Got a call yesterday to pressure wash the front porch and driveway of this new house, when I got there I saw one of the sloppiest brick jobs I’ve ever seen. I have to charge him more on the driveway and porch cause o the new construction, my question is should I push the rest of the house or leave it at what he asked a price on. I’ve never worked on something like this before and am not sure how it will clean up. I need to be able to justify his spending.if I set his expectations high I might end up getting the raw end of the deal if it dont clean up where as if I charge a hefty sum for the gamble he may not be happy with the results and want a bargain after.
My motto is if you know how to clean something that they didn’t initially ask you to clean then an upsell is the way to go. I do it all the time.
I wouldn’t recommend trying to upsell something that you aren’t sure if it will clean up right. It will make it like you don’t know what your doing and one of the best ways to get business is thru referrals and this is a fast way to screw that up. Cleaning brick siding on a house can be tricky especially when your dealing with efflorescence(white stains showing thru brick) and things along those lines.
I agree with your motto John. I shouldn’t say I’ve never dealt with mortar on brick, I’ve dabbled here and there but results have varried. I was wondering if there was a good cleaner for the brick other than muratic acid, anything I can do to this brick right now will make it look better than it is and I’d still be a hero. It’s just what hero would i rather be flash or superman?
Don’t use muriatic acid.
Prosoco or EaCoChem for one of their new brick cleaners.
NMD-80 comes to mind.
That job would benefit greatly from a good cleaning.
Craig Harrison also has a new F 9 efflorescence remover.
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Tim nailed it as usual:) Were doing a bldg this Sunday(hi end car dealership) with one restore EaCo Chem Inc. Cleaning and Restoration Compound Manufacturer
All the 15%SH and 200 degree @ 3500 psi can’t touch this brick. One restore the black lines just disappear. Chaching Chaching. $3000 is worth it for a Sunday wash in my book;)
Prosoco has great hardcore products as well. F9 rocks for rust. Hydrofluoric acid is the best, but on that one we draw the line. I want my guys to be safe first. Muriatic acid we used in the past but we stay away from that pure form now as well. Some of these hardcore chemicals are not worth the “Risk” factor to me at least.
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Here’s the sample of One Restore that sold the job. This bldg is covered in these black lines and blasting them to Kingdom come and they wont come out. This dealership has some 1/2 million dollar plus high end cars in here and they want a bldg to match what they sell.
Commercial samples go along way:)
EaCo Chem’s NMD-80 is the best for new construction, safe on glass and window frames…You can x-jet it at 4:1, double application, no rinsing…at least 5-7 minute dwell. Do what scraping is needed and high pressure rinse off.
If by any chance, if you absolutely need to…Eaco also has a super enviro-friendly new masonry detergent called SOS 50. It replaces the HCL with organic salts. I have not used that though.
Most of their acids are Hydrochlorics (NMD-80, OneRestore) which is much safer than hydrofluoric (RS 10 BC).
If you use HF or muratic, you have much more if a risk of burning the brick.
But, then again you can mask the acid burns with BurnRestore if you have an accident.
