First Tennis Court

Friend in another group posted some that he just did. Xjetted soap and light bleach, then cleaned at 600psi with surface cleaner. turned out great. Charged $700 per court.

Thatā€™s not too bad.

I downstreamed a mix 60% SH 40% H20. (xjet will work too)

Let it dwell for about 15 min.

Surface clean at about 1000psi moving slowly.

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That looks great!

Thanks for the advice. Just met with the manager to discuss the court. I got the jobā€¦hope I didnā€™t underbid by too much. I also talked to the paint manufacturer about preferred cleaning. They say start with about 1% SH and mild detergent. They say 1800 psi is fine. I think Iā€™ll order the xjet so I can apply higher concentration if needed and also get some extra nozzles to lower the pressure. Again, the manager has realistic expectations. Should be an interesting job. Iā€™m expecting it to take 6-8 hours but not sure. Any other advice?

So I hope you went at least .10 ft.if not more, preferably about .15.

I went slightly lower (but not much). Really wanted to get the job for many reasons. Already got a line on other work from the same guy. Iā€™ll make up for it in the future and in experience. Also, finally got a dealer for SH. The manager gave me contact info for his pool supplier that delivers to town every two weeks. Got set up for delivery of 12.5%. Been using 6% from a local supplier for most jobs or 8.25% from the dollar store if I needed stronger. Only other dealer within 1 1/2 hours wanted $5.50 gal for 10%. No thanks. Couldnā€™t find any other dealers. That alone was worth the lower price. LOLā€¦ Thanks again everybody, I really appreciate the advice of experts.

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Okay, so last question! Any educated guesses on how much SH Iā€™m going to need? KMP - How much mix at 60% SH per court did you use. My plan is to try downstreaming first. If I need stronger, Iā€™ll switch to the xjet. I use about 5 gal of mix per house but havenā€™t done much surface cleaning. Im wondering if 5 gal per court will do it? Im doing 4 courts total.

Try a 50/50 mix with downstreaming and a nice application pre wash and post wash.

10 gallons SH
10 gallons H20
20 oz of surfactant

You will be fine.

Kevin

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Thanks Kevin! Appreciate the info.

Follow upā€¦Well I completed the tennis courts with pretty good results. At least the manager was pleased. Hereā€™s what I learned that may help someone else in the future.

  1. It took longer than expected. I was planning on 8 hours and it took 15 hours to complete. The problem was getting rid of the dirt runoff from everything I cleaned. I started on the ā€œuphillā€ side which meant all of the dirt moved to the next court. I couldnā€™t really rinse the dirt off the ends due to the lay out. By the time I got to the final court, I had to rinse 1/4 inch of dirt off before I could even start to clean. Rinsing with my 5 gpm washer took lots of time. Iā€™m sure an 8 gpm machine would have saved time. Also, maybe a water broom would have helped move the dirt. Not sure.

  2. It took 25 gallons of mix to complete the job. 12.5% SH mixed 50/50 downstreamed. (thanks Kevin)

  3. 1800 psi surface cleaner worked pretty good. No damage and fairly good cleaning if I went slow.

  4. Should have listened to Racer and charged $0.10 per sq ft.

Learned a lot and worth it in the end. Thanks everyone for the help.

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Love the follow up. Thanks for that.

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What exactly is SH? I keep seeing this. I know,dumb ?

Sodium Hypochlorite. AKA bleach.

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Ha! Thanks

Hey guys I have a customer im doing some washing for. I ended the day with washing her garage and as Iā€™m packing up she comes over and say the tennis court is ur next project. It is painted asphalt. My plan was applying 2.5% - 3% mix with my 5gpm pump dwell 15 min and then surface cleaner low psi. What if read looks like a lot of ppl have had good luck with surface cleaners on them. Thoughts?

Surface cleaner has no place on a tennis court

@Innocentbystander I remember seeing where u have said that. Can I get it clean by soft washing just like doing house wash?

I do on a regular basis. X jet straight 12.5%, rinse with low pressure. Spend some time with a blower before you start

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Thanks IBS yea I planned on having to blow it off before washing.

Great Job! Looks awesome! Iā€™m taking notes!