You said we can use purple stuff from the auto store instead of $60 per gallon 8ndustrial chem?
Sheesh, on the bad oil spots. You probably don’t want to use all the time. Makes too many suds and has sodium hydroxide in it, which is corrosive and bad for the environment.
No more questions. Go do the job and learn. Experiment. Always read the SDS on every product you use. Besides telling you what it’s for will give you warnings and spell out main active ingredients. You need to have copies of SDS on any chemicals you carry or use on you either written or digital format. Most of us have notebook with all the printed ones in a binder. I have both physical and an online folder I can always access.
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I agree with racer. Don’t be paralyzed by overanalyzing something. SDS Search Page – Chemical Safety is a good resource to use for any chemicals you interact with. Job got moved to the 1st so I’ll update then. I haven’t looked but a good post to maybe sticky would be the one on electrical fires stemming from pressure washing exteriors and the proper response/precautions to take against them. Squids commentary on the thread was 100% the correct position to take.
Job got moved to the 1st with additional work tacked on so I’ll update tomorrow or the next.
Just got back from the job. Spigot on the house was installed incorrectly. Wheel valve was too large and intruded on the space used to thread the hose in and maybe, MAYBE put out 1.5 - 2 GPM. Unfortunate, but worked around it. A metric TON of oil was on the driveway, and I probably underquoted as it took me about 3.5 hours to complete. The E ring fastening the tire to my pressure washer also broke, so that was comical as it vibrated off the bar during work. I also purchased clumping cat litter thinking to myself “What joy. It clumps!”. Wrong. ■■■■■■■ wrong. I also had no less than 4 people come up to me and explain, in depth, their entire life stories and how interesting my surface cleaner was. It goes roundy roundy. Much wow. I did manage to secure more work through the hoo-hoo’ing and ha-ha’ing arts however. Gucci. It was hard to maintain conversation during what felt like everything was falling apart all around me on this job though.
Anyways, oil stains lessened significantly using elbow grease and purple stuff. Pre/post treated with bleach/soap mix and the surface cleaner was fun to use. More importantly, it was effective and impactful. I doubt I would have gotten paid for this job without it. Owner of the house pulled up and was impressed with the result only midway through and paid me even though I insisted he wait until the job was complete and he laid eyes on it once it was dry. I’ll hold onto his money for a time in case any dissatisfaction crops up. My phone died and I forgot my camera so I cant deliver on the promise of pictures. Apologies. Honestly, it all was so skewed I wouldn’t have had the time or remembered anyways. There were shadows left over where the oil was and I treated them with star power to let sit for a time and I’ll report back on that as promised.
A chief issue which I’ll need to handle better in the future was standing water. I scraped the majority of it off using a half assed squeegee but input on how it’s handled by others would be appreciated. Thanks guys!
Overall experience, 5/10. Would, and am, pressure washing again.
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This advice was given to me (on this forum) when I started and it is a winner. Sure it will be a little pricey to outfit a multisection hose with all these ends plus spares and spare washers, but it pays for itself over time. I am not saying to pay this price, shop around, just a quick google.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/gator-lock-garden-hose-coupling-d-fght-x-female-coupler
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