Power Washing and Roof Cleaning Forum

Eric Schnaible · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Water Reclaim System

Art O · Approved Exterior Cleaner

They talk a lot about this at PWI. I would shot Ron a PM. He is the Expert on it. I you can Go to the Arizona round table. It will be worth your time.

waxman18324 · Founding Member Rest in Peace

Eric Schnaible wrote:
Hey Guys,
I'm gonna need to get a reclaim system. I don't think I will use it a lot so I would prefer a small simple system. It will be for commercial exterior soft wash cleaning. I know they are not designed for SH. However, considering it will be dirty, house wash mix and probably mostly just rinse water... I'm figuring it wont be an issue. I'm hoping to suck it up and spit into a sewer to avoid having to deal with it later. I know a lot of you do more pressure washing and have some experience with these systems. Can I get some feed back?

Thanks,

Eric,

Get in touch with Jerry McMillen here(http://www.pressurewasher.net/). He's based in El Cajon, CA.

Hank

SprayWash · Approved Exterior Cleaner

It's real tough to reclaim from vertical surfaces. So many walls go into landscape areas rather than onto a hard surface like concrete. I have yet to find a way to effectively reclaim when washing walls.

Doug Rucker · Vender

Why do you need it?..

Eric Schnaible · Approved Exterior Cleaner

I have a contract for the police department. Its a big nice building that will come out incredible. They specifically asked if I would reclaim. Yeah Ray, for the most part it will all go into flower beds but I have to catch what does not. I mainly want it for the photos for marketing and also to go after the many other facilities the city has.

Eric Schnaible · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Thanks Hank.
Jerry is awesome.

SprayWash · Approved Exterior Cleaner

if you're just going to reclaim on the flat work, a VaccuBerm, and a few fillable water berms to channel the water to the right spot will do the trick. The Chems will destroy your vacuum in pretty short order though.

Eric Schnaible · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Thanks Ray,
I was looking at the sirocco pev1 but I guess the vaccuberm is probably sufficient for now. I'm hoping the dirty, diluted mix won't be an issue on my dustless technologies vacuum.

SprayWash · Approved Exterior Cleaner

I use the PEV2 with the vaccuberm. I love the system, very happy with the product Sirrocco has created. That being said, if I was going to use my system more than 4 times per year, I would upgrade to a gas powered model. Too many cords, too much hassle to run electric all the time.

I just don't care for reclaiming at all. I find it to be slow and problematic. I offer the service, but customers pay top dollar for it. Instead of two pieces pf equipment that can screw up (PW and surface cleaner), you've now introduced several more links to the chain that can break and cause a huge CF (Charlie Foxtrot). I assume if I specialized in reclaim and used it everyday, I would get more streamlined in the process and it would become easier.

If you were going to do it, I'd have Jerry ( or the Bill & Paul from the thepressurewashstore) put me together a whole unit, not piece it together like I did.

Accuwash · Approved Exterior Cleaner

No off site discharge and PH neutral is compliant. Tell them that and they will know you know what your talking about. It's on the epa website. so yea some berms and a shop vac will win the day in most cases. Removing the wash-water and transporting it actually makes you very susceptible to enforcement and various laws.
Also you will need a discharge permit to send it down the sewer line, that is not on-site discharge.
And if you want to haul it off-site.....well keep your head low, I guess that's how most people avoid the waste permits.

UAMCC is looking for some new ways to get the word out on this. We plan to get some environmental speakers at more shows.

check out this epa link

www.epa.gov/region6/6en/w/pw.htm

Accuwash · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Also this PDF from Prosco/Sure clean is one of my favorites. (probably make some vendors upset that I show a Prosco document, but hey it's not my fault that acids for brick wash are cheap to sell but expensive to ship)

www.prosoco.com/Content/Documents/General/d0f13702-2e28-49cc-9577-23afb5d551e1.pdf

Eric Schnaible · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Thanks Bill, I have read it all and it's still a bit hazy. It does not seem like there is a cut and dry explanation that I can give if questioned about what I will be doing with my waste water.
The no off site discharge explanation should move them to allow me to discharge the rinse water to their sewer line. When you say ph neutral is compliant, are you referring to its discharge in the sewer line?

Accuwash · Approved Exterior Cleaner

ph neutral is compliant for on-site soil discharge. check with your municipality about the sewer, they will usually give you a permit based on what you want to send down it. They may require neutralization as well.

Eric Schnaible · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Well I think I should be in good shape here. We did the waste water treatment facility for Santa Cruz a cpuple months ago. (The ones that receive everything that goes into the sewer) they went through the MSDS on all my Chems and said we were good to go.

Michael Wedge · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Great Link Bill!

ginty · Aprovered Exterior Cleaner

can you not wrap the bottom of the building like kitchen hood cleaning , then its just a few feet to worry about at the bottom ,
be cheaper than a hoover you use a couple of times.
Would this work lads ????

SprayWash · Approved Exterior Cleaner

ginty wrote:
can you not wrap the bottom of the building like kitchen hood cleaning , then its just a few feet to worry about at the bottom ,
be cheaper than a hoover you use a couple of times.
Would this work lads ????

It might work, but I think it would be more the exception than the rule. It would also be a paint in the rear to keep the plastic in place. One tape failure would mess up your whole set-up.