What is the lowest reasonable temperature concrete cleaning can be done with a cold water machine?
Commercial or residential?
Residential…sidewalks, patios etc.
I personally don’t if it’s under 40 degrees due to wind chill going down the road. But that’s just me. I hate cold weather it makes my bones hurt.
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My chemical supplier told me today SH and most degreasers lose their strength by a good bit 40 and under. Racer also told me that today too. Im now monitoring my equipment its supposed to get down in the 20s tonight.
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Thats the temp of my equipment right now. That is with a drop cloth and a 16x20 medium duty tarp over it with a heater i can turn off and on if i need too. Lol. Im terrified of losing all the money i have put into my equipment​:joy:
my chems is in there with it.
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Might want to at least push the water out of your pump(s) by pulling the cord with the ignition off.
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You’ll be fine tonite, tomorrow nite will be the challenge.
If it’s sunny with no wind I’ll wash in high 40s but that’s about it. The problem with commercial concrete is many times it has to be done in early morning when it’s in the 20s-30s in NC
I had a job in October at 43 degrees here in Illinois. The SH did not want to work at all. It took much longer than quoted, and a great lesson was learned because of that.
Good to know, I was wondering what the cutoff for SH would be. Customer of mine wants some concrete done so I’ll probably just wait until it rises into the 50’s.
Im doing a large fence tomorrow. Im calling it a year when im done with it.
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Anything over 25 degrees and you are fine
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I have a couple weeks of flatwork left. If I post treat should I be ok with it not freezing down to 25? We have some cold nights coming our way and most of this is night work.
I read on another thread down to 29 and 3% post treat was ok.
One thing to think about is how cold the wind is hitting your machine while going down the road
The 25 degree was sarcasm… I believe lol.
I would not wash in 25 actual temp.
I did a driveway in the spring when it was snowing and right around 29-30 degrees. Ore treated with 3% …washed…3% post treat and no issues. Any colder and I wouldn’t do it. Only reason I did that one was because they had an open house the next day
No sarcasm. We washed curbs in Knoxville when it was in the teens one year. Blow the snow off the curbs with the turbo nozzle and clean. Spraying bleach on the concrete isn’t going to keep it from freezing over. If it’s already snowing or icing over though, your water freezing isn’t going to be a big deal. I’ve just a lot of siding freeze over when wet soap. Just makes rinsing a little harder.
Just a lil heads up guys, “wind chill” can not freeze water.
If the air temp is above 32, actually lower, closer to 28-29 with tap water, it simply can not freeze. Even at 70 mph on the interstate.
Wind chill is the effect your SKIN feels, it has nothing to do with actual temperature
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Great article very interesting. Thanks for the link.
