Removing really old gum shadows with cold water?

Here are before and after photos of a bakery I did recently. They were having their grand opening this week. Their building contractor pressure washed for them originally. In a few of the before photos, you can see wand marks all over the place.

I still only have cold water, and I have cleaned another location for this bakery that’s much newer and only had a couple of gum spots, so it cleaned up pretty nice. This one I swear had thousands. I popped each piece of gum individually after surface cleaning (and I applied EBC prior to surface cleaning this time). However, the surface cleaning took maybe an 1.5 hours, but the gum popping took 5 hours…

All the “gum” came off, but the shadows I’m not sure if there is anything to do for them with only having cold water?

I did mention to the customer prior to doing the cleaning that without a larger hot water machine, I knew the gum would leave stains. They were okay with it and afterwards they were happy with the results. They are going to have me do other locations for them. I really want to be able to do a better job for them though, but without a small truck and just having a prius, I’m not sure renting a hot water machine is a possibility for me.

If I do ever get access to a hot water machine, would that remove or lighten the gum shadows? When surface cleaning with hot water, will the surface cleaner remove the gum at all without having to go back with the hot water wand?

Hot water will help some with the shadows left behind from the gum. It’ll make it a lot easier removing the gum initially. As far as your surface cleaner removing the gum, it’s hit or miss, a lot of times your still going to have to go behind with a wand and remove a majority of it.

Your time and equipment cost money. And hours upon hours of removing gum isn’t exactly the work everyone wakes up looking forward to. Charge accordingly for areas over run with gum.

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