Surface cleaner

Mike Sullivan said:
Wow, that 24 is a beast!

After I hooked both of my machines together on my concrete cleaner and changed the nozzles it is so much stronger it lifts the machine more making it feel lighter and easier to move around.

That would be awesome if you hooked up your 8gpm and 5gpm together to make 13gpm. You would fly with that BIG GUY!
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Like Russ, I'm thinking.
 
taselton2 said:
Tsf2021, 24hp honda on a gearbox. 3 - 13 honda/gearbox/cat, 2 - 4.5 @3500 & 1 - 5 @ 3000

All are on "flow sensitive" unloaders.
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Tim, do you turn your throttle down on your 24hp or does the TSF2021 not run at 8.5gpm @3600?

I looked up the .pdf on that pump and it says you have enough power to push it at max. I guess my 20hp would not push it at 8 @ 3000. I was thinking of buying one.

http://generalpump.com/PDFs/TSF2021-Pump.pdf
 
Mike Sullivan said:
Tim, do you turn your throttle down on your 24hp or does the TSF2021 not run at 8.5gpm @3600?

I looked up the .pdf on that pump and it says you have enough power to push it at max. I guess my 20hp would not push it at 8 @ 3000. I was thinking of buying one.

http://generalpump.com/PDFs/TSF2021-Pump.pdf
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24hp will push it fine on a multi belt pulley set-up, I chose a gear box when I built this one. The gear box has a reduction rate of 2.17 to 1, this only gives me 1658 rpms at full throttle. I have checked it wth my flow/pressure meter and with a #9 tip or 2- 4.5's in my surface cleaners I get 8 @ 3200 (max)
 

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taselton2 said:
24hp will push it fine on a multi belt pulley set-up, I chose a gear box when I built this one. The gear box has a reduction rate of 2.17 to 1, this only gives me 1658 rpms at full throttle. I have checked it wth my flow/pressure meter and with a #9 tip or 2- 4.5's in my surface cleaners I get 8 @ 3200 (max)
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I see, maybe my 20hp with a 2:1 gear box running at 1750rpm with push it close to 8gpm @ 3000. Looking forward to buying one someday. I was also looking at the AR pumps. They tend to be about $100 cheaper for the same size pump as Generals.
 
Mike Sullivan said:
I see, maybe my 20hp with a 2:1 gear box running at 1750rpm with push it close to 8gpm @ 3000. Looking forward to buying one someday. I was also looking at the AR pumps. They tend to be about $100 cheaper for the same size pump as Generals.
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It is a great set-up , but I always want more!
 
I know what you mean Tim!

I tend to get caught up in all this more power more equipment, more this, more that and I forget to spend the time to market and sell. Got to have more business first before I get ahead of myself and buy more stuff.

I'm going to hit the hay soon. It's been fun posting with ya!
 
Mike Sullivan said:
I know what you mean Tim!

I tend to get caught up in all this more power more equipment, more this, more that and I forget to spend the time to market and sell. Got to have more business first before I get ahead of myself and buy more stuff.

I'm going to hit the hay soon. It's been fun posting with ya!
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its easy to do
 
We softwashed a house the other day and I couldn't help but notice the driveway next door. We see this from time to time, do ya'll? This may have been a homeowner job, I don't know.
 

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Those are surface cleaner marks. Most homeowners around here don't have them,either the tips were wore out or the machine was too small for the tips or they went too fast. Tim I see it all the time people thinking they can clean better and cheaper than the professionals. I had a call from a customer when I arrived he had dirt and grass and bleach all over his shorts and shirt and he was walking funny. I asked him are you OK? I was a paramedic at the time it was my instinct. He said yes I am fine but I want to know what you would charge to clean my roof. I thought for a second and said let me guess you tried to clean it yourself he said YEP and He had fallen off the roof. I cleaned his roof and he a loyal customer to this day.
 
These marks are from a surface cleaner for sure, I just don't see how a professional could leave it like that. How long were you a medic and where?
 
Pwkid said:
Those are surface cleaner marks. Most homeowners around here don't have them,either the tips were wore out or the machine was too small for the tips or they went too fast. Tim I see it all the time people thinking they can clean better and cheaper than the professionals.
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Right Mel. They probably didn't use any chemicals either. I always pre-soak driveways that are really nasty. It makes a huge difference.
 
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I just got back from an estimate in Denton, NC. 10,000 square foot old steel fabrication warehouse. They want all the concrete floors, walls, ceiling, and the lights clean-->(first time anyone has requested that to me).

The concrete is really black and nasty. The walls and ceiling don't look bad. I like using Brown Derby Truck wash from Soap Warehouse for oily black stuff like this and maybe add extra Sodium Hydroxide to it for strength on the floor. Maybe Potassium Hydroxide too? I don't have a hot water machine so I will need to use more chemicals than if I did.

Anyone have a better suggestion?

The walls are about 20 feet high and the flat work is 100 feet squared.

Price - 10,000 sq.ft flat x $.10= $1000
10,000 sq.ft ceiling + 8000 sq.ft walls = 18,000 x $.05= $900
Chemicals = $150 approx.
76 miles round trip= $50 Travel charge/gas

TOTAL = $2100
How does this sound for this job?
 
I DON'T WANT TO INTERRUPT MIKE'S PRICING QUESTION. But my question kinda falls in line with it..........I was looking at Aselton's pic of the 36" Surfacer cleaning that big swath, but I'm wondering, don't you have to come back behind it and rinse all the filth off the driveway?? That seems like it would be a far bigger job.....the rinsing away of the filth.

And to tie to Mike's question......if you are cleaning in a warehouse, where is all the dirt going to go?? Will you blow it out the bay doors or something?? If this warehouse is truly a sludgepit, if you started cleaning in the back, before long, wouldn't you have so much filth/dirt that you are rinsing forward that it is almost counterproductive?? Just curious how you guys do such things.
 
Jon Fife said:
I DON'T WANT TO INTERRUPT MIKE'S PRICING QUESTION. But my question kinda falls in line with it..........I was looking at Aselton's pic of the 36" Surfacer cleaning that big swath, but I'm wondering, don't you have to come back behind it and rinse all the filth off the driveway?? That seems like it would be a far bigger job.....the rinsing away of the filth.

And to tie to Mike's question......if you are cleaning in a warehouse, where is all the dirt going to go?? Will you blow it out the bay doors or something?? If this warehouse is truly a sludgepit, if you started cleaning in the back, before long, wouldn't you have so much filth/dirt that you are rinsing forward that it is almost counterproductive?? Just curious how you guys do such things.
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The 36" surface cleaner puts of some muck, but it is easily rinsed with our softwash lines or the pressure washing line itself. You are gonna end up with the same ammount of muck no matter how big your surface cleaner is, we generally rinse it at the same time with high gpms and it never has time to build up.
 
You can do it with two guys or one guy. I use a high pressure ball valve at the end where it joins into the concrete cleaner so you can turn it off and switch to a single wand and rinse with a 15 or 25 degree fan tip. It doesn't take much time to rinse after the flat cleaner and you will do a better job and faster than a single wand. I would not recommend the large flat cleaners without at least 8gpm to push it. I have a 24inch and it did not run very well with 5.5gpm that I did have on it to start with. I borrowed my buddy Rick's 20 inch once and it ran great on it. The larger cleaner you have obviously means it will be heavier and take more power to push it well. I kept having to double back and go slow with my 24inch on my 5.5gpm. Also it had three 2.0gpm nozzles on it. Those damn holes on those nozzles are so small it kept getting clogged. After I upgraded to three 3.5gpm nozzles to push it at 10.5gpm it made a huge difference in how well it cleans, the speed, and ease of use (lighter...more force pushing the machine up) and it hasn't clogged yet.

Here is my take on concrete cleaners
20 inch concrete (flat) cleaners: run good on 4-6gpm
24-36 inch " " " 8-13gpm
 
Jon Fife said:
And to tie to Mike's question......if you are cleaning in a warehouse, where is all the dirt going to go?? Will you blow it out the bay doors or something?? If this warehouse is truly a sludgepit, if you started cleaning in the back, before long, wouldn't you have so much filth/dirt that you are rinsing forward that it is almost counterproductive?? Just curious how you guys do such things.
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I will be running two machines into one hose on my concrete cleaner and one machine to apply chemical and rinse behind the flat cleaner. Two man job. Yes I will push the sludge out the bay doors, and I'm thinking of buying a large squeegee for this job.
 
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