There used to be a person out of Walla Walla who scraped what he could reach, and then blew powder. He claimed it was a saponification agent or a fire retardent. He also pointed to the white covering and said with pride " Look how clean it is!" He then left a certificate that referenced NFPA 96, SubSectoin C. The certificate expired in 60 or 90 days. Now I have only had access to NFPA Codes since 1988, while working as a full time firefighter. I have never seen that part of NFPA 96. He was also unlisenced. unisured and probably not even certified! Ever try to clean a hood after that stuff has been thrown into the system? It slows down the air flow, allows more grease build-up, plugs up the fan, and forms a film on the fire suppression nozzles that can keep the nozzle caps on the nozzles. I have seen the stuff so thick, it actually falls off the duct onto the grille.
He is out of business now, but has a family member, named Carl, still in the trade. No more powder blowing. But he does follow the family tradition, no lisence, no insurance, no bond, no worker's comp and deals in cash. I watched him clean a place one night. He pulls up in an old Econoline, pulling a trailer. he saw my van and looks at me. He then hollers that he know all about guys like me, charging $100.00 to service the Ansul system in 30 minutes, charging too much money. He wants to make that much but the Ansul company won't return his phone calls. I ask what he is doing and he tells me he is going to clean the exhaust system. I ask if he has to be insureed or lisenced. He says he has all the insurance and lisences he needs. I ask if I can see the proof of insuranance and lisences. He gets pissed and starts to swear at me, asking if I am the fire marshall. He uses a descritive term before "fire marshall" He gets a cup of coffee, sets up the ladder. He goes to the roof, coffe cup in hand. and takes the fan apart. His helper goes in side and lays canvas on the grille and fryers. Carl Then throws his garden hose on the ground and starts to find the ends. No hose reel. After he gets the hose strung out, he starts the PW. No gas. He gets out the gas can. No gas. He goes next door to the gas station, fills the gas can and fills the PW. He starts the PW w/a rope, no battery ignition or starter. he uncoils the pw hose, no reel. The hose goes to the roof and he Pressure washes the fan. No hot water, no chemicals. He is done and throws the hose on the trailer, not coiled up, just in a pile. Unhooks the garden hose, same pile as the pw hose. He then goes back on the roof. I notice he doesn't use a flashlight, his eyes are bright enough. I am done with my burger. I go inot the resturant to dispose of the wrapper. I ask his helper what he is doing, that I have seen other people use a pressure washer to clean hoods. I ask how they are going to control the waste water. The helper says they only scrape the grease because there is no way to control the water, it just gets all over everything. He tells me the guys that use water are just scammin' people because everybody knows water won't cut grease. I ask how much do you charge? He replies $120.00. Now this is a job I bid at $175.00 to clean, and was turned down becasue I was too much. But I do service the fire suppression system. I also know that they don't get the grease out. I ask how long to do this job, asking where the next job is. and was told about 3 hours, and there is no next job, not enough time. I said 6 hours, because there are 2 of them x 3 = 6 hours. That is $20.00 an hour. the helper look confused. I ask what do you make? He says $6.50 and hour, cash. I jus t shake my head, go to my next job and make somewhat more than $20.00 an hour. I also use hot water, chemicals and leave the job clean to bare metal. The guy is still in business.
I picked -up one of his customer 4 months ago. My sales pitch included cleaning the grease off the roof, which we did. When I showed up, I was asked how long ? I said about 3-4 hours. I was told Carl took from 10:00 PM to 5;00 AM, with a helper. We took from 10:00 AM to 2:00 AM. The next day I went back and asked how we did. they noticed we had polishe the hood, cleaned hte filters and mopped hte floor. we did the place last week, and trimmed an hour and halfo off hte time. Next time, we can knock another 1/2 hour off.
Douglas Hicks
General Fire equipment Co of EAstern Orgon, Inc
