New construction concrete cleaning

I’m looking for opinions regarding cleaning up a parking lot. The place has never opened. Fresh concrete. Basically just dirt. No chemical, no surface Cleaning. Just a rinse. I’m thinking to charge 40% of my normal rate per sqft. Thoughts?

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.06 cent per square foot seems like a fair and honest price. I did a house today that i had over charged for. When i got there and was talking with the owner who had already agreed on my price. I told him. Id do it for $30 less he seem shocked lol. Turns out he owns 3 restaurants and want me to come give him a price and a free meal for me and my family :grinning::smiley::smile:.

Sounds like a easy job and could gain you more business with them.

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From personal experience both parties will be disappointed with just a rinse.

The rain does that, and there’s no way your putting out more gpm then Mother Nature.

I’d honestly look into two stepping it or using a good surfactant to hold the dirt in suspension.

My go to is film fighter and citric pre soak from hydro chems.

If just using a surfactant “Power Solve” similar to ebc but 1/5th the price does amazing.

Honestly even just using eliminator mix with water downstreamed.

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I did this a few weeks a go. -50 from what I quoted. Got an awesome review, two referrals and now I’m doing the house every 6 months as opposed to he might call me back in a year. Fair is fair and people appreciate that.

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The thought crossed my mind regarding poor results. Almost seems like it be better to nozzle down and run the surface cleaner. On some drives where the cream is obviously soft and poor quality concrete I’ll use my 8gpm nozzles on the 5gpm machine. I could probably job behind the surface cleaner after some pre treatment like you mentioned.

If it’s just dirt and no algae/mold no reason to break out the SC… and good surfactant will do all the work for you and way quicker.

There will be puddle spots and debris that rain will not Wash Away™ :sweat_smile: a 3/4 cocked ballvalve will But i think your right some spots will more than likely need washed they expect a rinse with make it look new. If he points out what might come off and will then tells them a price to acually get those spots off more than likely they will still go for the rinse. Ive told atleast 4 customers that something might not come off to set realistic expectations and they usaully say thats ok but every time i have got it off lol. Cant lose and when i get it off they are mind blown.

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First thing is see how far you have to chase the dirty water and how the drainage is. Pretty flat where you are.

You can’t power wash new concrete. You can damage it. I believe the general rule is wait a year so I would avoid a surface cleaner.

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If it’s a quality pour a couple of months is sufficient. I run into slabs multiple years old and still loosing cream like crazy. You can usually see the white chalky substance leading to the drain, caused by rainfall. If you use larger orifice size you can use the surface cleaner. Concrete quality varies. If I’m ever in the market for it I’ll definitely be researching the contractors previous pours.

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Perfect timing! I start new home construction cleans next week. I was just going to rinse but will add some surficant/cleaner now!

Question…I used a SC on my 2yr old driveway (Classic 16", 4/4 machine,150’ of hose, 2.5 tips) and the water was milky white. Is this the “cream” that people are mentioning?

yep, you got it