Pretreatment & post treating

Lately I’ve seen quite a few people saying that they pre treat with a strong mix(as high as 50/50) and no post treatment. How well does this work? Who does it? Do you worry about burning plants or grass?

What I do: pre with house wash and post with 3%ish.

I’m always looking to increase efficiency or quality of service so I’m curious. Easiest way to find out? Try it I guess but I just wanted to have some conversation about it first.

Also, I find that when I apply my house wash(with elemonator) to concrete it dries up really fast. I usually just give it a quick mist to keep it wet while working from bottom up. I’m considering adding a container for just concrete with a roof surfactant such as clingon or just more elemonator. Not sure if this will help.

Anyone ever use this cleaner? Or similar?
https://www.powerwash.com/amfile/file/download/file/7/product/4553/

What I’m doing now works and everyone is always happy so I should leave it a lone probably

I do the same as you, I pre treat with my house mix with elemonator and post treat with my 12v around 2.5-3%. Seems to be working. I work in small sections so it doesn’t dry. A little more time consuming but doesn’t dry on me.

2 Likes

It definitely works, but imigaine how fast you could run the surface cleaner when pre treating with 50/50. Plus no post treatment. The time saving sounds appealing.

1 Like

I always pre treat with house wash mix only.

Going crazy with 50/50 isnt really going to save you time, and there is more risk of collateral damage.

Pre and post with house wash is perfect as long as your running the right equipment.

2 Likes

True. I could definitely use some time savings. Seems like my SC is running slower this year for some reason. I am looking at getting a new one although this one is only a year old. I would love to increase my efficiency. But I would worry about burning something. If you try it, let me know

1 Like

I downstream 12.5 for the pretreat. If I’m doing the house I treat it first wet it periodically while washing the house run my surface cleaner over it, then ds 12.5 again. Collect check. Move on.

I’m running a gx390 with a hp5535.

Edit: as far as burning grass just stand in the grass when spraying edges back on concrete if you have overspray just switch back to rinse and hit the grass on the edges again.

3 Likes

Same here. I pre treat with DS house wash mix first before I even have one drop on the house. (I feel the concrete needs a little more dwell time) I let it dwell the entire house wash, rinsing included ( I freshen it up if I see it drying) and then I surface clean last. After rinsing I post treat DS HW mix again unless it’s bad and then I DS straight SH. A few houses were very bad and I pump sprayed HW mix straight for post treat.
That’s my method and it works for me and my customers.

4 Likes

DS house mix for pre and post, and hit tannin stains with pump up after.

Ive never understood why some guys drag out their roof hose just to pre/post a driveway. I hate unrolling and rolling up another hose, especially my heavy AG hose.

We pretreat with a 3 %. Let dwell, then surface clean. This allows is to move a little faster with the surface cleaner. Then we rinse. If we see lines the we apply a 1% post but rarely have to.

2 Likes

This is what I’m curious about. I’m going to have to order a porportioner so I don’t have to mess with my roof mix for driveways.

@Diamond_Soft_Wash where are you working? I’m in Louisiana and run into really bad concrete frequently and think this may be beneficial.

Dwell time is what? 15 minutes or so?

Pre wet grass?

Always soak surrounding grass and vegetation to the point of over watering first. Then pre treat. Let sit for at least 15-20 minutes. We always wash the roof first or house first after we pre treat. If we are just doing concrete then we pre treat with a 3.5% then wait for 10 minutes or so the surface clean.

2 Likes

Pre wetting the grass for the driveway would take about the same or longer then post treating so I don’t see it being a big time saver but you’re probably getting a better clean. Thanks for the info, I may try it one day and see the pros and cons for myself.

Well we have one guy wetting and another guy behind spraying so no real time loss.

1 Like

Gotcha. You said over watering. I thought that might take a while.