I own a window cleaning business, and I decided to offer pressure washing as well. I haven’t committed to buying a pressure washer yet, I pretty much decided I would rent one once I got my first job lined up, and go from there.
I got a job lined up for Wednesday with an old 2-story house (70 years old or so) to pressure wash the whole outside. I know pressure washing may cause some damage to the house, though, because it’s mostly old wood paneling.
I am now looking into what it takes to soft wash a house, because it seems that on old wood and vinyl you pretty much want to steer clear of high pressure washing.
I have a few questions, and am looking for guidance.
Can I purchase a soap mix at Home Depot or Lowes to run through just a gas, cold water power washer? Or do I need a heated water washer? I have a 2.6 GPM, 2800 PSI cold-water washer.
If I do need to rent something, where should I rent from and what should I rent?
What types of nozzles will I need?
I am aware I should probably know more going into this job, but I am learning what I can to do this safely. Thank you in advance for your input.
If you’re bent on doing this, and I was you once, search downstreaming and read EVERYTHING. You mix your own soap, but you don’t have time to get proper surfactant. I’d reschedule if anything until you can get Elemonator and insurance.
You can do a lot of damage with the soap if you don’t know what you’re doing… yikes.
I’d recommend you use a 4 gpm machine. More would be great but you probably dont have a tank to pull from. Hoping this old house has adequate water supply for 4 gpm. Down stream a soap and SH mix. Your machine will have you there all week and will likely tear it up trying to clean it to aggressively
Worst case scenario, I have a guy I can get to do it.
At this point I’m trying to look at all of the things that could be potential roadblocks and see if I can get past them.
I found that Home Depot would rent out a 3.5 GPM washer for about $100 for the day. I would go ahead and rent. Does injection ratio vary among the same model machines? If it does, I would test it out and determine that before performing the work.
I have insurance through Joseph D. Walters.
I’m definitely doing my research today, and will read up a lot on downstreaming.
Does Home Depot have a good surfactant I can buy?
I’m not hellbent on doing it, but I do figure it’s a good chance to learn what I can. Thanks for your help.
Home Depot does not sell a good surfactant. Never ever use Dawn. Get Elemonator or something like it, but Elemonator from Pressuretek is my preferred. A gallon of it will last you all year if you’re not doing a ton of houses.
If your insurance doesn’t cover pressure washing you don’t have insurance to do what your intention of doing is.
A 3.5 gpm machine will probably still have you on a ladder too. I don’t know. But I do know that gpm is a guideline more than a number set in stone. A 4 gpm rarely gives you exactly 4 gpm especially if it’s a rental and the throttle, unloader, etc have been disrupted by inexperienced folks.
That being said, reschedule it and practice on your house, your closest family’s house, your best friend’s house, but have money for your deductible set aside.
Its great you want to learn, and its really not a whole lot to know to do a basic wash.
But this house is not a great one to learn on. Even i would pass on this house most likely.
the age of the house at 70 years old could potentially lead to a lot of problems depending on the conditions. (paint flaking which could contain lead, old wiring, holes in siding, siding being brittle, ect)
you said it had wood, which means you can wash it but then it need to be stained afterwards.
Making it not worth the headache.
Goid news for the customer. I’ve never wired a house but I want to be an electrician so I’ll go online and ask some strangers to tell me how 48 hours before my first job.
Great recommendation. Find a PW guy who doesn’t compete with you on windows and work up a mutually beneficial relationship. What I’m learning as a window guy is that while PWing might make a good add-on business, and while I hate to leave money on the table, I probably need to limit my services to limit my exposure to things that can go wrong. Old wooden siding sounds like a huge exposure.
