Interior warehouse ceiling question

I washed the exterior and interior of a warehouse years ago. We used garbage bags and duct tape on a scissor lift to cover the lights and junction boxes. We did not have a single light go out. Keep a good eye out for transformer boxes and breaker boxes. Remember water and electric dont mix, make sure the life insurance is paid up.
 
These are pics of a warehouse that is asking for this type of work. Do you think a possible solution would be to shut the power off, while keeping the bay doors open and possibly adding some portable flood lights (sitting out of harm's way) to allow enough light to work. The problem with bagging the lights is that is where most of the dust and cobwebs are accumulated and they need a good cleaning. The warehouse hasn't been cleaned in 10 years. The work would be done on a weekend. One half of the warehouse done the first day, then two workers would come in that night and move the products skids to the clean side. Then wash the other side the second day. I'm just not sure shutting the power off and washing would allow enough time for any moisture that could have possibly intruded into the wiring to dry.

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This job requires washing the ceiling, walls and floor.
 
Reider said:
What should you do with lights and junction boxes to protect them when washing the ceiling inside of a warehouse? I'm trying to get my game plan down before I venture into these types of jobs.
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I would ask my customer, or do it myself to get a rep from the Power Company involved, and follow their recommendations to a T.
 
I'm not sure power washing the ceiling is the way to go. Cleaning one half and product on the other half sounds like trouble - will you be using a vacuuming surface cleaner? I think it would be worth it, trying to direct a lake around a huge flat floor can be ridiculous. I don't have a real good idea for the job but would be interested to hear what you work out
 
tomtucson said:
I'm not sure power washing the ceiling is the way to go. Cleaning one half and product on the other half sounds like trouble - will you be using a vacuuming surface cleaner? I think it would be worth it, trying to direct a lake around a huge flat floor can be ridiculous. I don't have a real good idea for the job but would be interested to hear what you work out
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There are 4x4 drains going down the middle of the warehouse floor. The floor obviously slopes towards the drains, so I don't think it would require a reclaim system.

Does anyone else have any thoughts?
 
Reider said:
There are 4x4 drains going down the middle of the warehouse floor. The floor obviously slopes towards the drains, so I don't think it would require a reclaim system.

Does anyone else have any thoughts?
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By 'obviously' do you mean you can clearly see that it is sloped towards the drains, or 'obviously', because common sense would tell you the floor should be sloped towards the drains - and also that the drain is the low-spot ? Because you cant rely on the second one. Even with a slope it can be a real rodeo to to push the water around. If you spray the walls and the ceiling thats a bit of water built up in addition. A vacuum surface cleaner might be well worth it in that situation, would like to try one myself sometime. Could rent a floor machine. I would bet you end up blowing the water out the door. If you stand way back you might be able to shoot around the lights with a zero deg tip? You can rinse a lot of ceiling from one spot with a zero.
 
We bag the lights and unplug them from the sockets so the water does not run down the cord into them. You can tape the outlets to help prevent intrusion but some water will get in there so you will need to open up those few boxes and check them and dry them before turning the power back on. Make sure all the power is off when you are washing and check the boxes before powering back on.

You will also want to reconsider the scissors lift and go with a boom lift. When you are washing the ceiling the water will drip and run down the scissors lift shorting out the electrical as it is all right below you in the base. Best case it dries out overnight and you can use it the next day, worst case you bought an expensive circuiut board for the lift and you dont finish the job. With the booms they are covered better and the electronics can be kept far away from where you are spraying. For extra care you can bag the controls on the lift but they should be water tight. (Not all scissors lifts are)
 
Tom - You're probably correct about the slope of the floor. I should know from my construction background that things aren't always as they should be.

Paul - If I get this job, I will do what you suggested. I want to do an outstanding job for this company. They have many more warehouses around my area.

Thank you all for your input.
 
Update - I completed this warehouse job yesterday. I took the advice from the veterans on here, and the job went smooth. We used a bucket truck to seal/tape off anything electrical that would pose a problem, and to clean the rafters/ceiling. We had no problems or safety issues during the cleaning.

The job took longer than I wanted because of water flow problems. We couldn't run two units because the water supply wasn't sufficient enough. Lesson learned. Next time I will be prepared with a water tank on my trailer. Not a big problem overall, but made for a longer day/night than expected.

The customer (national beverage company) was very pleased with the work and is scheduling to have another larger warehouse cleaned. We also discussed a maintenance plan and will be working out the specifics soon. Does anyone have any advice on frequency of service, length of contract or other specifics for a warehouse cleaning maintenance contract?

Also on a side note, while talking to the warehouse manager, he divulged some specifics about the other bids he received. He received a bid from a company in WV that using some type of vacuum system to clean. They gave a quote for only cleaning the ceiling for $15k. The ceiling is 9800 sf.
 

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Good to see Jason. Ill use these photos on your website.
 
tomtucson said:
Hard to believe there is not more water there!
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I had the washers hooked up at different supplies. The washers were a 5.5 gpm and a small 3 gpm. When both ran at the same time, pressure in the 5.5 dropped immediately and drastically. The 3 gpm dropped a little, but it wasn't too severe. I tried different hookups, but I couldn't solve the problem.
 
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