I got a call from a guy for a house wash that is president of a boat condo association. He says he’s got 32 units over 4 buildings and is looking to just have the fronts of them done. 24ft tall by 20 for each unit. He told me he got a bid for 9000 for some yahoo that’s not me (haha) to simple green the place and pressure wash. He told me he simply cannot afford that but putting all cards on the table he would cut a check tomorrow if someone was able to do it for 5000. Total square footage is 15360 so that’s like 32 or 33 cents a square foot. He says it’s not mildew just dirt and everything is metal.
When I did a metal roof it required a brush. If it’s just dirt (I seriously doubt it) I could easily hit the tops from the ground but with all the bay doors I’m expecting grease and such as well to have to deal with. Would you guys be interested in that?
What are your thoughts about setting expectations that I can soft wash and rinse but grease stains, etc might remain? I was thinking about trying one of them to see how difficult it would be and how much time it would take for me. I’m assuming it would be whatever amount of time you guys are doing things times 2
The good news is that each building has a spigot I can use.
I am going to walk the property tomorrow and see what I’m getting into. He sent me this picture for reference.
I’m going to have to check out where/if they have drains. From my research into Juneau BMPs and discussions I’ve had with local EPA and water offices as long as I’m not spraying water directly into a body of water, or a drain leading to a body of water I am fine. It’s definitely a box that I will need to check off the list before doing so!
Went and talked with him today. Checked out his property and this is what I saw. I showed him the oxidation powder on everything and he’s not expecting it to look new. He said the condo guys were mostly complaining about the white door areas which makes sense to me as it looks rather unsightly.
I told him I could remove organics but rust removal and oxidation restoration Is not something I am interested in. Also told him that I’m not super interested in brushing the whole 4 buildings and he said he didn’t expect that and wouldn’t want to either.
Biggest problem is that there are a handful of drains in between buildings with big lettering saying that it goes to a stream and not to dump pollutants. I’m assuming I could do a building at a time and tarp off or cover a drain at a time while washing but could use some input on that as well.
Sheesh, you not finished with it yet. to quote my buddy @MuscleMyHustle ‘Easiest 5k you’ll ever make’
Here’s what I would do, sure there are other ways. first I’d tell him $5k may be a little tight, but you’ll do one building for $1250 and see, but you’re thinking more like $1500 for the 4. that’s still 3k less than other quote.
But do the first one for $1250. I’d hit it with a straight bleach with degreaser in it with your 4gpm machine. And then rinse. That’ll take care of the organics and some of that dirty stuff in door partitions. That should take you all of 1-2 hours, including rinsing. Then I’d try to ds some wire wheel cleaner on one of the units. Might need to hit twice downstreaming. That should remove most the oxidation and really make those doors pop. That’ll take another 15min per unit. Brush where necessary. Make sure to rinse thoroughly.
Or just throw strong hw mix on there and brush. sheesh, I could brush one of those in 20 min/unit. 3-4 hours total per building. Typically on metal building don’t need to brush hard.
Sure some others have ideas too. I could knock out that whole project in a day with right equipment. You should be able to do a building/day no problem.
What situations do you find downstreaming this stuff to come in handy? Do you ever mix it with anything else? I’ve seen plenty of pump sprayer applications for removing red clay stains but it seems to be pretty strong stuff so I’ve never touched it.
What ratio are you using that wire wheel cleaner? Straight in a 5 gallon bucket? Go figure…it’s not available here
Might just run 7.5%sh through DS and use my new pole. how much degreaser are we talking? What ratio for like simple green or purple zep?
The guy seems pretty laid back. Probably a lot more tolerant as he doesn’t want to pay 8k. I talked him into 5250 as I spoke with him before seeing your post unfortunately. He agreed to let me try 1 building for 1250 to make sure it was something I was ok with doing as well as he was ok with how clean it was.
You’ve got to have an auto parts store there. They’ll have wire wheel cleaner. Purple Zep probably has sodium hydroxide in, which you generally don’t want to use on metal. Used in most gutter cleaners but needs to be diluted. You’ve got to have something besides simple green for a degreaser. Use a dishwashing liquid or Just go to HD or walmart and read labels.
I’d mix about a 1/2 gal of degreaser and rest SH and ds it.
That’s exactly right. 10k plus in fines alone. What kind of reclaim equipment do you have? If you think your going to use a shop vac or little transfer pump it’s going to be a nightmare.
Reclaim equipment i could use is a 12v bilge pump that can re route water but i totally understand where you are coming from with this.
I could have sworn i saw a post here talking about some material mat that you can put over a drain to plug it up temporarily. Do you guys have the name of that mat? google search isnt pulling it up now that i (of course) need it to haha.
@Racer they have little spray cans but nothing bulk wise. Idk if its feasible financially as each one of those little spray cans is like 16$ unless you need to dilute it quite a bit.
Those drains are tiny, looks like only one per building. Get your sign guy to give you some squares of the material he made your truck sign out of and put over.
So hit it with hw mix and see what happens. Worse that can happen is you have to brush and we’ve already talked about that. Take some of that purple power and ds it on if you’re planning to brush. It’ll help remove the oxidation. Just be sure to rinse well and don’t let dry.
Quit screwing around. Part of being a pro is going in right direction. Get out there with a couple of different things and experiment on the backside of one of the buildings in a little spot. In 15min, you’ll have your answer on best way to clean. Could have done that in the time you’ve been posting on here, lol. take a 10’ wide spot, spray hw in 2’, then ds some green stuff on it and then some purple stuff, all next to each other Let it sit for 5 min and then rinse with medium pressure. If one looks good, go for it. If not try again and brush it this time. Take pics and then come back with more questions if needed. Otherwise we expect to see pics of finished product by end of week.
