Power Washing and Roof Cleaning Forum

Jason Watkins · Exterior Cleaner

First solo job coming up, couple of questions.

Bryan P · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Can't see the photos. I don't use an Xjet, but if I were you, that's how I would do it in your case instead of fooling with a 12 volt that's not optimized yet.

Jason Watkins · Exterior Cleaner

Thanks Bryan.

I'll attach the photos in this post, so hopefully they will show up.

Bryan P · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Ok sorry, I've got a filter on my computer and it blocked your photos for some reason. Must have thought you were posting porn. haha.

Ok. prewet the wood and you should be ok. I wouldn't spray them with chemical dry. On the siding. looks like algae to me and should clean up beautifully with a 1% house wash mix. I usually at least tape along the top of those boxes so nothing runs behind them but some guys bag them completely. Those cable/phone boxes too.

Good luck...I think you'll have a success with this house.

Jason Watkins · Exterior Cleaner

Thanks a bunch Bryan, that info gives me a lot more confidence!

Oh, and these little lights... any harm in washing up in there gently, or should they be taped?

Bryan P · Approved Exterior Cleaner

I don't tape those, I just sort of hit them quick and then spray around them. Weird place for a light. Cover anything that you doubt, though. I cover the AC units, etc. and ALL outdoor outlets. Take your time, cover all your bases, and post some after photos. My first customer is still my biggest cheerleader. She posted reviews on Next Door, Google, Facebook, Yelp. I keep finding new reviews she has posted!

Jason Watkins · Exterior Cleaner

Bryan P wrote:
I cover the AC units, etc. and ALL outdoor outlets.

Oh ok i hadnt thought about covering the ac unit... good idea, ill put a tarp over it, i guess. Thanks.

Fred W · Guru

At 1% there isn't much risk but pre-wet, then rinse. The problem with the wood could be a couple fold. If it has nothing on it then pre-wet and you should be good. If there is a stain on it then maybe not so good. Hard to tell from the pictures but some stains will "fall off" even at 1%. We will usually cover or pre-wet, shoot and quick rinse. On wood with a stain be sure to never get too far ahead of yourself.

Electrical:

Big exterior boxes are usually pretty well sealed but we still tape over the top with our ends extending. I've popped a couple so prevention is never a bad idea.

We tape off virtually everything to the point of overkill. I can't tell you how many times I've seen exterior electrical receptacles short out or pop a breaker when they were not covered. I have videos that teach my guys how to protect them...To me it's just that important.

The lights in the soffit I would not cover but lights on the walls we tape off at the sides and top...never at the bottom.

I don't cover A/C units unless the client requests it. I clean them then rinse well. Nothing worse than a nice clean house with green stuff all over the A/C unit or gas meter.

Maverick Contracting · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Ask Ray Burk to post a pic of a deep fried electrical box!😁

Maverick Contracting · Approved Exterior Cleaner

I think it was him with some narley pics of what salt and chlorine can do to electrical

Jason Watkins · Exterior Cleaner

Doug, thanks a bunch man. I found out they are planning on staining the wood beams later, and want them cleaned to prep for it... so looks like it doesn't matter if the old stain comes off (if it's currently stained, not sure about that).

I just did a test run on one side of my house, with the equipment and the chems, and everything went really smooth.

One more question i thought of... when you tarp plants/bushes, what do you do when you remove the tarp? Do you just spray the tarps to dilute anything on top of them, and keep spraying the area as you remove the tarp and fold it up?

Bryan P · Approved Exterior Cleaner

I don't cover plants for a house wash since the chemical is much weaker than roof cleaning and you can do more damage by baking them under tarps. We just water them good and rinse them when we rinse the house. I've only hurt a couple of things with HW mix and that was in the middle of the summer and we didn't have good water pressure to rinse/water with.

Jason Watkins · Exterior Cleaner

Okay, yeah that makes sense. I'll probably throw one over that J maple just to be safe, since our temps are cool right now.

But just out of curiosity, when you are cleaning a roof or whatever, and use tarps, how do you deal with the chems on the tarps? I assume you just dilute it good as you remove them, but want to make sure.

Bryan P · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Jason Watkins wrote:
Okay, yeah that makes sense. I'll probably throw one over that J maple just to be safe, since our temps are cool right now.

But just out of curiosity, when you are cleaning a roof or whatever, and use tarps, how do you deal with the chems on the tarps? I assume you just dilute it good as you remove them, but want to make sure.

Hopefully by the time you are done cleaning your ground guy has put enough water on everything that it's all diluted. I tell my guys I want the shrubs to be wet like we just pulled them out of the lake. That said, I don't cover everything even when cleaning roofs unless there are no gutters and that is super rare where I live. I'm more worried about what's coming from the downspouts. I cover jap maples, delicate shrubs, anything the homeowner tells me requires extra care. (that way you know what's important to them) and anything that's gonna be in a drip line. But I ALWAYS have a guy under me rinsing and watering when I'm spraying the roof.

-- Edited by Bryan P on Wednesday 29th of March 2017 09:41:22 PM

Fred W · Guru

Solid stuff from Bryan above. Be SUPER careful with tarps and plastic as they can roast the plants. If we have gutters we don't cover under them. No gutters and we cover everything. We use Tyvek house wrap. $150 a roll but well worth it. We cut them into manageable pieces and toss them out when they get too brittle.

Tyvek can be used in the hottest of hot days with no fear. It's actually cooler under the Tyvek.

Eric Schnaible · Approved Exterior Cleaner

We never cover anything. Takes too much Time, is messy and can easily fry stuff.

Fred W · Guru

Eric Schnaible wrote:
We never cover anything. Takes too much Time, is messy and can easily fry stuff.

Do you deal with rain gutters mostly and do you shoot 12.5?

I personally think area has a ton to do with it. I have seen others spray a roof without covering and no real problem. Here, plants burn every time if not covered for a roof wash. House wash we never cover.

SprayWash · Approved Exterior Cleaner

Maverick Contracting wrote:
Ask Ray Burk to post a pic of a deep fried electrical box!😁

i resemble that remark!

Jason Watkins · Exterior Cleaner

Ok, well, did the job. It did NOT go smooth. Only thing i can say is that at least i had been doing a ton of research, got a lot of good advice, and did some practice prior, to help me get through it.

Job was about 40 minutes away from my house, and probably 20 minutes to the closest store. Packed the night before, and left one of my most important bags at the house, so it started off rough. Winds were ridiculous, made a feeble attempt to protect the J maple with a tarp, but was too much. Had the helper just keep it soaked the whole time, and held a tarp up on one side when near it. Pulled out all the hoses and the x-jet, tried not to trip over everything, and started at it. My plan to access a tall portion of the house didnt work, so i had to spend a good bit of time trial and error'ing how to access it with my ladder. At one point i even pulled the ultimate rookie move of blowing out my spray tip and o-ring because it wasn't secured all the way. Couldn't find either of them. Somewhere around that time i thought to myself 'hey you know, it might not be a bad idea to start bringing extra o-rings and spray tips out on jobs'. Yeah. Hah.

Had to go to the hardware store at that point, so just took lunch and went, since it was so far away. Got back and managed to get what we needed to clean done, packed everything up and left. Very stressful at times during the job, and at the end it looked better, but i didnt know if the customer would like it. Kinda like painting a room, and everyone says it looks great, but you only see the 2 or 3 mistakes you made, or where you could have done better maybe. Thankfully the customer wasnt there the entire time, so they didn't get to see the circus show going on outside, hah.

Took WAY longer than it should have, but since it was my first solo gig, i was just happy to have completed it without burning down the house, or sending someone to the hospital.

To my great relief, the customer called later that night and said that it looked wonderful, and better than they thought it would turn out. Felt a whole lot better after hearing this. Also made $350 profit, even though it took a lot longer than it should have.

Stressful start, but it's a start. Thanks to everyone that has helped me get to this point, whether by helping me personally, or sharing advice with the community.

BlueRidge · Approved Exterior Cleaner

High winds = we don't go to work. The best weather to me is Weather Underground. Their graph has everything there so I can see the wind forecast for the day. Also have a weather station at the house with wind speed so I know what is going on when I wake up.

The house looks good. Use these markers to put in the ground so your B & A's are the same. Check your before picture before you take the after.

We have all been there in some form or another. Now you know what not to do in the next one.

Chris Mozick · Approved Exteior Cleaner

House looks great good job. Learn to spray with the wind not against it or you'll have a face full of great tasting mix. Over here we deal with winds everyday a but of practice and youlll be good to go.

Bryan P · Approved Exterior Cleaner

You'll probably have more of those. I started by scheduling only one job a day until I got my processes and rhythms down. Now we can easily do two or three house washes in a day depending on the size of the houses. Take your time and learn to do it right. Go work with someone if they'll let you. Lots you can learn by just being on the job. I had a friend come help me with my first big job and I learned a lot that day. He knew what to do and in what order so it helped a lot.

Philip McCullough · RIP

Great job! You made it through it and you learned some valuable lessons...Congrats!