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Potential Build

Joseph Rogers

New member
I'm looking into the best way to start off pressure washing. I expect I'll be able to begin by the end of next summer, unless I decide to upgrade my current cleaning equipment (Prochem has some pretty sick TM's). I'd like to put together a functional PW system that would go either on a trailer or in the bed of my truck, without spending 25k on some of those pre-built setups I see online.

Objective: Basic Pressure Washing, to begin with. Nothing fancy, just houses and maybe some commercial buildings. Revenue generated would be used to augment my business overall, ideally not increasing my client list so much as increasing the revenue generated by each client by providing more services.

I'm trying to determine particulars, so I'm gonna toss some stuff out, and I'd appreciate input from you and your experience:
  1. Minimum 5 GPM for serious work
  2. 3/8" hose is standard?
  3. What's the deal with the PSI? Is it adjustable? When do you crank it up, when do you turn it down? What's a good, solid, middle ground?
  4. Is it really necessary to have a freshwater tank in the beginning? I'm sure it helps speed the process along, allowing for full flow, but...
  5. What is "Soft Washing"? Heard the term recently, but unsure what it signifies.
  6. When cleaning various materials (brick vs. siding vs. wood) do you use different "cleaning agents"? The guy I did some work with seemed to use bleach diluted 1:10 with a couple glugs of Dawn into a 150 gallon tank. Is this normal/acceptable according to current industry standards?
  7. Some of the bigger and badder Carpet/Tile cleaning machines advertise the ability to operate at high pressure for PW work. Is this a gimmick, or are they acceptable for serious work?
  8. I've seen various wands. Close up wands, something called an X-Jet (adjustable tip for close up blasting to shooting a 40 foot stream), to another type of wand that I do not know the name/manufacturer at all. Metal construction, might be 2' long, great big orange nose, with a front grip handle you pull towards you for a stream that will shoot 3 stories, and push away to get more of a showery kind of stream from it for rinsing down bushes and such. Do you guys know what I'm talking about?
  9. Does an organization exist which provides classes (certifications or not) in the basics/advanced aspects of PW? The knowledge I've gained from carpet certs has proven very beneficial in making me better at my job. Clients appreciate when you truly understand the things you talk about.
If I missed anything important, feel free to add it in.
 

Doug Rucker

UAMCC Board of Directors
Wow Joseph Don't know how I missed this one. Lots of good questions. Let me think these over and I will answer in the morning.
 

Doug Rucker

UAMCC Board of Directors
I'm looking into the best way to start off pressure washing. I expect I'll be able to begin by the end of next summer, unless I decide to upgrade my current cleaning equipment (Prochem has some pretty sick TM's). I'd like to put together a functional PW system that would go either on a trailer or in the bed of my truck, without spending 25k on some of those pre-built setups I see online.

Objective: Basic Pressure Washing, to begin with. Nothing fancy, just houses and maybe some commercial buildings. Revenue generated would be used to augment my business overall, ideally not increasing my client list so much as increasing the revenue generated by each client by providing more services.

I'm trying to determine particulars, so I'm gonna toss some stuff out, and I'd appreciate input from you and your experience:
  1. Minimum 5 GPM for serious work
  2. 3/8" hose is standard?
  3. What's the deal with the PSI? Is it adjustable? When do you crank it up, when do you turn it down? What's a good, solid, middle ground?
  4. Is it really necessary to have a freshwater tank in the beginning? I'm sure it helps speed the process along, allowing for full flow, but...
  5. What is "Soft Washing"? Heard the term recently, but unsure what it signifies.
  6. When cleaning various materials (brick vs. siding vs. wood) do you use different "cleaning agents"? The guy I did some work with seemed to use bleach diluted 1:10 with a couple glugs of Dawn into a 150 gallon tank. Is this normal/acceptable according to current industry standards?
  7. Some of the bigger and badder Carpet/Tile cleaning machines advertise the ability to operate at high pressure for PW work. Is this a gimmick, or are they acceptable for serious work?
  8. I've seen various wands. Close up wands, something called an X-Jet (adjustable tip for close up blasting to shooting a 40 foot stream), to another type of wand that I do not know the name/manufacturer at all. Metal construction, might be 2' long, great big orange nose, with a front grip handle you pull towards you for a stream that will shoot 3 stories, and push away to get more of a showery kind of stream from it for rinsing down bushes and such. Do you guys know what I'm talking about?
  9. Does an organization exist which provides classes (certifications or not) in the basics/advanced aspects of PW? The knowledge I've gained from carpet certs has proven very beneficial in making me better at my job. Clients appreciate when you truly understand the things you talk about.
If I missed anything important, feel free to add it in.

1) 5GPM is great for residential and lite commercial work, however 8gpm would be better for residential. Better rinsing time with 8GPM.
2) Yes
3) Best to use a dual lance adjustable wand. This enables you to control the pressure at your gun. there some surfaces that you need to clean with less pressure andmore flow. Things like brick, removing dirt dobbers, gum, etc etc.
4) All depends on the water supply for your area, but my answer would be yes. I had a 5GPM unit for years and never used a buffer tank, but we have very good water supply coming from the houses here. I would suggest having one from the beginning.
5) Soft Washing IMO, is a cleaning method by which your chemicals hit or land on the surface you are cleaning, then followed by a soft rinse of the surface. Soft Washing can be done by using a Down Stream Injector, X or M jet, or dedicated electric or gas pump. In other words you are able to clean a surface using very little pressure, which eliminates the risk of damage to a surface that can be caused by excessive pressure.
6) You will find most guys use SH, Water, and a surfactant, (soap). Many guys will use Dawn. I personally don't use Dawn.
7) am not familiar with these, maybe someone else will chime in that is.
8) Not that I am aware of. There are many schools, seminars, classes available,via Round Tables, Events, or individual owned schools that do teach basic and advanced aspects of PW'ing. Non that I know of are directly tied to an organization. The UAMCC will have certification tests rolling out here in the next few weeks for many different specialized cleaning trades, like Fleet Washing, Window Cleaning, Pressure WAShing, Roof Cleaning, etc etc.

Hope this helps. Feel free to call me at anytime if I can be of more help.
 

BillC

New member
Seriously? You guys have no input at all here? I'm not a troll, I promise...

Where exactly are you located? I would suggest going to Landa.com and entering your location to find the closest dealer to you. That dealer can help you build the correct pressure washer setup for you. I work for a LANDA dealer. We can build skid units to put on a truck or trailer or we can build a complete trailer unit with an external tank. LANDA also selss an all in one unit that allows you to reclaim the water if that is an issue where you are going to be using the pressure washer. It is called an ECOS system. That would be my suggestion as a rep is to talk to a rep in your area and et them build the right unit for you. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
 

Bill Booz

UAMCC Board of Directors
Some of these can be answered here, some will be best with some hands on. I will be posting in this thread more later today, but for now...

7) No, they are not a great way to go for these applications. As with most machines or computers, most will work best when they are dedicated to a specific task.

Dawn, can etch to surfaces and cause you to have to buff glass if it dries on it, there are affordable surfactants (soap) that will not do this and reduce the risk of etching dramatically. These soaps are meant to break surface tension and keep your cleaning agents wet longer, foam does not necessarily mean that this is happening and you will see many people want to see foam, yet foam is unnecessary in most cleaning.

My first important question for you is: What market do you want to clean?? As in what are you planning to wash, do you see a market for the service and who is your client? If you don't know, we will help you find out. (you may have already answered this, just want to hear a little more about your prospects and what they may need, there may be more or less market value in these clients than you think)
 

Joseph Rogers

New member
My first important question for you is: What market do you want to clean?? As in what are you planning to wash, do you see a market for the service and who is your client? If you don't know, we will help you find out. (you may have already answered this, just want to hear a little more about your prospects and what they may need, there may be more or less market value in these clients than you think)

Mostly resi work, at least in the beginning. I could probably land some commercial in the area, but my floorcare business is focusing on mid to high end resi. At this point in time, I just need to generate REVENUE, above all else. I live inbetween two college towns, and last summer for about two months was pretty busy with college apartment turnover. My property managers have expressed interest in pressure washing services, also.

As I grow, I'd like to create divisions, and deal with:
- mid to high end resi (to include deck sealing/staining and roof washing)
- Commercial
- College apartment complexes
 

Bill Booz

UAMCC Board of Directors
Ok Joe, now I see what your doing. That's the kind of build I use, high end residential. I will gather some info together to post here about it and answer your questions above. Should see some posts from me this afternoon.
 
You can find others on this board that know more about pressure washer than I will ever know but this is how I was able to build my company in Southwest Mo first off we are a bit of a rural area and found it we could use the washer and do more with them the better we will be, I guess what I'm trying to say is we can not just do on thing have to be versed and able to do a great may things to make the ends meet.
One thing I have noticed over the years is that just one unit was not just right for all jobs we do various types of washing and have over the years added to our fleet and to the washing stable.

I started off with a Landa that I mounted in the back of the service pick-up and built a rack to walk on to get up higher it is 4 ft wide 7 feet off the ground and 16 feet long off set to the drives side of the truck we can get up and work right off the top, we call it our portable scaffold. But did run in to access problems invested in a heated modle on 4 tires which we could move around on some jobs this helped but the little dude was hard to push up hill. Found a smaller one 3200 psi with a propane heater this is a unit we use for light cleaning and is much quieter when we do our residential patio, BBQ and out side kitchen cleaning at the golf course we call it being the outside maid. We have several customers now that the "Man of the house" likes an other man to clean his cooking area you would be surpised how many folks have these out side cooking BBQ areas and don't want to clean the grill and spills but love to entertain in these patio areas. I used this unit in stripping patio furniture which we did several jobs this summer, it is less powerful and doesn"t gouge the wood, spray it with-deck stripper via pump-up-sprayer strip then downstream cleaner rinse and dry all mobile. I Bought it used and it was paid for with the first job I used it on. I keep it in the back of the pick-up most of the time and have gotten several small jobs with it just being there and able to do them right then. I have a hot water Mi-T-M skid that fits the bill for other jobs and have several electric: cam spray, AR, a custom made one, Landa that can handle hot water from residents water-heater, and a Miti-vac. Then a custom 16 hp unit I built for wet media blasting it is vary mobile. I found it easier as the business grew to grow with it and get better or the best I could afford at the time up grading the equipment as I went too. This idea is not for everyone but I wanted to grow the business and put less work on me so over the years I kept putting money in to the business and payed myself what I could to keep up. We are now working on the 3rd service unit which I will use for side-walk cleaning, gum and graffiti removal, Hopefully having a low-pressure steam unit a 4.5 gpm at 4000 cold water unit and a 2700 to 3200 propane hot / cold water unit to run the wand. This is just the pressure washer not including the steam cleaners, steam jenny and a customize mid pressure live "dry" steam unit I am working on for auto and grease cleaning. We also made a unit with a trash-pump with all fire-hose and an old 30's fire hose nozzle to really move water in washing down after the rodeo that came to town a couple of years ago the job paid enough for the whole unit didn't make any more but have one heck of a dirt washer (we can also use it to pump out ponds and basements with it too. I feel that with the addition of a low-pressure (soft-wash) roofing style rig I will be all set but am reading and trying to find the best unit to fit my needs 12 volt, diaphragm air style of, industrial chemical roller driven with a gas engine and what size hoses to use so I am reading, researching, and talking to anyone that knows about these style of pumps then I will go form there.

Look on the web talk to as many other as you can read everything you can You tube videos can help and do not just search the USA ones get over to the UK, Japan and Australia they have a whole different idea over there on pressure and steam cleaning. Knowledge is the key and you will need to adapt form this to your needs. I found out what may work for other may not work for you. I learn new things each and every day and always looking at new methods of doing the job.

I hope in some small way this may help you out in looking for your answers or ideas. As for the carpet cleaning units I had never wanted to get back in to inside cleaning after washing hoods for over 3 years so I don't know any thing about them except for the heat exchangers they use. Looked into the ones that heat off the exhaust of the truck or van those are cool.
 
Last edited:

Joseph Rogers

New member
You can find others on this board that know more about pressure washer than I will ever know but this is how I was able to build my company in Southwest Mo first off we are a bit of a rural area and found it we could use the washer and do more with them the better we will be, I guess what I'm trying to say is we can not just do on thing have to be versed and able to do a great may things to make the ends meet.
One thing I have noticed over the years is that just one unit was not just right for all jobs we do various types of washing and have over the years added to our fleet and to the washing stable.

I started off with a Landa that I mounted in the back of the service pick-up and built a rack to walk on to get up higher it is 4 ft wide 7 feet off the ground and 16 feet long off set to the drives side of the truck we can get up and work right off the top, we call it our portable scaffold. But did run in to access problems invested in a heated modle on 4 tires which we could move around on some jobs this helped but the little dude was hard to push up hill. Found a smaller one 3200 psi with a propane heater this is a unit we use for light cleaning and is much quieter when we do our residential patio, BBQ and out side kitchen cleaning at the golf course we call it being the outside maid. We have several customers now that the "Man of the house" likes an other man to clean his cooking area you would be surpised how many folks have these out side cooking BBQ areas and don't want to clean the grill and spills but love to entertain in these patio areas. I used this unit in stripping patio furniture which we did several jobs this summer, it is less powerful and doesn"t gouge the wood, spray it with-deck stripper via pump-up-sprayer strip then downstream cleaner rinse and dry all mobile. I Bought it used and it was paid for with the first job I used it on. I keep it in the back of the pick-up most of the time and have gotten several small jobs with it just being there and able to do them right then. I have a hot water Mi-T-M skid that fits the bill for other jobs and have several electric: cam spray, AR, a custom made one, Landa that can handle hot water from residents water-heater, and a Miti-vac. Then a custom 16 hp unit I built for wet media blasting it is vary mobile. I found it easier as the business grew to grow with it and get better or the best I could afford at the time up grading the equipment as I went too. This idea is not for everyone but I wanted to grow the business and put less work on me so over the years I kept putting money in to the business and payed myself what I could to keep up. We are now working on the 3rd service unit which I will use for side-walk cleaning, gum and graffiti removal, Hopefully having a low-pressure steam unit a 4.5 gpm at 4000 cold water unit and a 2700 to 3200 propane hot / cold water unit to run the wand. This is just the pressure washer not including the steam cleaners, steam jenny and a customize mid pressure live "dry" steam unit I am working on for auto and grease cleaning. We also made a unit with a trash-pump with all fire-hose and an old 30's fire hose nozzle to really move water in washing down after the rodeo that came to town a couple of years ago the job paid enough for the whole unit didn't make any more but have one heck of a dirt washer (we can also use it to pump out ponds and basements with it too. I feel that with the addition of a low-pressure (soft-wash) roofing style rig I will be all set but am reading and trying to find the best unit to fit my needs 12 volt, diaphragm air style of, industrial chemical roller driven with a gas engine and what size hoses to use so I am reading, researching, and talking to anyone that knows about these style of pumps then I will go form there.

Look on the web talk to as many other as you can read everything you can You tube videos can help and do not just search the USA ones get over to the UK, Japan and Australia they have a whole different idea over there on pressure and steam cleaning. Knowledge is the key and you will need to adapt form this to your needs. I found out what may work for other may not work for you. I learn new things each and every day and always looking at new methods of doing the job.

I hope in some small way this may help you out in looking for your answers or ideas. As for the carpet cleaning units I had never wanted to get back in to inside cleaning after washing hoods for over 3 years so I don't know any thing about them except for the heat exchangers they use. Looked into the ones that heat off the exhaust of the truck or van those are cool.

Thank you for your input. I'm trying to wrap my head around the details of it all, so that I can get a relatively versatile setup. The carpet cleaning stuff I'm not really worried about, I've been doing that for 4 years, and have a good handle on it...but the outside stuff is completely new to me.
 

Vic Irish

New member
What is downstreaming? Mi T M skid? This is an excellent post, Peter.
Film at 11? LOL, wish...
We're all still learning,
vic

You can find others on this board that know more about pressure washer than I will ever know but this is how I was able to build my company in Southwest Mo first off we are a bit of a rural area and found it we could use the washer and do more with them the better we will be, I guess what I'm trying to say is we can not just do on thing have to be versed and able to do a great may things to make the ends meet.
One thing I have noticed over the years is that just one unit was not just right for all jobs we do various types of washing and have over the years added to our fleet and to the washing stable.

I started off with a Landa that I mounted in the back of the service pick-up and built a rack to walk on to get up higher it is 4 ft wide 7 feet off the ground and 16 feet long off set to the drives side of the truck we can get up and work right off the top, we call it our portable scaffold. But did run in to access problems invested in a heated modle on 4 tires which we could move around on some jobs this helped but the little dude was hard to push up hill. Found a smaller one 3200 psi with a propane heater this is a unit we use for light cleaning and is much quieter when we do our residential patio, BBQ and out side kitchen cleaning at the golf course we call it being the outside maid. We have several customers now that the "Man of the house" likes an other man to clean his cooking area you would be surpised how many folks have these out side cooking BBQ areas and don't want to clean the grill and spills but love to entertain in these patio areas. I used this unit in stripping patio furniture which we did several jobs this summer, it is less powerful and doesn"t gouge the wood, spray it with-deck stripper via pump-up-sprayer strip then downstream cleaner rinse and dry all mobile. I Bought it used and it was paid for with the first job I used it on. I keep it in the back of the pick-up most of the time and have gotten several small jobs with it just being there and able to do them right then. I have a hot water Mi-T-M skid that fits the bill for other jobs and have several electric: cam spray, AR, a custom made one, Landa that can handle hot water from residents water-heater, and a Miti-vac. Then a custom 16 hp unit I built for wet media blasting it is vary mobile. I found it easier as the business grew to grow with it and get better or the best I could afford at the time up grading the equipment as I went too. This idea is not for everyone but I wanted to grow the business and put less work on me so over the years I kept putting money in to the business and payed myself what I could to keep up. We are now working on the 3rd service unit which I will use for side-walk cleaning, gum and graffiti removal, Hopefully having a low-pressure steam unit a 4.5 gpm at 4000 cold water unit and a 2700 to 3200 propane hot / cold water unit to run the wand. This is just the pressure washer not including the steam cleaners, steam jenny and a customize mid pressure live "dry" steam unit I am working on for auto and grease cleaning. We also made a unit with a trash-pump with all fire-hose and an old 30's fire hose nozzle to really move water in washing down after the rodeo that came to town a couple of years ago the job paid enough for the whole unit didn't make any more but have one heck of a dirt washer (we can also use it to pump out ponds and basements with it too. I feel that with the addition of a low-pressure (soft-wash) roofing style rig I will be all set but am reading and trying to find the best unit to fit my needs 12 volt, diaphragm air style of, industrial chemical roller driven with a gas engine and what size hoses to use so I am reading, researching, and talking to anyone that knows about these style of pumps then I will go form there.

Look on the web talk to as many other as you can read everything you can You tube videos can help and do not just search the USA ones get over to the UK, Japan and Australia they have a whole different idea over there on pressure and steam cleaning. Knowledge is the key and you will need to adapt form this to your needs. I found out what may work for other may not work for you. I learn new things each and every day and always looking at new methods of doing the job.

I hope in some small way this may help you out in looking for your answers or ideas. As for the carpet cleaning units I had never wanted to get back in to inside cleaning after washing hoods for over 3 years so I don't know any thing about them except for the heat exchangers they use. Looked into the ones that heat off the exhaust of the truck or van those are cool.
 
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