Job Efficiency

Newbie Questions
1

I’m trying to understand where the time goes in my jobs. Did a house wash, driveway, side walk and pool deck today and it took right at 5 hours. Average to smaller size house, not tons of flat work, but the back yard was basically a mud pit. Struggled the entire time with foot prints, dirty hose, and keeping stuff out of the pool the best we could.

It feels like we lost some efficiency alternating back and forth between the house and flat work. How do most of you guys manage this? I had a helper today so I think the approach would be different going solo.

2

As long as you made good money, don’t worry about it. These people who claim to do that job in three hours are full of Christmas Turkey, bottom line.

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3

Lol. Full of Christmas turkey is about right. There’s some talented people on this forum that would do it in half hour, I’m telling you, if you’re privileged enough to find them you just mention there name and the algae turns brown lol

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4

Another thing I noticed yesterday was the amount of chemical I used. It was my first time running a 12V. I think I’m laying it on a little thick. How far should 25 gallons of 3% mix go?

5

if youre talking about batch mixing 25 gallons and your 12v uses 7gpm lets say, that gives you about 4 minutes of spray time

6

Over thinking it

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7

Moved a lot faster today laying down SH on moldy stone. Felt more efficient than trying to go back and forth.

A little disappointed in the effect of the 3%. I think some type of mist would have been better than the nozzle I used.

What do you guys recommend for putting a little finer mist on porous stone?

8

Soft wash j rod is what I use, have a shooter and then a 15-25-40 fan spray tip on it

9

Thanks. What I think I’m looking for is something to apply a really fine mist to the stone. The nozzle I was using I think it was a 2540 just seems to bounce right off the rock. Looking for something that spays like a pump up spray pattern but with the convenience of 12V.

10

If your having trouble with it sticking add a surfactant to help break the surface tension

11

I still struggle with efficiency. My bleach isn’t terribly effective so even if I do 3/4 of it I still have to go back around again which throws off my rhythm.

12

Try something like a ips pro sprayer,just dont order that brand,i ordered one 3 months ago ,never got it,cause this covid situation,had to put a stop on payment through my credit cards company

13

You have to be careful with surfactant on porous surfaces like stone, brick, etc.

I rarely use any surfactant when cleaning those things.

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14

I always run light on surfactant anyways but have never seen any problems, what might you run into?

15

What could happen? Is it particular types?

16

I use straight 12.5-% on flagstone in combination with a hot pressure wash. Seems like the only way to (mostly) remove the deep black spots from water Sitting. Might not be good to do that with other stone though.

17

Spray it down and work it in with a stiff bristle brush on an extension pole. Just chem doesn’t always work for everything. Flat work requires more labor.

18

image

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19

A) It takes longer to rinse so it’s wasting time. Job efficiency and all that.

B) If you don’t rinse it away completely it can “crystallize” in cracks and it looks awful and your customer will definitely notice it.

20

This comes full circle to the post last week about post treating concrete. Crystallize is a perfect word for what I was saying you can see after the sh dries. Are you supposed to not add surfactant to a post treatment?

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