Hello everyone. I am in the parking lot cleaning business for office buildings and shopping centers and more and more the shopping center clients are requesting we spot clean sidewalks. Most stains are from coffee type drinks, sodas, food, i.e. ice cream. We can generally remove the coffee, soda spills but are having a hard time with the ice cream stains or any grease type stain. My staff go out with a pump up sprayer with a bleach solution, some simple green and scrub brushes, and do an okay job on the drink spills but are having a really tough time on ice cream or any type of grease stain. These are generally very small areas compared to your field, so I’m looking for a quick, effective solution that can be done manually, i.e. product with a scrub brush. Thanks and I look forward to hearing your suggestions.
PS We have no access to water source and have to bring our own in gallon jugs
You need hot water and a good degreaser and some other cleaning chemicals at your disposal. Hot water for us on commercial work-- wouldn’t leave home without it.
Most of us carry water around the complex in 500-1000 gallon tanks called buffer tanks. Some of our complexes don’t have water so we fill up at a fire hydrant. With our old trailer setup, we could fill a 525 gallon tank in under 2 min. We have to pull a water meter permit for those jobs.
The only problem I see is that you can’t “spot clean” effectively. You’ll have the opposite effect with a really clean spot that will really stand out if you clean it properly.
I would recommend to find someone in your area that you can work together with and have them do the pressure washing in turn they can send you work for parking lot cleaning. We do this with window cleaning and it has turned out great for us!
Concerning degreasers, the only ones I know about are those that you can purchase from big box stores such as Lowe’s, Home Depot. Is there another source that has more effective degreasers? Also relative to carrying around tons of water and having a professional pressure washing firm do the work for me, neither of those are options. I don’t have room for tons of water and to have a pro come out and clean spots that may be in a 10X10 area, would be cost prohibitive.
Any other ideas are appreciated and I thank all of you for responding.
What your wanting doesn’t exist. You want it professional results without professional cleaning. There is a reason all of us have the equipment and hot water rigs we have, to get it clean. You pretty much have two choices, get a hot water rig or sub it out. Hot water is also the only professional way to pop gum without doing damage to the concrete.
You can find a company that sells pressure washing supplies and get some degreasers from them, keep in mind if you put a degreaser down you will have to clean it, if the chemical residue is left behind and dries then when it rains and a kid jumps in the water puddle (like mine and others do) it can cause a lot of damage as it has in the past with a huge law suit against you and your company. Make sure that your insurance company covers you doing anything except parking lot cleaning, as if there is a claim that comes through from cleaning a sidewalk you will be left by your self.
One thing that you can look into is buying a used trailer from someone, I know that I see them online all the time some cheaper than others. I’m sure that in FL you can find one, if not build one its really not hard then you will be able to hook up to the truck and wash the shopping center where it is needed.
Good luck, and if there is anything else that I can help you with please let me know! Also consider joining the PWRA it will help your business grow!
Thats why I was recommending have someone local help him out, I love sending work to my buddy and he does the same well well worth it! There are a lot of great guys on here from the back stabbing state of FL that would love to work with him, I mean really its like everyone in FL has a pressure washer lol.
Speaking of that, Has anyone heard of any round tables in FL? My family and I went down in 2011 to Kory’s in Tampa, FL and loved it and would love to attend another one to meet everyone again, plus get to see the beach
