Well my skins not made of concrete and my shower head doesn’t push 3500 PSI and, as stated, the client said to “only use water”. Im not against using chemicals. Just saying pressure removes algae, grime and dirt. Pressure can even remove paint!
@ JAtkinson hey thanks for your reply. I appreciate it
same wall, just water.
Pressure washing with just high pressure cleans superficially, leaving the appearance it’s “clean”. Does 3500 psi water kill mold and algae spores that are living down in each and every pore of the concrete? If you don’t use chemicals to kill the mold and algae, it might look clean on the surface for a while, but it comes right back very quickly.
If you want to clean stuff with just water, go for it. I guess the plus side is you’ll never run out of work because it won’t stay clean very long. Just don’t come on here trying to promote using water only, because anyone that is any good at exterior cleaning knows better.
BTW, something I learned very quickly on here that I 100% agree with, if a customer tells you how to do your job, find a new customer.
Seeing that pic, it looks like just a normal building. I suspected we were having another discussion about another distillery or food processing location where gov’t agencies muck things all up… That appearing to not be the case, I think it comes down to educating the client. We have clients call and request that we don’t spray bleach, after a brief conversation, they sign off on us spraying bleach because it’s the correct process for the job at hand. In the absence of hard & fast regulations, we are the experts in the conversation, and the clients sometimes need to be educated out of their “bleach is bad” ignorance…I mean, most of them swim in the crap every day…
yup, standard bldg and i agree.
However I have no face time w the client. I’m subcontracted for a specific area.
Im glad we will be using chemicals on the next one.
Tough spot…of course that scenario sounds like you’re also chained to the dreaded “lowest bid” scenario. Anytime there’s a middle man price seems to always be the only factor (and maybe insurance…)
Nah, I don’t mind. Keeps me busy and I enjoy the work. I do the job in 2 weeks. I’ll post pics of how the x jet worked. I’ll try an do a side by side of pressure vs chemical in a small area.
Probably pointless, it will likely appear the same visually. At least if you really blast at it…
LOL Oh I know exactly what the outcome will look like. Was going to do it to make the point that pressure removes black streaks, green algae and other matter. But Im sure by then I won’t care.
insert “from the surface” in there, and you’ll have something 
The fact everyone has been saying is, those things will remain (sometimes even after chems) in the crevices, etc. Then they just grow right back out onto the surface in short order. Nobody said it wouldn’t “look” clean…just that it wouldn’t “be” clean.
If he’s willing to do the test I think he should. Clean ½ with just high pressure, the other by first treating with a good 2-3% SH mix, then pressure wash. Don’t show the pics when you’re done, go back next year and take a picture of the wall. Bring this back up next year with the pics.
I’d just leave him to his own devices. Can’t help everyone.
SIGH you’re rehashing points I never made.
I use SH regularly. not promoting just water.
I use only pressure and water on particular bldgs at the clients request. (not by choice)
Never said water kills algae or anything else -reread the posts.
Just saying pressure removes the streaks. Not that it gets in the crevices and kills anything. included the pics to make that point.
lol its like Im posting on fb
This thread does seem to have that feel to it…
You literally said you cleaned mildew with pressure lol. Come on man, you can’t bring Facebook drama here and not expect responses
hate to add to this horrible thread but if you use Sh regularly then why are you asking us if it will remove the mildew? you said you regularly clean them with a boom lift and pressure. personally i couldn’t care less, if you’re being shafted on the price for the job and they say don’t use chemicals and you’ve explained why chems are better, then just do the quick cheap work they’re looking for and save your chem as long as it’s not going to take you significantly longer to do it without chemical, which will mostly be the case.
as for the downstream x-jet combo, since no one has answered the question maybe you should try searching on the search bar
this is what IBS said about it
Dave, Depending on how bad it is and what type block, you probably want at least about 3%. And you may still need some pretty good pressure to knock it off, if a split face block.
Do it like you want. None of us kill all the mildew and if we do, it’s only transitory, reason we get to re-wash every year or 2. In parts of the country there are way in excess of 30-40k spores per cubic meter, which will start attaching themselves almost as soon as house is dry. So cleaning it with bleach is just easier in most cases and will terminate the stains quicker. if customer doesn’t want bleach, so be it. Just costs more to do old fashioned way. There are literally thousands of people around the world cleaning buildings and roofs using pressure.
Here is a split face block building that I had to hit 3 times with 4% or more and the only part I really felt was super clean was hitting it with high pressure afterwards on the part I could reach with pressure. Everything else got rinsed with shooter tip.
Exactly.
25 years ago I worked with a guy that used one of those 30’ wands to wash siding. I’m sure if softwashing was a thing he would have switched to that but I don’t remember that being in vogue yet.
“you probably want at least about 3%. And you may still need some pretty good pressure to knock it off, if a split face block”
Thanks Racer
I appreciate your help. Hoping the Xjet will lay a heavy enough coat of SH on it to get it brown so we can rinse it down. you’re probably right that it’ll need multiple passes as well. hoping to avoid needing direct pressure though. Continuously repositioning the lift to get pressure is a time killer.
How tall is it?
