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nyone have experience with store fronts? I don’t need help with pricing. I figure my time and if I figured wrong I’ll know next time. Lol. I’m cleaning the walls and awnings. I do the Sidewalks regularly and a lot of other work for this company. My concern is the exterior lights and sh. To much to tape off and I’m working from a tall step ladder. I thought about trying to clean above and beside the signs from the roof(depending on how tall the dummy wall is) with a pump up to reduce the amount of sh around the signs with my ground guy keeping the awnings wet below until time to clean them. Any experienced advice would be appreciated.
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I always test awnings on the underside in an inconspicuous area with straight sh on a Q-tip…wait 10 min if no reaction your good to go…I don’t use my xjet hardly any more but if I have a storefront like that one it works great… I always start with a weak mix with a good surfactant and just get hotter as needed…lots of water and mix on those awnings to open up those fibers but not pressure or you’ll destroy them… I’ve never worried too much about signs like that that have lights in them just because they’re out in the weather all year round I just make sure to rinse thoroughly when I’m done haven’t had a problem yet that doesn’t mean that you couldn’t incur a problem I’m just saying I’ve never had one.
You will definitely enjoy the way that awning will look when you’re done… I get a borderline weird satisfaction off of doing awnings they start out looking so bad and end up looking so good kind of like a really bad driveway when you done.
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The only thing that I’ve ever used on awnings is winsol deep clean but these may be to far gone for that particular product. I don’t have an xjet I have a 12 volt system
I just have every store turn the signs off at closing the night before. Most small stores, it’s the first switch in the breaker panel in the back. I hand the manager a card or 2 incase they have any issues afterwards. I like them turned off, because bleach n soap do get into places and short stuff out that water does not. Been there, experienced that, and just glad the homeowners were home and the house didn’t burn down (brand new a/c unit box that was poorly installed and did not trip the breaker, but did smoke n pop bad).
Look up the thread squid did last year in awnings.
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That’s one of the reasons I’m trying to lean more towards commercial flatwork
I’ve done quite a few of these -
- Already mentioned, have the power off
- You will need a ladder that lets you get high so that you can manuever your wand or gun all around the letters to clean behind them. Looking straight at the sign you won’t see the stains but once you get down and look from the side like in the picture stain behind the letters will be noticalble.
- The letters themselves tend to be a metal exterior for the sides and back of the letter with a plastic front and front trim piece. Be very careful not to hit those with any pressure.
- Awnings - very low pressure. Cloth can take a bit more pressure than backlit vinyl.
- I always have a pump-up with me. Usually the walls are drivit or stucco. DS generally does not work well. X-jet is better but sometimes I got to direct spray behind and around the letters.
- Already stated, be sure to test the cloth material for stability with SH.
- Windows will most likely be spotted when done. I usually build in window cleaning into the job bid.
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I’ve done a few. I ask them to turn off the breaker for the store front. Then I remind them and then remind them again preferably documented in an email or text message. Leave the power off for 24 hours at least. Don’t hit the sign directly. I’ve owned a store front before and I remember sign quality and installation varied when I was in the research phase of building my sign.
