I’m not going to take on any more sealing jobs except under the circumstances where a customer demands it as a condition of doing the cleaning. There are a lot of factors to consider, the biggest being having to time the cleaning and sealing a few days apart when the weather is cooperative. The air temp, humidity, moisture and surface temp of the concrete all play a part in getting a quality job. Screw it up and your now into a re-do.
The SurfKoat is an oil based acrylic sealer that is applied with a 1 1/4 nap roller. I have used a pump sprayer on with a water-based brick sealer but never an acrylic.
It’s all based on square footage. Use your regular cleaning price for the cleaning. Figure out which product you are going to use and determine the coverage rate. Factor in supplies like rollers, laytex gloves, rags, trashbags, tarps, if necessary, cleaners like xylene, acetone, etc. and then labor and you get a price.
That’s exactly why I only do sealing as the season starts to wind back up. I actually kind of enjoy it, but the delay between steps is a little frustrating.
Thanks for the response and information. I’m well versed in the weather cooperating. I have 3/4 of a mile of HOA fence waiting to be stained. Raining all day off and on tomorrow so that kills it for this week.
I just had a patio and walkway that I had to re-clean because the weather went crazy with 4 solid days of rain after the cleaning. I couldn’t find a slot to re-schedule the sealing for nearly 10 days and by then the trees had dropped a bunch of debris onto the concrete leaving stains, so I had to re-clean it all (light scrub/soft rinse off) then wait another 3 days for it to dry and finally had to go back on a Sunday afternoon to finish because that was the only 6 hour window before another storm hit.
Well, if you’re already in the staining business, then sealing would probably be a good fit for you. I’m about 60% window cleaning and 40% pressure washing and gutter cleaning.
I expect that $1000 job to take me several days, maybe three. There’s a great deal of surface cleaning and I am very slow. I wonder if the diameter of my pressure hose could be restricting the volume coming out of my surface cleaner? I think I’ll eliminate my thinner hose tomorrow to see. Is there a recommended diameter of hose for a 4k 4-5GPM? If so, it may be time for me to FINALLY buy a hose reel and some new hose. There is a company called Hydrahose in VA Beach. ANY SUGGESTIONS?
AND, Roadie, you know very well that I mistyped your name in an earlier post.
I am far from raising prices because I’m overbooked. I’m still in search of my first $2000 week.
Put a tee with a gauge in it right where the hose connects and see what pressure you ate getting after going through the hose. Then check it just after the unloader… Now you can either tweak your unloaded or install different nozzles to get the best performance. By the way like IBS said get 150 foot of 2 strand 4000psi hose with a swivel on one end.
By the way is your machine 4gpm or a 5 GPM and is it 3000 psi or 4000 psi. You need to know this as the difference is noticeable…
Yep one of my hoses may be 1/4". I run two 50’ hoses together so that I don’t have to take my PW off the truck. One of them is a smaller diameter. I think I’ll pull the PW off of the truck tomorrow and just run 1 hose to determine if that’s a problem. Thanks!
Text me your address and last name and I’ll send you one of my old 100’ 3/8" hoses. It’s still workable and in pretty good shape. I think there’s even fittings still on it. I’ll change out the o-rings and get it in the mail by the 20th.
You’ll have to wait a couple weeks because I’m out of town for the next 5 days starting tomorrow and next week we’ve got the townhomes.
I may not wait if my research exposes a major hitch because of that hose. I wonder if it might be restricting my PSI also? You can bet I’ll know tomorrow night!
Put that new roof system to work. That’ll clean up easy. will need to price it higher than regular concrete though, going to have to use more chemical. Be sure to blow it off first to see if any loose pebbles. If so, don’t use surface cleaner on it unless you want to replace your bar.
[quote=“Racer, post:37, topic:10120”], and the
don’t use surface cleaner on it unless you want to replace your bar.
[/quote]
I noticed yesterday when I returned to get started on that driveway that I left pebbles behind, but I never heard them hitting the bar (they’re small pebbles) Nonetheless, I hypothesized that the water pressure was holding them down. I thought about using the roof system for this job. Right now it’s more a labor of love for some retired folks and my need to follow through on a job, even when it’s unprofitable. ANYWAY, I may not even get to complete this job until next week. I will certainly report results w/ pics!
BEST DAY EVER! Since I have joined the group and bought all this frikkin’ equipment I have had one thing after another challenge me. Well, FINALLY! So I left off that stinkin’ 1/4" hose and worked from just one hose, but still not the love I had hoped for from the Northern surface cleaner that I bought from a customer. Frustrated, I pulled out the Hammerhead that I had bought from Bob at PressureTek. I tried it once or twice and it was WAY TOO MUCH WORK. WHY? I asked, and decided that that 1/4" hose might be the culprit. It may very well have been that there wasn’t the volume of water coming out of the tiny hose to drive that sucker!
That surface cleaner made small work of what I expected to take a day to clean, and I am eager to get back out to the property that started this thread, the aggregate with stones, and see what a difference it will make out there. I went back over where that Northern surface cleaner had been todayand noticed right away that the difference between the two surface cleaners is HUGE. Then I moved to the soffit and fascia, as well as the trim and everything came out like it’s supposed to. I’ll be back tomorrow to clean windows and hopefully the weather won’t be nasty like it was when I wrappped up for the day so I can take some pictures.
I thought you fellas might want to share my victory with me.
“you big dummy” in my Redd Foxx voice. I think “Roadie” is sending you some hose but send me your address and I’ll have Bob drop ship you a section also. No more 1/4 hose for you.
