Many of the houses here have black mildew streaks on the north facing side, and I keep telling my partner some day we will get a call to do one.
Today was that day.
Customer has a 6000 sq/ft home, wants window cleaning and soffits/gutters cleaned. In passing she mentioned the front roof has black streaks and asked if I can clean it, and I replied that I know the process but haven’t actually done one yet.
She said I can make her the first one if I like, having a graduation party coming up and wants the house to look good.
So far I know 3-4% bleach and heavy surfactant/roof snot, bag gutters, rinse thoroughly. I do have an x-jet that would put down up to 6%. Not ideal but it’s what I have.
Any help with the roof wash would be appreciated. I have a real opportunity to get my foot in the door, possibly getting a 12v system later.
Have you actually tested the draw rate of your x-jet? Because even using super hot 15% SH, that sounds like an optimistic number. Not saying you’re wrong, just verify if you haven’t already.
You’d be better off using a pump up then an xjet. Your machine will not put out 6% though the xjet from my experience. Not to mention that you will be fighting gravity with your xjet hose. As soon as you let off of the trigger the sh will go down to the container. The next time you press the trigger you will be shooting water for a few seconds until the sh gets back up to roof level. If it’s that small use a pump up. I had zero success cleaning roofs with an xjet.
If you could find a 12v pump locally just use garden hose and nozzle. You’d be better off rescheduling until you get the kit from PT.
When is the graduation party? Just use pump up sprayer and take the money from the job, windows and all. Then build you a roof kit or buy a prebuilt one but you’ll come out cheaper building your own and you can build it around your other equipment because you are limited on space. If the graduation party is over a week away then i wouldn’t rinse. It will also raise the chances of killing grass or plants. If it doesn’t look better in a few days then you could always swing by and give it a rinse without worry flushing hot beach build up in the gutter in her yard. Check the weather and see if you have some rain coming then do it atleast a day before the rain.
Unless that house is all brick, just walk away. Never do work for cherry pickers. You can’t wash just gutters and not have to rinse windows, shutters, trim etc. If they have any type of siding at all, you will have clean streaks/drops on it from soap overspray. Turned down 2 of these exact same type of “only want the exterior of the gutters cleaned” type of folks just this week. One requested gutters, downspouts, and “maybe” the garage doors. Just politely informed them that I only offer full house washes, not pick and choose chicken crap.
Same here ill do it if its brick but if it has alot of windows, shutters columns and other stuff ill explain to then ill have to wash the whole house. Even real dirty brick will leave clean spots. Not sure why people think brick wont clean up nicely. Should see the brick house racer cleaned last week. The customer was mind blown.
Had a guy leave me a voicemail about 2mins pong about how hes not going to leave me a voicemail because it doesn’t state my name and business needless to say i made a new voicemail but will not be calling him back.
Brick never really looks dirty, but it holds a ton of dust. It always amazes me how much cleaner it looks after a light soap and rinse, and most customers notice it afterwards too. You can really see the filth coming off brick when it flows onto concrete.
I’d be more concerned about oxidizing the paint on those dormers with a hot mix more than I’d be worried about the aggregate. You can throw a big tarp on the driveway, but it shouldn’t be an issue anyways if you control your runoff. Splatter a little on the dormers, and you will most definitely see spots on them from the ground.
That is a very easy job. Spray that whole section. Pre wet the dormers. Put a 10ft plastic tube bag on the gutter and keep the driveway wet. Do not do this job withou a ground guys. Once the roof is clean, wait about 5 minutes and then put the garden hose in the gutter and flush the gutter out for about 10 min.
Personally I would only quote to clean the whole roof as I’m sure there are more dirty areas than just that section. If you use a pump up spray you will be there for a while and you will be up and down that ladder many times. I wouldn’t do that section for less than 300.
