What’s got you moving to Birmingham?
What’s the deal? Why you leaving God’s country? Same company?
Missing my family. I love it here, but I haven’t seen my folks in almost 2 years and they’re not getting any younger.
I’ll be switching back to my old career, project superintendent for a residential construction company. I just got the plans for a house I’m starting in August, and it’s 15k sqft. That’s not a typo lol, we’ll be demo’ing a mansion and building a bigger one in its place.
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Hate that you are leaving. I have some properties in Huntsville I quit doing a few years ago because Alabama sucks worse than SC. If you ever want to do apartments let me know and I’ll send you the contact info
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Hate to see you move. Sorry we were never able to meet. Good luck. Sounds like a more fun job than plumbing stuff.
Me too, Rick! I’m still gonna stick around on the forum, learning even if I’m not spraying down there yet. As far as the job is concerned, it’s a trade-off. A lot more stress, but a lot less gross stuff lol
I’ll keep that in mind, thank you! It’s definitely gonna take a minute to adjust back to those 88-degree days
Hello Pressure Washing Resource,
My name is Jeff, I’m in Virginia, near Roanoke. I have been reading a bunch on here and decided to introduce myself. I started a SW and PW business, an LLC, this spring, got insurance, built a skid unit for the pickup truck, and have done a couple of house washes and some gutter cleaning jobs.
I joined Home Advisor to get some exposure and customers, and have received some leads from them, plus some word of mouth referrals. I made a Facebook page but I really don’t spend much time on there. My yard signs finally arrived so I got those available now.
I have a day job in human services which is not a typical 8-5; sometimes I only work 3 days per week. So that’s why I started this business, I was bored, and liked the earnings potential.
In building my SW unit I realized I’m no plumber. I used to be a heavy equipment mechanic and did a lot with hydraulics, but with this project I seemed to run into challenges at every turn. But it works, with 150’ of 3/8" hose and my homemade PVC wand. I’ve only used the pressure washer for concrete.
I looked at a house yesterday that has two issues that I’m puzzled about. One is the plastic deck, you know, the fake wood. Not only is is moldy and has lichen growing on it, it’s very oxidized, I can scrape material off with my fingernail. I can remove the organics with SH, but that’s as far as I think I should go. Anyone have suggestions for cleaning weathered fake wood and not disturbing the oxidation?
The second problem is their painted concrete carport has what looks like a heavy coating of floor wax on it, already there when they bought the house. They said it’s very slippery when wet and want it removed. It’s flaking in some places but I’m not sure just pressure washing alone will remove this stuff. Maybe hot water and floor wax stripper? I’ve applied floor wax before but never removed it.
This forum is a treasure trove of helpful info and with some big hearted professionals willing to devote their previous time to help out new guys like me. Thank you for being here.
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Welcome. How old is the composite deck? Typically you want to get the oxidation off. Hit it with about a 2% mix, let dwell a few min and then you can just pressure wash it off. just be sure to do it kind of like you would with real wood and make continuous pass on the boards. Can go up to about 2000psi. I’ve even used a surface cleaner on some bad ones, but you better know what you’re doing. Post a pic or 2 if you have.
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This is a close up of the handrail, and a wide view of the deck. I’d say this deck has some age on it. Thanks Racer for the reply.
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That’s not too bad at all in my opinion. Here’s one I just did on Saturday. It had lichens all over it. Yours should clean up nicely.
They look even better when they dry but I don’t stick around for that most of the time.
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Oh here’s one I did a few weeks back that I believe is the same color as what you have there. I’d probably start at 3% and go from there.
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Dang! Did you prewet it, use a brush?
No brush. Quick prewet (like the Flash quick if you’re using 8gpm like I do), start at 3% and go up or down depending on dwell (do a test spot first), 1000psi wood tip on my JROD, and then a thorough rinse. I’ve done probably a dozen or more composite decks with this method and they always clean up beautifully. I’ve changed phones a few times in the last few years but I’ll see if I can find some more pics somewhere for you.
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I would not have dreamed that SH and lots of water could produce such results. Feeling much better about this project. Thanks a bunch.
No worries man. I prefer cleaning composite to cleaning real wood. It’s much less tedious and you can really move. I use a 12v for deck jobs and I usually go about 1/3 to 1/2 an ounce of surfactant to gallon of mix to cut down on rinse time. Just shoot for a 7-10 minute dwell time and you should be golden. Good luck with it.
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Now your just showing off Texan!, nice work 
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