what do you do about all the solution in your pump and hose lines after you finish a roof? Do you just run some fresh water through the pump ?
Than ks
When we are done for the day we run 10 gals of water through it. In between jobs we don’t rinse.
gotcha, thanks… what else can I do to protect plants? just water them down like a crazy person first?
Water before, water during, water after. Teach your ground person to watch the roof person and follow the over spray. They tend to like to look where there watering and miss the overspray.
or just go around the back side of the house where I am NOT at yet… 
Have them rinse rinse rinse rinse etc etc etc etc… Also here’s one for ya… We killed a couple of small bushes this year which is a couple to many… What apparently happened was that the roof chemical poured into the gutters of course when soaking up the roof and it went down the spout and right down into the roots of a bush sitting at the end of the down spout… This isn’t usually a problem but you have to be aware it can happen.
Also watch out for down spouts that spill out to a black top driveway… Do not let the mixture dry on the black asphalt driveway… So rinse rinse rinse there to. Rinsing is huge in all types of Powerwashing. Sometimes the rinsing alone is the hardest part.
PM for Bleach from www.powerwash.com. I run 4 ounces thru a 5 gallon bucket of water after every job and transfer. PM for bleach is a bleach neutralizer. I also run it through my down stream injectors once a week. It really helps to pro long the life of my equipment. Also works great on windows to remove any bleach/soap streaking.
NO…you can cause damage to plants by watering to much. During the job, just make sure you have wet the plants before and during also. Remember your just looking to keep them wet and diluting the solution. NOT FLOODING THEM.
Carry gypsum pellets from home depot and sprinkle some on the roots when done and water in. Gypsum Pellets help to repair salt damage.
Use 5 gallon buckets to collect runoff from gutters.
Tell customer to run sprinklers the next couple mornings immediately AFTER the job and also after the first couple rain storms if you do not rinse the roof. Watch your weather, if you get a slight rain, or heavy morning dew the next few days after the job is complete this can cause your roof mix to drip onto any plants directly under the drip edge of the roof. Either get over there an rinse plants or MAKE SURE customer run’s sprinkler system if they have one. You should have a form explaining plant care AFTER the job is complete for the customer to follow.
Those are some good tips Doug…
Im going to try out the gypsum pellets…
it kinda seems like killing stuff is inevitable… so do you leave those five gallon buckets there and then come back a few days later or after a rain or something? what do you do with all that collected chemical in your buckets… I’m sure it’s not reusable, how do you properly dispose of it ?
for those of you who do a lot of roof cleaning, how often are you burning up plants and bushes like this? Is it fairly avoidable with the proper preventative actions?
No I don’t leave the buckets they are always taken with us after the job. The collected chemical is disposed of or used in an safe manner.
It should be very rare to never and yes very avoidable.
disposed of… ok, great. How? Dump it out in the streets… down the toilet? Drink the stuff as a fine wine?
Dispose of according to your regulations. Sometimes if I am cleaning a driveway I will use it for that, other times I put lids on the buckets and bring home to use as weed killer along my fence lines, etc etc.
Here at Apple Roof Cleaning, the ground man is the BOSS. The roof man can’t see the run off, so it is up to our Ground Men to stop the roof man, if need be, until he can catch up to all the run off.
This is especially true on tile roofs w/o gutters.
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It is going to happen sometimes, but not very often.
So, sell you jobs like this “Mr Customer, I can clean your shingle roof with pressure, and not effect any plants, but it will ruin your roof, OR I can clean it w/o pressure the safe way, using Chemicals. That is a plant growing on your roof I must kill and remove, and I will do everything possible to protect your plants, however, if you can’t tolerate a yellow spot on a plant here and there, let’s just pressure clean it”
LOL, they will pick the chemical cleaning every time, and this protects you for the inevitable, when and if it happens.
We never rinse our roof cleaning equipment, ever.
Our roof cleaning pumps are made from Hastelloy or Kynar, and use Teflon inside.
Our hose is chemical proof, as are our ball valves and nozzles.
However, we do not use Hose reels.
If you are using a hose reel, it MUST be rinsed out quickly, after every job.
The manifolds of hose reels are made out of stainless steel.
Stainless Steel is NOT Chlorine Proof, especially when it is welded!
The Chlorine will attack the weld, it will leak and/or break quickly, if not rinsed out as SOON as you spray a roof.
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Thanks Chris all good points
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Yeah very good points. What type of pump do you use? I am using the fatboy… is this chlorine safe to leave in this and not rinse this pump? I Just purchased a hose reel, never thought about the reel being eaten by the chlorine. I might rig it to just use the reel for quick clean up and storage, and bypass the flow outside of the reel.
