Deprecated: Optional parameter $tapatalkHead declared before required parameter $xfOriginData is implicitly treated as a required parameter in /var/www/vhosts/propowerwash.com/httpdocs/board/upload/src/addons/Tapatalk/Listener/Hook.php on line 205

Questions about STRIPING FROM SURFACE CLEANER. Driving me nuts

E

elihu

New member
Below is a picture of striping that I am getting with my surface cleaner. I have a Landa Waterjet and I have tried everything that i have on these forums. I have not posted often on here because I am actually one of those people that spend hours reading and so most of the time I have found the answer I was looking for and most of the time any information that I do have to share someone responds before I get a chance to do so. Either way, the picture shows my problem (the stripes are noticeable) and here are the things that I have done to try and correct the issue. As you will be able to tell, I have tried almost every single thing that has been written on the forums. Can you believe that? LOL Also, I have a Big Guy and it leaves stripes very similar to these.


1.) I have made sure that we don't overlap the cleaning using the surface cleaner yet we still get stripes

2.) This has been a problem since the unit was new.

3.) We have checked the air pressure in the tires and they are equally filled with air.

4.) I have raised the bar using the adjustable bar feature on the Water Jet to the half way make to make sure the bar was not extremely close to the ground for variations of the height of the concrete. I have even tried raising it all the way up. The stripes are still there and the clean is not as good as I like when it is half way down or all the way down.

5.) I have a 5.1 GPM machine and the nozzle size of the spec sheet says to use 5.5 GPM nozzles. I have 3s on each side of the surface cleaner (since there are not 2.75s to purchase) and I have tried 2.5s as well. Just to make sure, what do you guys recommend.

6.) I have replaced the bar under the water jet just in case it was bent some how in shipment when it was new so the bar on the machine is brand new and it is the newer non angle adjustable bar so the angles of the tips are not off like on the older models.

7.) I have used a caustic mix, hot water and even just cold water and nothing has made a difference.

8.) I have shorten the hose length to make sure I am not getting any kind of variable pulsating pressure through the hose and have installed a gauge to watch for any pressure drops.

9.) I have very lightly greased the bearing on the Water Jet

10.) I followed the 4 inch per 1GPM rule so I made sure the surface cleaner didn't exceed that for the most part. The Water Jet blew away the Big guy in cleaning performance and speed, but the striping is killing me.

Basically comrades, WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?????? It has to be something and any help would be more than appreciated. I will paypal $25.00 to the person that can give me a solution that would work. I just don't know what else to try.


IMG_0154.jpg
 
Jeff,

Sometimes you are not doing anything wrong. The stripes on the side are from the surface cleaner overlap. The sides get hit about 5x more (or even more) because when you are pushing your SC in a straight line the left and right sides of the surface cleaner get hit multiple times, while the top and bottom side only get a couple of swipes with your spinner bar.

You can diminish the lines by going the opposite direction the next time you clean it.

Having a really good degreaser will help.

Try this: Put 40 degree tips in your landa. As long as the concrete is not too terrible you can adjust your landa all the way up high, then lower it about 1/2 inch. Use an excellent degreaser and by using a softer and wider impact of spray to the concrete, you will leave less lines.

If your concrete is really dirty, do this:
Keep the 40 degree tips in. Use an excellent degreaser. Lower your Landa all the way down. Go SLOW. This will also help. You still might have to go in the opposite direction to diminish the lines even more. The more you go over it in different directions, the more the lines will fade and blend.

All in all, you should have less lines with 40 degree tips than 25 degree tips. 40's are fan tips and blend better at the edges. You'll be able to do more concrete with them too once you get the hang of it.

If you still have lines you can't get rid of, put your landa all the way down. Push your SC in a circular motion, but moving slowly from one side of the concrete to the other.
 
Like Craig said your not doing anything wrong....rarely have I seen a surface cleaner that doesn't do that. Hit it with a good house was mix when you are done and allow to dry, do not rinse, and you should see better results.
 
Like the guys said, the area on the sides of the surface cleaner get cleaned better, a lot better when you overlap just a little bit but there is hardly any way to avoid that, it happens most of the time, just explain it to your customers so they know what it is.

I don't think that there is anything wrong with your surface cleaner.

When the concrete is very dirty like commercial areas, a good detergent/soap/degreaser will help a lot along with hot water for cleaning quality and it will help speed things up some.

Sometimes when people post pictures you do not see the overlap marks, it could be because of the angle of the pic that was taken, could be that it was the sun not shining as much or any of many factors but it does happen a lot unless it is maintenance cleaning where you use wider nozzles and/or less pressure when you clean that place monthly or bi-weekly but those initial cleanings will get a lot of dirt out of the concrete and helps the overlap marks show up.
 
I use a surface cleaner with 4 castors. First time cleaning a place I walk normal paths like mowing a lawn. If I see the striping I switch to walking backwards and roll the surface cleaner side to side while walking backwards always keeping it moving. Next time cleaning I walk normal paths with little to no stiping. This method will be hard with the big back tires that your suface cleaners have
 
Make sure your the spray pattern is matched on your tips are exactly like this __ ------ __

and not like this __ ------- /

or this ___ ------ |

One tip being off a little bit will do this every time.

Also, waterjets come with 15 degree tips. We switched to 25 degree for general cleaning on most of them.

The final answer could be poor or new concrete.

We have four waterjets. We've been through this many times.
 
I want to thank everyone for your suggestions. I think between everyone's post, I have a few things to try. The overlap was not the issue on the picture above just because I personally did it (not an employee) and I made sure the overlap didn't exceed an inch with half an inch the tolerance on most of the lines on the picture I submitted.

In regards to the chemical being used (the sidewalk was black so you can see how clean it did get), I was using a mixture of caustic and dawn dish detergent that I had found on the forums going way back in the archives. As most of you guys say, all of the information has been covered on here somewhere, thus the reason I listed the many things I have tried.

In response to Tony, I have checked the nozzles and made sure they are aligned in the direction of the bar itself. So the "slot" of the nozzles run horizontal with the bar to make a perfect line if you connected the nozzles with an imaginary line across the bar. If I need to check something else on that please let me know or if I need to align it differently.

I have been using 15 degree tips for the majority of the time. We tried 25 degree tips on one job, but it had the stripes again so I thought I might as well stay with the 15 degrees but I had the bar lowered all the way down. I didn't raise the bar 1/2 way when I tried the 25's so I should try them again. Have you tried the 40's in there as Craig above suggested? What were your results with those?

Again, thank you for the responses to someone that has not replied alot on the forums but read them constantly. No need to respond when there are so many more experts than me on here that beat me to it :)
 
Either moving the spray-bar UP,
or going to the wider 25 degree nozzles should eliminate the stripes.
With 15 degree nozzles and only 5gpm, you are limited in workspeed,
..but when you go slow, you will get a deeper clean.

But.. maybe the spray bar isn't spinning at the rate it needs to.
 
Last edited:
A light coat of bleach (sh) will kill the mildew that is making the walks so dark. Regular maint will prevent it for getting so bad again and the striping issue will go away on that surface.
 
Why would you use dawn with caustic,that caustc knocks the surfactant right out of dawn.Dont understand where some of these guys get there science.Doug gave super advice sh after a good cleaning will do wonders.
 
Kiloman said:
Why would you use dawn with caustic,that caustc knocks the surfactant right out of dawn.Dont understand where some of these guys get there science.Doug gave super advice sh after a good cleaning will do wonders.
Click to expand...


We use dawn and caustic. It works. It gives us enough cling time to have multiple guys working simultaneously on multiple coils each with a different job. Reduces the concentration of caustic needed too. I will have to make a video showing how caustic clings with dawn. On paper it may not compute, but in real world applications it works.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
 
Cement that is not covered by a roof is much worse to clean in every way, in my opinion. The picture looks pretty good. I think the adjustable angle on the bar is needed to get the rotation speed you need, which makes a huge difference (faster is better). Soap can make all the difference in the world. 40 deg nozzles, closer to the cement.
 
You house cleaners and roof cleaners, always wanting to spray love on the cement after its cleaned, just sounds silly.
 
tomtucson said:
You house cleaners and roof cleaners, always wanting to spray love on the cement after its cleaned, just sounds silly.
Click to expand...

When you work in the southeast spraying SH on the concrete many times is a must. It doesn't matter what your GPM or PSI is many times it will not come clean without a spraying some SH when your finished
 
Mark 8262 said:
When you work in the southeast spraying SH on the concrete many times is a must. It doesn't matter what your GPM or PSI is many times it will not come clean without a spraying some SH when your finished
Click to expand...

Just sounds hard to believe, nothing could make the cement any different after I'm done. Must have something to do with humidity or something else I have never experienced.
 
tomtucson said:
Just sounds hard to believe, nothing could make the cement any different after I'm done. Must have something to do with humidity or something else I have never experienced.
Click to expand...

Mold and algae, heat and humidity are our best friends in this area. Mold and algae just keep growing and growing. It almost becomes part of the concrete. Leaves and nuts will fall on a driveway and leave a stain that NOTHING will clean it but SH. You could clean it with 10,000 psi and 10 GPM and if there were any concrete left it would still have that stain on it. Then you give it a little SH and like magic it disappears.
 
I agree the climates really effect the way the concrete looks. When I went to FL I could not belive how much milew/moss/green stuff was growing on the concrete down there. I would agree SH is a must for you. In AZ howerver not so much more dirt that you are dealing with so SH would not likely help you at all.
 
I get the same problem sometimes... It always looks like overlap. I do try to go over a different direction and it seems to helps. SH works good for me especially when those circular species are still left after cleaning. I always wondered what 40 degree nozzles would do. have one with big back wheels and a floater. The floater seems to be the only one that does it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top