too many to choose from.  I'm inclined to stick with the Honda engine, but it's the pumps I don't know much about.

Assuming it's ok to post links to sites, please post if you can recommend something.

Thanks folks :-)

[Smudger]

Number one - ditch the idea of a flat surface cleaner - you just won’t get the finish with it - turbo nozzle is what you want at £45 (suttner)

Tbh - it’s a fine line with your budget it’s around £600 shy for the Honda gx390 and interpump setups

We use these these Honda engine interpump ws202 and have blasted through what must be now thousands of hours with very little problem - none from the pumps - and generally good from the engines with reg. servicing

You will be getting 21 LPM and 200 bar pressure - more than what you need but with these you will need a feed tank (wheelie bin) as they are too powerful for mains water supply  to cut costs either go second hand or look at loncin which I’m told are as good as Honda these days (google jet Mac)

You could start out with gx340 and a pump that delivers 15 LPM - you might be able to run off the mains water with these but be aware jobs will take longer as they are less effective at pushing dirt about

Darran

[VSP Home Care]

Many thanks for the advice Darran I'll look up the nozzle you mention.  I did wonder if these machines would work off the mains properly.  So I'm guessing you fill the bin with water and use it as a reservoir with the mains feeding it.  I'm surprised that the flat surface cleaners are no good though, I've watched a few videos of them in action and they seem good.  I especially like the idea that the housing will stop crap flying about the place.

Do you guys use a 'power broom' before you wash? I've got the sthil one and it cleans moss off drives very well, but I've not seen anyone else using them.

[Jonny Swirljet]

Why don't you give Ben at Rutland pumps a quick call - or the guys at Spinaclean, they do a hands on one day introduction course to driveway cleaning - very professional and friendly guys - This is how i started out in 2012.

Good luck

[Smudger]

No power broom - straight at it with pressure washer.

FSC - have there uses but not for brick weave which tends to be the majority of drives - it struggles to dig the moss out of the gaps and will not clean the chamfers of the brick very well.

Darran

[Splash & dash]

Number one - ditch the idea of a flat surface cleaner - you just won’t get the finish with it - turbo nozzle is what you want at £45 (suttner)

Tbh - it’s a fine line with your budget it’s around £600 shy for the Honda gx390 and interpump setups

We use these these Honda engine interpump ws202 and have blasted through what must be now thousands of hours with very little problem - none from the pumps - and generally good from the engines with reg. servicing

You will be getting 21 LPM and 200 bar pressure - more than what you need but with these you will need a feed tank (wheelie bin) as they are too powerful for mains water supply  to cut costs either go second hand or look at loncin which I’m told are as good as Honda these days (google jet Mac)

You could start out with gx340 and a pump that delivers 15 LPM - you might be able to run off the mains water with these but be aware jobs will take longer as they are less effective at pushing dirt about

Darran

Darran can I ask why you don’t rate fsc we use them and get exelent results quicker than a turbo far less mess , I also have turbo and vario nozzle we use fsc for  big areas and vario for the edges we rarely use the turbo , this isn’t a criticism Ime just intrested in your experience as to why you don’t like them

[Smudger]

Just because we found the opposite we can turbo an area far more quickly and effectively than a FSC especially where heavy moss is involved - yes it’s a bit more messy but once past an area it’s clean where the FSC leaves a wet muddy mess behind it.

I have gx390 at 21 LPM and use 15deg nozzles on the FSC that lifts off the ground on full chat - if you have any recommendations on set up I’m happy to give it a try

Darran

[Smudger]

Here is a typical area

[VSP Home Care]

I'm also struggling with prices, we are a two man outfit and really need to be bringing in 300-350 a day to be profitable.  We would be working together on the job as well.  I'd hope to make the work quicker with two men, but I'm also aware it might be more suited to a single man profit wise.....

Some of the 'average' costs I'm seeing advertised are £2-3 per m2 for a clean and re sand.  I'm wondering if we could end up struggling to make our money at those prices.  We're kent/south London based.

[Splash & dash]

Just because we found the opposite we can turbo an area far more quickly and effectively than a FSC especially where heavy moss is involved - yes it’s a bit more messy but once past an area it’s clean where the FSC leaves a wet muddy mess behind it.

I have gx390 at 21 LPM and use 15deg nozzles on the FSC that lifts off the ground on full chat - if you have any recommendations on set up I’m happy to give it a
Darran

We have a Briggs and Stratton v twin 21 ltr I think it’s 300 bar ??  Washer off Ben Marriot , the pictures you have put up are particularly bad I accept that , we do a lot of block drive ways , cement drives and paving slabs and can honestly say the fsc always does  an exelent job it removes deep down moss in between the beveld pavers and cleans the angled edges 100% , when I first got it I tried the turbo as well but found the fsc does  just as good a job faster with less mess , we have only used the turbo on a couple of jobs , Evan doing the edges I usually use the vario nozzle rather than the turbo , it’s intresting to see how others work and how they have found different  equipment works , thanks for your input

[Smudger]

Just because we found the opposite we can turbo an area far more quickly and effectively than a FSC especially where heavy moss is involved - yes it’s a bit more messy but once past an area it’s clean where the FSC leaves a wet muddy mess behind it.

I have gx390 at 21 LPM and use 15deg nozzles on the FSC that lifts off the ground on full chat - if you have any recommendations on set up I’m happy to give it a
Darran

We have a Briggs and Stratton v twin 21 ltr I think it’s 300 bar ??  Washer off Ben Marriot , the pictures you have put up are particularly bad I accept that , we do a lot of block drive ways , cement drives and paving slabs and can honestly say the fsc always does  an exelent job it removes deep down moss in between the beveld pavers and cleans the angled edges 100% , when I first got it I tried the turbo as well but found the fsc does  just as good a job faster with less mess , we have only used the turbo on a couple of jobs , Evan doing the edges I usually use the vario nozzle rather than the turbo , it’s intresting to see how others work and how they have found different  equipment works , thanks for your input

Agreed - more than one way to get good end results

Darran

[Kev Martin]

Here is a typical area

Christ Darren you call that a Typical Area?  Who laid it? 

My 6 Year Old Grandson or even Stevie Wonder could have done a better job laying those than that

[Smudger]

its been down around 40 years - the old girl was in her 90's and not been able to maintain it - I would have hoped that it ws flatter than that originally!

Darran

[Smudger]

I'm also struggling with prices, we are a two man outfit and really need to be bringing in 300-350 a day to be profitable.  We would be working together on the job as well.  I'd hope to make the work quicker with two men, but I'm also aware it might be more suited to a single man profit wise.....

Some of the 'average' costs I'm seeing advertised are £2-3 per m2 for a clean and re sand.  I'm wondering if we could end up struggling to make our money at those prices.  We're kent/south London based.

thats too cheap to include a re-sand - 2.50 to 3 per sq meter is a good starting place - so typically a drive is 3 meters wide and say its 20 meters long @ 2.50 M2  = 150 to clean this should take around 2 hours to clean inc. clean up etc then we charge minimum of 80 for resanding - which would be 45 mins to an hour total 230 +vat

be aware that travel may be involved so add time accordingly - to start with you will be slow at cleaning, and unless you van mount a tank it takes time loading and unloading equipment and waiting for the tank to fill up etc..
then it the amount of work so you can get more than 1 job a day

HTH

Darran