# Sev'ing it up



## tsunamicontract (May 3, 2008)

The last two days have been a walk in Sev's shoes for me. Had a couple new people "interviewing" with me. Showed up to wash my dads house. Mixed the chems, hooked up the PW, started downstreaming. No luck, wasn't killing anything. (rough cedar semi transparent oil stain, tongue and groove claps) Tried applying the chems direct to the house, of course that worked. Ok, thought I didn't have strong enough solution so tried straight bleach through the PW. Still no luck. Called up Bob at PressureTek and talked to him for a bit, he suggested pool chlorine to downstream. Went and got some chlorine this morning. It is very economical compared to bleach, i strongly recommend trying this method. It cost me just under 12 bucks for a 5 gallon thing. It is 12.5 % chlorine where bleach is 5.5% chlorine. Thats over 11 gallons of bleach worth of chlorine or about a dollar a gallon where store brand bleach is about 2 bucks a gallon. Plus for really bad situations you can use this stronger concentration. 

So anyways, tried downsteaming the chlorine. Still no luck. I had someone pull the trigger while I watched the suction tube and tried to adjust things. Basically it was not sucking very much, enough to kill anything. So i called the company that services the PW and they said oh, your downstreaming valve is worn out. I guess chlorine wreaks havoc on these things. Went in, picked up a new part. Went back to the job site (1.5 hours gone). Part was not the right one. Went back in with the power washer in the car this time. They didn't have the part this PW needed long story short. What they did for me was take a new soap injector kit, put quick couplers on both ends and a new suction tube/strainer on. $40 later and I now have an inline, quick coupling soap injection kit that I can use on any powerwasher. I also will always know that my dilution ratio is going to be 1 to 5 all the time. Finally made it back to the job site (2 hours gone) and mixed up 1 gallon hot water, 1 scoop simple cherry from PressureTek, two gallons chlorine. Downstreamed that and life was finally good. I finished the house in some sweet thunderstorms. I strongly recommend for those of you that don't downstream to jump on this bandwagon as it is immensely faster. I could wash a whole house by myself as a stain prep in about 4 hours for a decent sized one. $40 plus a soap tip should be all you need depending on where you get your PW parts. This would work even on a smaller PW that doesn't come with a soap injector. 

And finally, if any of you read this far, what works best for removing thick, green mildew off wood? Chlorine killed some of it but there was still some stubborn stuff on this PT deck and railing that I was not getting off. Is it the kind of thing where you get wet bleach on it for several hours? Stain stripper has always worked well for removing it for me in the past but this was much worse. Do I just need to wait and it will die off from the chlorine I applied today?

Deal of the day: Any sized home gutter cleaned for 39.99.


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## RCP (Apr 18, 2007)

Rough day huh! Want a hug or a beer!


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## johnpaint (Sep 20, 2008)

This has go to be the weakest link for a pressure washer, mine has never worked good. I just use a pump sprayer for mine now.


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## tsunamicontract (May 3, 2008)

John, just grab a set up like i did an your days of pump spraying will be over. Nothing like climbing a ladder with 4 gallons of bleach on your back to make you think twice about it.


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## johnpaint (Sep 20, 2008)

Yeah I tried that also it worked for while and stopped. Got to where it would only punp when the pressure was turn down too low, so I gave up.


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## painttofish (Aug 28, 2007)

X JET:thumbsup:


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

Tsu,

Its unlikely your downstreamer is serving up 1:5. It could be though depending on your gpm, the size of the downstreamer and the rest of your setup. 

You can optimize your whole setup for downstreaming. The best I have found is 150' of hose or less, a high flow gun (rated for 12 gpm), a fixed downstreamer that is rated for less than your gpm, and of course, the right nozzles. 

I love competing against painters that use ladders and pump ups. :thumbup:


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## dburetta (Jan 21, 2009)

*PW luck*

As for the dark green algae thats ground in: Deck Scrub Brush. Put on the mix, wait 5 minutes, scrub and rinse. As for your mixes, eliminate the Washer from the equation. Tose uptakes are a maintenance disaster. Buy yourself a "Juice Box". Juiceboxllc.com You mix your own detergent to the proper exact specs and it pumps it (electrically). We've had it for 3 years and it works awesome. No more chem. maint. on your washer unit. Check out the website.
DB


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## tsunamicontract (May 3, 2008)

dburetta said:


> As for the dark green algae thats ground in: Deck Scrub Brush. Put on the mix, wait 5 minutes, scrub and rinse. As for your mixes, eliminate the Washer from the equation. Tose uptakes are a maintenance disaster. Buy yourself a "Juice Box". Juiceboxllc.com You mix your own detergent to the proper exact specs and it pumps it (electrically). We've had it for 3 years and it works awesome. No more chem. maint. on your washer unit. Check out the website.
> DB


a $40 part that wears out every 2 or so seasons? I think I would rather afford that and downstream. Like Ken said . . .


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

Another idiot trying to sell an overpriced, impractical piece of equipment to newbies. 

PS: Your website needs serious work before you start spamming it.


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## MAK-Deco (Apr 17, 2007)

PressurePros said:


> Tsu,
> 
> I love competing against painters that use ladders and pump ups. :thumbup:


Ken,

do you feel down streaming is adequate for effectually killing all mildew on rough sawn cedar prior to staining? granite I have tried D/Sing a few times over the years with poor results and more than likely inadequate equipment to do it correctly but we have found that getting right on top of the cedar with the bleach solution is still the most efficient way to be 100% sure that the surface is mildew free prior to staining.


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

MAK, in all but the worst cases of thick growth or lichen infestation, you can downstream 12% and kill everything. There are two things that will help you. One is definitely getting your setup correct for DS'ing. The other is to add a both a synergistic caustic to your mix (TSP, sodium metasilcate or even sodium hydroxide) and a surfactant. 

You still have to wash everything up close and personal. Bleach may kill mold but it does not remove decayed fibers and dirt.


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## MAK-Deco (Apr 17, 2007)

PressurePros said:


> MAK, in all but the worst cases of thick growth or lichen infestation, you can downstream 12% and kill everything. There are two things that will help you. One is definitely getting your setup correct for DS'ing. The other is to add a both a synergistic caustic to your mix (TSP, sodium metasilcate or even sodium hydroxide) and a surfactant.
> 
> You still have to wash everything up close and personal. Bleach may kill mold but it does not remove decayed fibers and dirt.


I am using bleach and tsp or bleach and jomax.. most washing done on solid body stain on lap siding..


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## DeanV (Apr 18, 2007)

Ken, glad to see you over here again. I do not know how you do it focusing on decks like you do. Stand alone deck projects are the hardest projects for me to land lately.


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

Thanks, Dean. I'd say good to be here but the forum seems to be in a bit of a transition phase so I am going to sit by the sidelines while things get sorted out. Its always been a good bunch of guys that had passion for their trade. I think it still is but a locker room mentality took over. It happens on certain PW'ing forums as well.

As far as the deck business goes.. That's what we're known for so the referral machine is very strong. But even prior to that i would joke with my buddies and say that even if I cancelled eversingle piece of advertising and put one line in the phone book saying "pressure washing", I would still 80% of my calls for "can I get an estimate to pressure wash and stain my deck?" Its just my area.

I would much rather be doing house washes at the same clip. The problem is my average deck is $1300 my average house wash is $550. I'm working on building up the volume so I can sell off the deck division.


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## dburetta (Jan 21, 2009)

Sorry Ken,

Not my website. Don't knock it til you try it. Up front cost beats wasted parts and labor every time. Downstreaming is fine if you've got the experience, not every company has the right guy for having the experience to know what to do if you've got a problem with a downstream problem. That's the reason why my company researched another option. This eliminates the worry for the correct solution mixing and enables us to train a few guys on the art of washing correctly and safely and not having to worry about that aspect. By the way, the only spam I know how to use the stuff you eat. Also, i wouldn't consider myself a newbie, having done this for 25 years. The old way isn't always the right one. Just putting out there. Make the right choice for yourself. Worked for us.
DB


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## RCP (Apr 18, 2007)

dburetta said:


> Sorry Ken,
> 
> Not my website. Don't knock it til you try it. Up front cost beats wasted parts and labor every time. Downstreaming is fine if you've got the experience, not every company has the right guy for having the experience to know what to do if you've got a problem with a downstream problem. That's the reason why my company researched another option. This eliminates the worry for the correct solution mixing and enables us to train a few guys on the art of washing correctly and safely and not having to worry about that aspect. By the way, the only spam I know how to use the stuff you eat. Also, i wouldn't consider myself a newbie, having done this for 25 years. The old way isn't always the right one. Just putting out there. Make the right choice for yourself. Worked for us.
> DB


This is why it is helpful to post an introduction here. When your first post includes a link for a product many will assume that is is spam, because it usually is.
Look forward to hearing more from you!


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## dburetta (Jan 21, 2009)

Thanks for the heads up RCP. Unfortunately these posts are a lot like email. People (including me) tend to over-email. Too much info and things get confused and misunderstood. 
DB


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## Calist (Jul 19, 2009)

This is a bit off topic so sorry, but we recently did a house with a bad mildew problem on the west facing soffits. Problem was this home owner had a very nice flower garden he was concerned about. We used Simple Green House and Deck mildew remover downstream from the pressure washer. Worked great and didn't harm the plants at all where bleach would have killed some of those plants, or possibly burned them. 20 bucks a gallon and we did the whole house. I highly suggest this product.


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