Just about ready to launch. Thanks to all you fine folks on this forum for the wealth of information. Looking forward to launching soon. Paid the deposit for my insurance on Monday only to find out my agent is on vacation until after the 4th. Decided to try a couple projects to learn the equipment on my own house and a grungy sidewalk that I could reach from the truck. Below are photos of my results.
I had high hopes for the mold on the stone but as I learned here that stuff is a pain to get off. Will go hotter with the SH and dwell longer and report back.
We laid out 150 feet of pressure hose and don’t have reels yet. Huge mistake we’ll get those ordered ASAP.
The surface cleaner and downs streaming worked really well. Was surprised at the volume and force of the bypass line back into the buffer tank. My plumbing looks pretty bad but works aside from a few small leaks the manifest when the float valve works. Other than that I’m pretty good to go.
I was too the first time I cranked it up. Was expecting a trickle, not 7gpm through a 1/4" hose. Didn’t help that I misunderstood a joke on here and just coiled up a few feet of bypass hose at the bottom of the tank lol.
I’m a plumber by trade, feel free to direct message me if you want any advice on efficient, clean plumbing
Thanks and thank you for the excellent video you posted. I was a little disappointed at my rinsing capabilities with just the ball valve. I guess this is yet another benefit of an 8 GPM machine. I just popped the J Rod on and got it done.
I’ll report back on that mold on the stone soon. I need to figure that out because there’s lots of it around.
Just reporting back on my progress. Here’s an after shot. Treated 3 times with a 4% mix and dwell times from 5 -15 minutes and wasn’t really happy. Finally jumped up to 5% and got better results.
From a process standpoint I could do a lot better, it was really inefficient with a 1 gallon pump sprayer. Not looking forward to being on the ladder today buy happy to feel like I have a handle on this stuff. In my areas if I get a driveway job, just about every home with stone will have this on the 4-5 feet closest to the ground so it’s good to have an idea on how to deal with it.
I never really hit this stuff with any pressure, Not sure if this would help or not, but I’d be more concerned about blasting out the mortar.
Between @Racer and the thread from the Dell Diamond in Round Rock the process made a lot more sense.
Good job and way to stick with it. A little pressure won’t hurt anything and is sometimes needed for brick or block. If the mortar looks weak or like it could fall out test a little pressure in an inconspicuous area and see. 99% of the time the mortar will be fine.
The SH application is cumulative. Don’t rinse it in between. Just keep applying till it lightens up a decent amount and then should come right off. After you’ve done a few you’ll recognize when time to rinse and as Brian said, normally you can use a little pressure if not crumbling. Hint - you can use less pressure if you use something that has a decent spray. It’s almost as if the finer spray helps knock it off. On my m5DS nozzle will turn it about 1/2 way spread and shoot it from pretty close, like about a foot. PSI probably only about 200 but sometimes it helps. Just experiment, you’ll get figured out in no time.
