Boy. I understand being a one man show because I am one myself but anytime I have large projects I bring in the reinforcements. That job wouldn’t be considered a large project in my book but it’s definitely a labor intensive one and I would’ve brought in a helper. That alone would’ve shaved hours off of your completion time.
You’ve gotten really good advice so far.
As mentioned a 12v setup will speed things up considerably for pre treating. Post treating is fine if you’re not sealing but, if you are, do not post treat.
If you see mud in the joints instead of sand be sure to charge accordingly because it’s going to take a lot longer. If it’s a big patio try and keep an eye out on how the drainage is. Poor drainage can add a lot of time to a job if it’s a large area.
They make sand for paver joints that will harden on its own. They also have joint stabilizing sealers.
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I hate pavers because of the clean up. It takes forever sometimes. Always check for drainage points. If the flower beds and grass are higher than the pavers you will have mud puddles which dry to sand when your done. Tell the customer to expect that. Set expectations for your customer. I don’t pull weeds. I tell them to spray the weeds with weed killer a week before I show up. If their dead they will come out with the surface cleaner. I also tell them I can’t remove 100% of the moss. I don’t resand so I tell them to consider having someone doing it after we are done. I’m thete to make money. I can always make more money doing houses.
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Easiest way to clean pavers is by not cleaning them
I did a nasty paver job this spring. Lots of moss and slimy algae.
I hit everything with the xjet, best it could do was probably 3%. Once stuff turned brown I broke out the surface cleaner and frankly it didn’t do squat. I knew at that point my only option was the turbo nozzle which did finally clean the bricks off. Like you said the muddy runoff was tough to rinse.
Pretreat area with SH. Let it sit for 30 min. Use a turbo nozzle and go stone by stone. I post treat with SH again. Fill in cracks with either fine sand and seal OR use polymeric sand if you are not sealing. Things to take note:
- This will take time. Charge accordingly.
- Pre treating with SH is optional - makes cleaning quicker and easier.
- Post treating with SH is NOT optional. Why? Because the cracks are filled with weeds. You MUST kill the weeds / seeds inbetween the cracks or you will have some angry customers. Sand / polymeric sand is tough, but even when done properly, weeds can still grow through it quickly if seeds remain.
- I can’t tell you what to charge per sq ft because some pavers have wider gaps and others are very thin. This can drastically impact the cost of product needed. If the cracks are wider charge more.
On a quickbanger 2-3 car driveway I normally charge 800-900$ for sealing and 600-700$ for polymeric sand.
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So. Much. God. Damn. Mud. Anyone here use a sludge pump? Can a pressure washer be used to pump this crap? I spent 70% of my time dealing with the freaking mud today. It’s too much.
Yup, there is a device that snaps on to a wand and sucks the sludge up and out a 2" hose. I have one, works very well.
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You’re doing something wrong. Quit picking on the poor mud. It has to live somewhere, lol.
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You can get a 3-4 gal pump up sprayer to cut your time into almost nothing until you save/ build a system.
Find sodium thiosulfate to neutralize your sh, unless your using calcium.
-Pre wet area around your work site
-Use plant feed on any vegetation that you don’t want to pay for
-Pre treat with sodium hypochlorite
-Clean with 40 degree tip at a perpendicular angle
-rinse and post treat
- neutralize runoff using tablets as you go
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Great! I’ll have to get one, my next job is cleaning 7000 sqft of pavers. I’ll actually commit suicide if I have to manually budge the sludge.
I had the same problem yesterday, plus everything was algaed up real good. I didnt have alot if time to NOT start with the surface cleaner already. To top it off the sun was killing Thursday, I couldn’t get relief for hours afterwards. Maybe I needed sugar.
See all that grunge on driveway and sidewalk? And on the house itself, that little walkway was the only piece on the side of the house. I had to hit that mostly from the front yard, or directly undeneath.
You need to show pic of a job you’ve got coming up. We can help you a lot better then. I clean pavers weekly and its just not that big of a deal.
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I forgot about how Id deal with sludge. What I would do is basically sweep it off using the high pressure nozzle(yellow is all I use and havent lost) and finesse it over the grass and pull away quick so as not to rewet anything and drain back. Rakes a few tries but only works with hi press nozzle.
