Guy called and wants me to try to remove a fresh coat of glaze n seal that the landscapers put on his new bluestone. I did this once before, about 6000sf on sotero tile and it was incredibly time consuming. Had to use high heat (180 deg) and the yellow tip blasting off 2” at a time, took a week straight but that sealer had been on for a while and was decaying. But he also had some other kind on it underneath. My question is would it come off somewhat easily or at all using the process above? It’s about 3 weeks since it was laid down lightly on new bluestone. Here’s the product: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Glaze-N-Seal-Clear-Semi-Gloss-Mildew-Resistant-Mold-Resistant-Waterproofer-Actual-Net-Contents-1-Gallon/1000695934
Pass. And I think your gut is already telling you that based off your first experience. Money is nice but can be made much more easily washing a house. Always trust your gut
After my first experience a couple years agi at $1/sf I told my client and myself that it should of been $2. That’s what I quoted on this one. Running my burner at full heat is 7 gallons of diesel per hour, so like $50 an hour just in fuel… it’s also out of town but I have a backup job out that way for another client who was willing to wait to not pay a ton of travel time. I’ll try it out and update after.
$2/sf now is the same as $1/sf a couple of years ago…in real $$s anyway.
We still get people who call back after getting a quote, “you did my house in 2018 for half that! How do you justify that increase?” It’s like they know everything in the world has gone up, but somehow pressure washing should not have. (not to mention in 2018 it was an unmarked truck with a Powerline trailer…)
Update: for anyone who thinks that they can get fresh solvent based sealer off using high-pressure and hot water, here is the answer. It’s not the right way to do it. However with that being said, it does kind of work, but it is extremely time consuming and hard on the equipment. I used a yellow tip with the heat turned all the way up to 190, got within 1 inch of the surface and finally started shaving it off. However in some places the sealer was on thicker and stayed on. Either chemical removal or bead blasting would be the way to go. Older sealer that is failing comes off a bit easier but the price should be $3/sf. A better option would be to use the sand blaster attachment and get some black diamond. I have never done this but here is a pretty informative video of a guy who figured it out after trying many ways.
This was a solvent based sealer and it was new so fully intact. The proper chemical (Methylene Chloride) was outlawed for consumer use in 2019 by the epa. That’s what really worked but it’s also nasty stuff. I didn’t try those you mentioned but curious if they would work at all?
