I was contemplating doing this but my job over here has 2 courtyards. I would need a PW on wheels to get it done. Not that big of a deal. But it’s my only drawback and it’s not really a drawback.
I assume you have a pw, and you could price the job as if you were doing it by ladder or lift, and instead buy some more hose and get it done in 1/3 of the time. Not sure if that would work for you.
Park your rig as close as you can to the courtyard.
Or for the amount of time you would save, go buy the smallest decent pw that you can get on a cart and just use it solely for gutter blow outs. If you do it this way, you will have to downtune even a 3gpm 3000psi unit.
Congratz man! Did you price it for ladder work, leaf blower or lift rental?
Thanks! I priced it for leaf blower rates. I’m planning on walking the roof. The size of the place kinda makes it daunting but I think I’ll be okay. Then follow up with maybe 2 dozen downspouts. Me and another can snake those in a flash. Maybe 2 days tops.
Ok good. So, your time spent should be about the same as if you were blasting from the ground, or maybe faster depending on how confident you feel on your feet up there.
A word of caution: In my experience you can’t do a leaf blowout without a few really dry days before hand.
I priced a house based on a nice dry blowout, and it started pouring before I could get to the job. Fortunately, I had brought my pw rig just in case. I had to do the job from the ground, and it was just as fast. Also, even if you could walk the roof with a blower, I don’t feel safe on wet roofs.
Since you did not price the job for ladders or lifts, I suggest that your only other option in wet conditions is a pw blowout from the ground. You might want to have that as a backup.
Good point. We are pretty dry in central Texas round August. Think I’ll tow my trailer and pw rig even if I don’t plan on using it just cause. Makes a better impression towards the pressure washing side of our company and the ability to do it. And cause one never knows.
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[quote=“DantheWindowMan, post:40, topic:14098”]
o I used an 18’ extension wand with a gutter hook and a 15 degree tip
[/quote] what is a gutter hook?
So you say you use a 15deg tip and turn down your machine. I guess you simply “sweep”gutter junk from one end to the downspout or other end? Thoughts about the gutter c/o rotating nozzle/dual nozzle?
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Never towards the downspout. You want the junk poping out not washing down, this is the difference between grabbing a garden hose like cheap home owner trying to wash everything down the spout and clogging everything up.
Rotating nozzle is unnecessary, and I would rather have the control from a 15 tip moving everything in the same direction. Stuff will fly out, but you want it moving away from the spout and grouping at the end. And then it will all blow out.
You will get dirty. And you can count the dollars as the dirt lands on your joyous body.
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I am in Ajax Canada, and we are not nearly as dry as you are. In the summer, we could have a nice sunny day and a thunder storm roll through, and then back to sunny skies.
I do not cancel jobs for wet weather (unless there is thunder and lightning, unsafe). So while I had my blower in my truck, I had my trailer just in case. And you would not believe the storm that hit around noon. So I hit a local pub, grabed a beer and a burger. When it slowed up, I got right back to work. No rescheduling.
On a job as big as yours, I don’t think you can afford to cancel it if things get wet.
For the most part, it “POPS” out. Sweeping is far too gentle a term. If you haven’t tried this, buckle up. If you run at full power it’s like holding on to a rocket. lol, give it a try
First time I tried without tuning down my engine, it fired backwards and bent my wand almost in half. Fortunately, I was testing on my own house.
Thread the needle bro, it’s fun.
NOOOOOOOOOO!
In my humble opinion, do not use this! You can’t control the flow of water, and will likely blow the seals at the ends of the eaves.
This tool might be ok for really low pressure pws, but no one on this forum has a pw that using this wouldnt damage the eaves.
Lol no i don’t use it, I use leaf blower if and when I do gutters. I just thought you could try it since u we’re using the other one I thought this one might interest you but thanks for the heads up
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Is the other one much better?
Ok good, this thing will break the seals at the ends of the eaves and you will be stuck repairing them. It is such a stupid tool. No offense, thank you for the suggestion.
Have u heard of the gutter tool from window cleaning? In my opinion I think the more water the more of a mess with gutters . So I use blower and gutter tool if stuff is caked
Absolutely. The gutter hook is just an extension that is bent. You can control it just the same as when you are using a straight wand.
This other thing, puts all the pressure horizontally!!! Eaves are not built to withstand direct horizontal pressure. If this doesn’t blow the ends off of the eaves it will break the caulking. I think this thing was made for consumer grade machines.
I have.
It is a poor substitution for the human hand. And I don’t want to use my hand.
It might be more messy using a pw for clean out, but the gutters are cleaner than you could ever get them with your hand or the gutter tool.
Use the blower for sure, but if you have “caked” stuff, skip that step and just pw clean it out.
I find the customers are really impressed too, they are used to chumps climbing on ladders with a bucket.
