25,000 sq.ft of Black Mildew, Junk

C

Chris Tharpe

New member
Just finished a long weekend of washing, hate it when big jobs have to be done on the weekends because all of my help are fisherman and either fish for tournaments or guide trips. The concrete was a pain and had to be cleaned really slowly but came out well except for the areas that water ran off from the sprinkler systems. The entire area was black there was probably less than 1,000 sq.ft that was not black and of course the parking lot did not drain well so everything ended up on the corners of the curbing. Usually my normal mix will take these rust stains out but I guess after 15 years of not being cleaned it has taken a toll on the areas and the rust stains are now black and red not brown. Other than that there was 650 lin.ft of buildings there washed as well.

For some reason this is a good time in my area for commercial office's to be cleaned because this is not the first and hopefully won't be the last in the near future. I should have made a video response to Russ' video on youtube about that Alabama Mildew.

Has anyone ever been able to get out the stains when they are to this extent?
 

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mobilewashpros said:
Just finished a long weekend of washing, hate it when big jobs have to be done on the weekends because all of my help are fisherman and either fish for tournaments or guide trips. The concrete was a pain and had to be cleaned really slowly but came out well except for the areas that water ran off from the sprinkler systems. The entire area was black there was probably less than 1,000 sq.ft that was not black and of course the parking lot did not drain well so everything ended up on the corners of the curbing. Usually my normal mix will take these rust stains out but I guess after 15 years of not being cleaned it has taken a toll on the areas and the rust stains are now black and red not brown. Other than that there was 650 lin.ft of buildings there washed as well.

For some reason this is a good time in my area for commercial office's to be cleaned because this is not the first and hopefully won't be the last in the near future. I should have made a video response to Russ' video on youtube about that Alabama Mildew.

Has anyone ever been able to get out the stains when they are to this extent?
Click to expand...


hey thats a great job there nice pics
 
Sweet job on all that Concrete Cleaning. I know what your talking about. We did a Concrete Pressure Washing job on a plaza about 1 1/2 yrs ago that had not been Pressure Cleaned in 12yrs and was black as coal. It took us an entire weekend but we got her white again. In fact it is still bleach white even today. It's right around the corner from me so I see it all the time. I got pics but don't want to invade your thread. Again,,Great job! :thumbup2:
 
Thx for the compliments, I am still wracking my brain on how to get those stains to loosen up a bit more and blend in a little better.
 
Looks great!

Couple questions:

Did you apply any chems before or after the cleaning?

What flow, pressure and temp were you using; through what size/length of hose and nozzles?

Please dont take the question any other way than me just trying to determine what hydraulic impact you utilized.

It sounds like you need more hydraulic impact than usual at this job for you to move at your normal cleaning speed for such heavily bonded pollutants.

Thanks
 
810f250 said:
Looks great!

Couple questions:

Did you apply any chems before or after the cleaning?

What flow, pressure and temp were you using; through what size/length of hose and nozzles?

Please dont take the question any other way than me just trying to determine what hydraulic impact you utilized.

It sounds like you need more hydraulic impact than usual at this job for you to move at your normal cleaning speed for such heavily bonded pollutants.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Nigel, detergents were applied before the cleaning and were not getting into that one via the bbs :moil:

The hose is 300 ft on each machine 3/8 in diameter. The nozzles used were 25045 in a big guy for an 8gpm pressure Junk i mean pro machine. Burner is modified and temp was all the way up using 3gph nozzle in it and alot of air flow through a beckett SF series 110 burner. I would venture to say its getting to 220 at the tips. If the thermostat is set to 260 the burner will ignite run for a few seconds then turn off and reignite when the thermostat reads under that temp. Maybe less at the tip but its just a guestimate

It sounds like you need more hydraulic impact than usual at this job for you to move at your normal cleaning speed for such heavily bonded pollutants.
Click to expand...

I'm from the south so our way of saying this is you should either sh*t or get off the pot. :sarcastic: :help:
 
mobilewashpros said:
Nigel, detergents were applied before the cleaning and were not getting into that one via the bbs :moil:
Click to expand...
I would respect that

mobilewashpros said:
The hose is 300 ft on each machine 3/8 in diameter. The nozzles used were 25045 in a big guy for an 8gpm pressure Junk i mean pro machine. Burner is modified and temp was all the way up using 3gph nozzle in it and alot of air flow through a beckett SF series 110 burner. I would venture to say its getting to 220 at the tips. If the thermostat is set to 260 the burner will ignite run for a few seconds then turn off and reignite when the thermostat reads under that temp. Maybe less at the tip but its just a guestimate
Click to expand...

At 300 ft of 3/8" at that flow, you are killing psi big time. Did you notice when at 300 ft hose with the surface cleaner if any water is being bypassed back to the tank?

Did you experiment with 15deg nozzles in the surface cleaner?

What is your fuel pressure set at? What is the size of a 8 gpm pressure pro's coil housing diameter? 18" or 20"

When your temperature is above 200F at the nozzle, impact is reduced when using a regular pressure washing nozzle.

mobilewashpros said:
I'm from the south so our way of saying this is you should either sh*t or get off the pot. :sarcastic: :help:
Click to expand...

Did not get it, really.



Thanks for the reply
 
yes Psi at the tip is usually 2200 but there has never been a problem in the past cleaning, maybe some speed issues. If i were just using hot water then it would have been a nightmare on speed but the cleaners made the mildew melt like butter and cleaned fairly fast.

I actually adjusted the fuel pressure back down to 175 but have ran it as high as 200. Seems I am having a hard time getting a thermostat to put at the hose reel to get an actual reading and see what were getting to there then at the wand to see what the drops are. As for hose I have went back and forth on adding 1/2 hose to them for 200ft then 50ft of 3/8 but its not worth the extra hassle or weight when rolling up the hoses. If we get into a sticky situation I will do it but the rigs are build for maintenance accounts and work best for that. In the few instances when we do something like this the extra time is built into the quote.

The quote at the bottom is just a saying that means in this situation basically your talking over my head. We try to keep things simpler in Mississippi and when you get to talking about sq.rt of Pi @2.55% *variable intergers (PEMDAS) divergence sequence your really talking more then I can comprehend, nothing intended by the saying just a little funny. Something to say when your getting upset with the driver riding 50m.p.h in the left lane on a 70 m.p.h road
 
That is something that we witnessed in Vegas, when the water is hotter after a certain temperature, it is less dense and loses a lot of impact force so the cleaning seems to slow down.

There is a point of diminishing returns but have no thermometer on my rig yet (got one but have not installed it yet along with the steam bypass valve, the injection bypass manifold, cutout regulator, flux capacitor, and the other hose reel, soon I will have them installed and can do some testing but not before MB unfortunately.
 
where did you get the thermometer?

Will have to play with the heat tomorrow night when i fill in and see what settings seem to be best for high speed
 
I got one from Russ at Southside.

I ordered the Thermometer, "T"'s, meter valve and various fittings to add a steam valve to my rig.

You will need to get the one with the long stem, like 2" or so and it has to be in the long side of the "T" so the stem all is covered with water for an accurate reading.

There are the kind that have the stem in the back and out and the kind with the stem in the back and down so you need to decide how and where you want it so you can see it good.

Here is the info off the box: #T25.2R02.40F
2.5"X2.5"X1.4"R, 50/500 F

It reads from 50 to 400 degrees and it is the kind with the stem/threads on the back so where it threads in, you will be looking right at where the threads are behind it.

This way I will have a "T" on the outlet of the coil at the top with a "T" there and the long side of the "T" will have the thermometer there so I will have to go to the front of the trailer to see the temperature but that is ok. The bottom of the "T" is where you connect the pressure hose that goes to the hose reel.

If I remember correctly, the gauge is about $29.00.

Hope that makes sense.
 
mobilewashpros said:
yes Psi at the tip is usually 2200 but there has never been a problem in the past cleaning, maybe some speed issues. If i were just using hot water then it would have been a nightmare on speed but the cleaners made the mildew melt like butter and cleaned fairly fast.

I actually adjusted the fuel pressure back down to 175 but have ran it as high as 200. Seems I am having a hard time getting a thermostat to put at the hose reel to get an actual reading and see what were getting to there then at the wand to see what the drops are. As for hose I have went back and forth on adding 1/2 hose to them for 200ft then 50ft of 3/8 but its not worth the extra hassle or weight when rolling up the hoses. If we get into a sticky situation I will do it but the rigs are build for maintenance accounts and work best for that. In the few instances when we do something like this the extra time is built into the quote.

The quote at the bottom is just a saying that means in this situation basically your talking over my head. We try to keep things simpler in Mississippi and when you get to talking about sq.rt of Pi @2.55% *variable intergers (PEMDAS) divergence sequence your really talking more then I can comprehend, nothing intended by the saying just a little funny. Something to say when your getting upset with the driver riding 50m.p.h in the left lane on a 70 m.p.h road
Click to expand...

1/2" hose is a killer to pull along. Everything on my setup is 1/2 even the whip.

.... Wow! 200psi then you spraying more fuel than I am, your about 4.24 gph @ 200psi and 3.97 gph when @ 175psi that is hot. I spray about 3.85 gph with a 3.25 nozzle @140psi

ok, I get the saying now.


Thanks
 
The hotter the better most of the time.

Like Jim says............."You need more Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetttt."

hahahahahahahahaha
 
Here is an idea for you to try Chris:

Use a smaller surface cleaner on that same concrete, I bet it will clean better at the same settings, temp, pressure, etc....

When you think about it, you are losing pressure through that hose and using a big guy to clean. A lot of pressure losses there.

With the pressure losses, temperature loss and density loss, I think you would be better to do those very bad jobs with the smaller surface cleaner.

Use a smaller surface cleaner and I am very sure it will clean better, you will go slower but it will clean better.
 
One way to think about it is that the warmer the water gets the density decreases so the impact lessens somewhat.

You are losing pressure with the amount of hose, friction, etc..

You are losing temperature with the length of hose, time it takes from the boiler to the nozzles, surface area absorbing the heat, etc...

When you add it all up, you are doing a job with less pressure, less heat and less impact density.

I would use a shorter hose or smaller surface cleaner or both.
 
I did pull out the classic at one point but it wasn't too bad with the big guy.


Nigel, on the model burner I am running, could I use a 2.5 nozzle and run at 200psi and use less fuel but achieve the same effects?
 
All I can tell you is at that set up you would be burning app. 3.54 gph.

There is so much to burners I dont know the half of it, it may be better to up the nozzle size and lower the pump pressure and obtain the same 3.54 gph, at the setting you mentioned the flame characteristic is different from the second option.

You will have to get advice from a guru for this one. Or call alkota or pressure pro.

This is one of the reasons I was looking forward to the 2 day school, that E spec postponed.
 
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