What order to do cleaning in?

When i have a full property cleaning scheduled (house, roof, and concrete). What order shouid i do my cleaning? I typically just have roof and house cleaning in which i’d do the roof first. But im not sure if i should clean concrete before or after house wash. What do you guys think and why

That’s a great question. If on the rare occasion I have to work by myself I would do the roof cleaning first, then blow the driveway with my leaf blower quickly (less debris when rinsing it) lay my pre treat down On driveway to dwell while i do the house. Priority being that the house mix stays wet and doesn’t dry on the house. The pre treatment on the concrete can dwell as long as the house takes to complete, then I would do the driveway and the last step would be to recheck the roof, do a full walk around the house to check for missed spots (before you roll up the hoses!) and if I see water puddling from driveway cleaning I would blow it into the grass with my leaf blower. Efficiency is all about having repeatable systems in place.

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Thank you this helped a lot yesterday. I did a pretreat for the first time and the concrete came out amazing. I also layed down a post treatment just for good measure even though it seemed like it didn’t needed it.

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Never a bad idea to post treat, came out very nice :ok_hand:

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Exactly how I do it. If not doing roof, I’ll often lay down the pre-treat as I’m I’m walking to house with my hose. I always usually start in back and work to the front, so if a large home I’ll wait till I get around to front side before I lay it down. And like you I wait to roll up until I’ve walked around for a final check as I’m pulling my tape and I always carry a rag, in case I need to wipe a spot or windowsill.

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I hope you don’t mind me adding to this post? I have been looking for a good one to add to. These photos are of a job that I completed. This was strictly just a water usage as I am still researching the proper way to pretreat a concrete job with chemicals. Is this completed with SH? One question I had about concrete work was how to handle landscaping. Do you tarp over/off landscaped areas when you are doing the vertical sections of the concrete? I attempted to clean the vertical sections here and it blew the dirt EVERYWHERE. Probably a newb mistake. I had to wash after to remove all dirt of course. How should I handle the flowers? Should I just rinse with a garden hose?

For me when it comes to flat work and landscaping, I try to use my surface cleaner as close to the edge as possible without it going over and hitting the dirt. I then go back the check the top edges and any parts that weren’t cleaned and noticeable, I use the wand and slowly clean, making sure to watch where the water is hitting. No one wants a volcano of mud in their face so spray it at an angle away from you. When you said verticals surfaces, it makes me think you are cleaning that 3 inch tall part on the side of the concrete slab. I don’t clean that and I don’t think anyone here does either. Throws dirt everywhere and can ruin whatever landscaping edge the homeowner has along that side. If you do get dirt on the flowers, garage, or whatever, just make sure you gently rinse it with garden hose pressure. It’s already loose dirt so don’t use a high psi nozzle to blast it off.
That can cause more of a mess.

I should also add that when post treating concrete, I typically only treat up to about 6 inches from the edge where landscaping is. Less risk of SH burning any grass or flowers and it really isn’t noticeable at all once it dries.

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Thank you for your response. The 3" vertical is what I was referring to. I guess I thought it would look bad if I didn’t wash it as well. As far as treatment goes, what are you using pre and post? I have the following chemicals:

SH 12.5%
Oxalic Acid
Citric Acid
Elemonator

As for pretreating, some don’t even require it. Just depends on what you are cleaning. If it is really greasy and oily, a degreaser mix is a good pre treat. If it’s a lot of organic growth, a house wash mix (SH, Surfactant, Water)

For post treat, some use their house wash mix and leave to dry. I personally use anywhere from a 1-5% mix without a surfactant in a pump up sprayer and let dry. The amount depends on the result after I clean. Some don’t even require post treat they look so good after.

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Chemistry question. I tried my hand at soft washing tonight. No bueno. Is my dilution correct? Using a 2 gal hand sprayer for now. Using SH and Elemonator.

20 oz SH (12.5%)
4 oz Elemonator
Approx 232 oz water

Method:

  1. Rinse surrounding landscape and vinyl siding with plenty of water.
  2. Applied soft wash mix.
  3. Let sit for 10 minutes making sure it stayed wet.
  4. Rinsed off with garden hose.

4 oz of Elemonator is wayyyy to much. 1 oz per gallon sometimes even half an oz is all you need. Also, try going to 40 oz. that’s about 2% mix I believe.

You’re the man @DJPWS. Thanks for your help. The mix worked great on a section of fence that I was spot testing on. Not so well on the house. Will have to try the 2%.

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Keep at it ! Test your chems, start light and work your way up until after 10 minutes of dwelling, you get your wanted result.

I have another house job tomorrow. Lots of landscape. Any pointers as to how to handle the soft wash chemicals with landscape?

Dilution is the solution, most HW mixes you will be fine. Just pre wet briefly and post rinse briefly. You don’t need to spend a lot of time on this, just make sure their wet. You rinsing the house is usually enough, but to be precautionary, rinse the vegetation down.

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I agree with the above comment ^. Another thing to add is to watch your footing and hoses! Don’t stomp on their flowers and don’t let the hoses pull a light fixture out the ground, knock over a pot, or ruin their landscaping. Just watch yourself and be careful.

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