@marathonrunner I just told you what our house wash is made out of… it’s what we all use. Also meaning it’s safe. Dilution is the solution with plants
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That’s not true. It has bleach in it. There are certain Sherwin William paints made out of organic pigments and it will hurt it.
Not sure why you’re thinking the house wash mix that hundreds if not thousands of pressure washing contractors use is so risky to use.
If you’re going to be a professional don’t spray stuff on a house out of a garden house. By a machine and just down stream. It’s the quickest way to go about it. If you get the right equipment you will have time to do a few houses here and there because they’ll only take you an hour versus 5 hours if you use your water fed pole.
There are quite a few window cleaners on here who have added pressure washer and they now pressure wash more than they do windows. Why? Because they make a lot more money doing a lot less work. You should easily be able to get business from your window customers so it’s a no brainer if you ask me. Get a little trailer for equipment if you don’t have room in the back of your truck.
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Thanks for the advice., the bottle of EZ Armor says <5% bleach so adding full strength I do believe I tried that once on a deck and it seemed to have burnt it. Did it on a deck that was being replaced so it was not a problem.
Excellent Points! However, the one house I did with a waterfed pole, I should have kept my mouth shut as it was me who recommended to the customer to also get his house power washed. So when I quoted him $600 he was fine with that but when he learned he would have to spend probably another $600 on power wash too, that is when I told him for $200 more I would do the poor man’s method and he was fine with that.
Yes I do think getting a professional setup is probably the only way to go and maybe I can drop window cleaning all together and just do power wash and offer window cleaning as a way to seal the deal rather than the other way around
At my age of 55 I am not sure if it makes sense to invest in a F250 truck(I have strong reservations about aluminum beds) a power wash machine, buffer tanks etc…
That’s why I am thinking if I can just use a quick garden hose with a house wash that is economical, I can offer to maybe just do a deck clean, maybe a porch here and there, but avoid having to do entire house.
THE EZ AMOR HAS ONLY 5% BLEACH, you mean to tell me that little amount can still damage painted wooden siding?
Can you give me a recipe that will be safe for a newbe? For now the only service as far as house clean is something I can do with a garden hose and small segments of the house. Next year once I learn more I may invest and go full tilt.
I know lots of guys who are using professional house wash mix, it will probably require a large buffer tank, 4gpm power wash, and then I will need a truck etc… Right now I feel I am good with just window cleaning. Been busy all summer but if I can tack on an extra $250 for the job it can’t hurt. The EZ Armor may not be the most effective but after using it here and there, it actually works well on siding that just has regular dirt on it as opposed to heavy algae or slime. That I know will require a good hard scrubbing with a bruch or something
We only use .7%-1% in our house wash mix so 5% would destroy certain paints. See how much safer our custom mix is?
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so can you give me a recipe I can use? Also I seem to think bleach is bleach but others have mentioned a component that is what bleach is so then why not just buy the bleach in its state?
It can vary depending on the surface and on environmental conditions. There is no one size fits all. Ignoring that .7% sh with a couple oz of a professional pressure washing surfactant. Yes a pressure washer is required for professional results in a reasonable amount of time. It can be a pretty compact set up. A buffer tank is useful but not required.
It’s hard to give an exact amount when you don’t have equipment yet. An injector on a 4 gpm machine can draw more mix than an 8 gpm machine. When I used a 5 gpm machine I would mix 2 gallons of SH, 3 gallons of water, and about 2 ounces of Elemonator in a 5 gallon bucket and down streamed. With my 8 gpm I use straight SH and 4 ounces of Slo Mo in a 20 gallon tank. That’s why @DJPWS said he already gave you the recipe. The amounts used will just vary but is easy to dial in doing a bucket test once you get your pressure washer.
It did not burn the deck. There is just a process to cleaning decks that you don’t know. Check out the deck washing 101 thread. With 6% (household bleach strength) bleach in the ez Armour thing your getting probably 0.25% on the house. It really seems best to stick with window washing for you if you aren’t willing/able to learn
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Ok, so a lot to take in there. At 55, you should really start considering transitioning to services that are easier on the body. Power washing done right, will be much easier on you going forward than window cleaning.
Window cleaning and power washing can complement one another quite well.
You don’t need a brand new F250 to do it “right”. You do need decent equipment and a way to move it reliably and safely from job to job.
Some opt for a small utility trailer starting out. Others have had good success building a rig on the back of an older S10 or similar pickup.
You are barking up the wrong tree with the EZ Armor stuff. It will damage something eventually (no matter what the marketing claims), if you persist in the notion that it won’t. And it is not strong enough to clean efficiently. It is the worst of both sides.
My advice is to research on here for an hour or two every day for a month, and then start asking questions. There are a ton of guys on here making better money than they ever dreamt possible. They were able to do so by investing in the right things, and listening to the veterans in the industry. Trying to reinvent the wheel almost never results in a better wheel. It just makes for a bumpier ride.
Btw, I was one of those guys that tried to reinvent the wheel at times. If you look back on some of my older posts, some of the stuff I did turned out to be incredibly hackish and ill-advised.
I should have listened to Alex Curry and others who recommended I just buy an older S10 and set it up for house washing and window cleaning. I loved my stinkin’ xB way too much, and had not yet seen the true potential for power washing in my market. I could be way ahead of where I am now if I had taken that advice and dedicated more resources to getting set up properly from the get-go.
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Quit yelling. And yes, it can change the color and cost you a paint job. I think you should continue there path you are own though. It appears you have it all worked out.
…same old same old, huh?
If you think I crave the approval of people I’ve never even met, then you don’t know me at all.
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This has my approval.
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Hey man are you sure this guy isn’t trying to market EZ ARMOR here on this site. He’s literally typed it out like 10 times throughout the posts and then after doing it again in caps, it’s starting to look pretty suspicious lol.
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