Concrete prep headaches

I did a patio and sidewalk last month that should have been fairly simple. Problem was, they had three large gas grills to move and the sidewalk was edged with small river rocks that kept rolling back onto the walkway.

How do you full timers deal with this stuff? Something that should have taken an hour took three.

Also with those professional surface cleaners is it necessary to edge with a turbo nozzle first or do they go right to the edge the first time, grass and all?

It took you…2 HOURS… to move the grills and clear the rocks from the walk?

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I usually tilt my SC sideways to blow them away from the edge…much quicker!

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I think the grill moving has been covered but to answer the SC question, yes you can get to the edge (not corners) with a floater. I haven’t tried casters so I can’t speak to how they work on edges.

Change your pandora station to Five Finger Death Punch, turn up the ear buds and make it happen! Or/and, wash the big areas with your sc, details with wand (i like 40 degree) and make a really strong mix of water and bleach for your pump sprayer to get nooks and crannies. Assumimg these are rocks that are supposed to stay put.

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Well, maybe an hour, no less. They kept rolling back onto the sidewalk, I have NO idea why they would mix small river pebbles with mulch.

Do you guys ever bring a blower for leaves, mulch etc?

You will run into jobs that are a pain but you just deal with it and you never know what will come out of that job. Sometimes just being seen out working can get you five other jobs. I did a small residential job one time and had no idea it was for a guy who owned a chain of restaurants all around me and turned out he was just flipping the house. Next thing I know I have a new account doing all of his restaurants drive throughs, dumpster pads, and sidewalks every single month and it has made my winters a lot more comfortable just from that one job. If you agree to do a job just always do your best and sometimes you won’t get as much as you want for the hours it took and other times you will hit a home run.

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River rocks and mulch are very annoying when doing sidewalks. Using a low pressure tip (soap tip) will gently get them back off the sidewalk. Using any high pressure will just blow them everywhere. Floaters with a skirt will work much better as mentioned above. I’ve never used castors before but I’d imagine they don’t work well on residential walkways with landscaped edges

Yeah, not a fan of casters…thinking of taking mine off. Then again when I graduate to a ‘real’ surface cleaner I won’t have that problem.

Yep. Blower stays on the truck for flatwork and if I upsell gutters.

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What about grass creeping over the concrete? I almost have to be a landscaper to do some of this stuff. Maybe I’ll have to bring the trimmer too.:smirk:

Nope. No trimmer. Just use your sc and let it hang over concrete an inch.

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Dude just clean the concrete.

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