Ok guys, here is an over the shoulder (well actually over the head) look on how to clean a drive. This is primarily for the newer washers and was done as a training video. Could also be used for new hires. Has a lot of tips interspersed throughout. Kind of a mistake, made it tough to edit some footage because I 'm making random comments throughout.
This is a long video, nearly an hour and 20 min., edited down from 2.5 hours. So some night when you’re having trouble sleeping fire it up. Some good info.
Excellent video, I really enjoyed it. Thank you for taking the time to show your process. I was surprised by the speed at which you made the passes. I would have thought you could move a bit faster with a 8gpm machine. But I think you mentioned you were taking your time. The tip on going perpendicular to the line of sight was great. I am going to use that for sure. I have also started post treating all of my concrete jobs based on your suggestions and they are turning out very good. Thanks again for taking the time. Great job.
Mine came with 30. You can go longer, but just make sure first 7-8 feet is the heavy duty hose like I show in pic. Other hose like you buy at NT or HF will tear.
A fair number. It’s about average. Lot of smaller ones but a fair number larger. For some reason this has been a driveway Spring. Have already done more this year than I normally do all year.
I usually do move a little faster, but a lot depends on how dirty it is. You may not have noticed and a lot towards the end got cut, but once I saw it coming up nicely I started picking up my pace a little. But part of my point was to be deliberate in your actions.It’s a method. Make your plan and then execute. As long as I was right at my production goal, then I was happy. Plus when your client is there eye balling you the entire time, you want to be very methodical and thorough. He was loving it.
I’m going to post a short video in next few days with my same machine but moving faster rocking a WW 48" Mondo. But was a regularly maintained acct so not quite so dirty.
Yea, I was just wondering from the stand point of my own work. So much stuff is just self taught I wonder if I am doing things the best way. So it is really helpful to see someone else’s method. You walked in this video about the same pace I walk with my 19" Whisper Wash, but you are automatically 30% faster just because of the bigger coverage of your surface cleaner. Plus I think that driveway looked better just after the cleaning than most of mine do. The post treat really helps with my speed because it gives some wiggle room on my speed.
Always make sure you have a spare whip line. You’d look bad if you had to pack up and leave a job because you didn’t have a $25 whip hose. Though ina real bind you could always just disconnect hose from reel and hook it directly to washer.
Homework for everyone, figure out your realistic production rate. Only takes a couple of minutes. Find a medium dirty drive and see how much you effectively clean, meaning you’re done with it except for rinse, in one min. - Multiply by 60 (for 60 min) and divide by 3 should get you real close. There are always variables, what we’re looking for is a realistic average.
That way, you can measure a drive on Google maps, and have a pretty good idea of about how long it’s going to take you for the actual cleaning.
@Racer thank you for taking the time to make this video. For someone like I with minimal experience appreciate learning from seasoned experts like you. I noticed your injector bypass, do you get better pressure that way because it’s not having to 90 to pass through? After seeing yours looking at changing mine.
So I want to say that I did a driveway the other day that was 2050 sq ft and from pulling up to driving away was 2:30. So I am around 1000 square foot an hour with rinsing and post treat. That was with a 4/4 machine and a 19" 2 nozzle Whisper wash. So is it fair to say that your speed was almost twice as fast as mine? Just goes to show the value of good equipment.
