Power Washing and Roof Cleaning Forum

PowerShine Property Services · Veteran Member

City work, Paint prep pressure washing

BlueRidge · Approved Exterior Cleaner

A lift is a must from a safety standpoint. Doing this from a ladder is dangerous and extremely time consuming. We use a turbo nozzle when it comes to painted brick, block and steel. It does a good job of cleaning up the chipped and peeling paint. 4200 psi is a pit much.

gutterdog · Approved Exterior Cleaner

I was thinking turbo nozzle also. We've never done any paint prep.

PowerShine Property Services · Veteran Member

I agree, I think a lift is my best option and turbo nozzle. I will turn the pressure washet down a bit to around 3500. Im working with the painter to make sure it is done how he wants it. They are doing one section at a time. Thanks for your input.

PowerShine Property Services · Veteran Member

BlueRidge wrote:
A lift is a must from a safety standpoint. Doing this from a ladder is dangerous and extremely time consuming. We use a turbo nozzle when it comes to painted brick, block and steel. It does a good job of cleaning up the chipped and peeling paint. 4200 psi is a pit much.

Hey Brett, I am doing this job in a couple weeks. I was thinking it would be smart to use a TSP and light SH. The TSP will clean and etch the paint for better adhesion. I have never used a Downstream injector and was considering getting one for this job and future jobs. If I use a DS will it work from up on the lift? I am concerned about back pressure causing it to not draw, because of the height.

BlueRidge · Approved Exterior Cleaner

I would only say check out the laws concerning TSP in Naples. Some areas it is outlawed. SP can etch glass. Look at Red Raider and Power Bolt instead. Also make sure you can control the run off. The run off could get you into trouble. The building is not high enough for you to worry about draw with an injector. If you had the time and money, add a booster pump to your system for jobs this big. You can always add a proportioner later but for now you will get a lot of juice at whatever strength you want. With the DS you are limited due to the GPM's as to what strength you end up with.

Philip McCullough · RIP

We decided to leave the paint prep to painters. Some of them will nit pick everything you do. Here in Savannah it seems like all painters are also pressure washers.

BlueRidge · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Philip McCullough wrote:
We decided to leave the paint prep to painters. Some of them will nit pick everything you do. Here in Savannah it seems like all painters are also pressure washers.

Oh... you mean they are experts in pressure washing but we aren't experts in painting? Strange!

PowerShine Property Services · Veteran Member

lol, I probably would have passed on the job but it is for the city. Once I do one job for the city I will be in their system. Which means more work in the future from them. Plus I am only cleaning one side of the building right now. there is 3 more sides plus water tanks that need to be done. All of it will be done within the next 18 months, one section at a time. I bid the job to deal with picky, so im not worried.

This job is a water processing facility so I talked to the guy today about chemicals. All I can use is SH. I am just going to use my 12v system and mix up some light SH, Spray and then turbo nozzle it to rinse and remove old paint.

Philip McCullough · RIP

BlueRidge wrote:
Philip McCullough wrote:
We decided to leave the paint prep to painters. Some of them will nit pick everything you do. Here in Savannah it seems like all painters are also pressure washers.
Oh... you mean they are experts in pressure washing but we aren't experts in painting? Strange!

Not to hi-jack Powershine's post but for "those guys" paint prep means that all they are doing is putting on paint. No scraping, sanding, or cleaning anything because afterall they didn't do the prep work.....The last one I did was the probably the last I'll ever do no more "paint prep" jobs...

PowerShine Property Services · Veteran Member

Philip, thanks for your input on your experience. I hope i dont have the same experience. Painter is going to come in after me and repair any areas needed. If i have to scrape some i will, no big deal, the building is not really pealing. Knowing myself i will probably be more picky then him. I have set it up for a whole day. So if it takes 10 hours im fine with that. I dont think it will tho. Im charging accordingly.

Philip McCullough · RIP

Good luck Steve, sounds like you've done your homework and you are working with a good paint contractor.

I hope this job gets your foot in the door and you can grow your business and see great success with the city/govt contracts!