Finally getting equipment now what about chemicals?

tcolborg

tcolborg

New member
So I will finally be getting my skid from Paul and the powerwashstore.com next week and now need to get some chem's for cleaning. I have been reading stuff all over the place on the forum and still need some help here. Here is what I feel like I have figured out and if you guys can chime in with input I would appreciate it. Please don't rip me one if I am wrong on any of this. There is so much information on this site that it can almost start to become confusing. I hope that this can be used to help many other new people to pressure washing.

Sodium Hypo: Basically strong version of bleach, want to get at least 10%. Will kill plants and grass if not presoaked before, during, and after use. Used for many cleaning applications such as house washing, roof cleaning, concrete cleaning (residential not a lot of grease or oil), can be used on fences and decks but might not be best choice.

Caustic Soda: Known as sodium hydroxide, comes in beads, flakes, and liquid format. Very aggressive cleaner! Used for things like concrete cleaning (heavy grease, oil, drive-thru, etc), can be used to strip fences and decks, KEC, any others???? Mixed with water and generates heat from chemical, dangerous to skin exposure and breathing exposure. Can damage metals and stain asphalt if not rinsed.

Butyl: Known as E-B Glycol Ether. A lot less aggressive then Caustic soda. Used for things like concrete cleaning (heavy grease, oil, drive-thru, etc) but not as effective as caustic. Can cause skin and breathing irritation but not as bad as caustic. Can dangerous to plastics.
Sodium Percarbonate: A mix of sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide, not as strong as SH. It is an oxygen based bleach that starts to work once combined with water. Can be used on roofs and mainly for wood and decks. Good for cleaning but won't really strip the wood from current seals or stains.

Oxalic Acid: An organic compound used to neutralize caustic washes. Can be used to brighten wood as well as concrete, but will stain asphalt white if left.

Roof Snot, Simple Cherry, etc: Surfactant used to break surface tension and help detergents clean better. Also help control runoff of chemicals.

EBC: Cleaner that can be used for multiple situations grease, oil, house wash, etc. Also a surfactant and helps boost SH cleaning power.

So that is what I have figured out so far but I am sure there is a lot I am missing.
  • What would you recommend getting to start for cleaning mainly residential with some commercial cleaning mixed in
  • Other safety issues or possible damage caused by each of these?
  • Cost effectiveness of each?
  • Best distributors for chemicals?

I appreciate any help on this guys.
 
Now that's a man who has been doing his research. Great job! Niche jobs might call for a few other powders I keep. TSP or tri sodium phosphate can be used when prepping for paint. It microscopically etches the old paint as well as a good cleaner and bleach booster. It is also used sometimes in my concrete wash mix.
I've also had some commercial jobs where the environmental man requested I not use phosphates like tsp or in Simple Cherry. Sodium Metasilicate is a great non phosphate detergent builder you might want to add a little softener like soda ash and surfactant like Gain to it to get a complete package.
 
Im double checking the forum rules before I post some of the products I use in my K.E.C. supply box, im not sure if its forbidden, basically the MSDS for them. Gimme a second to see what I can find....

This is currently the "strongest" degreaser I have currently in my opinion, It has the ability to saponify fats from cooking which can be scraped or shop vacc'd out easily. I have been experimenting with ratios listed here by other members but this product wins for this specific job. I cannot say its stronger than pure caustics because I simply havent mixed up a solution strong enough as I dont have proper gear for that.

http://www.chemcorchemical.com/products/kitchencare/kitchencaremsds/ovenandgrillcleanerhdmsds.pdf

I am always looking for something more complete than whats available to my knowledge.
 
Last edited:
Doug Rucker said:
Make sure you have F9 on the truck.....
Click to expand...
Definitely going to have F9 Doug, can't believe I forgot to put it on there.

AquaMike said:
You might want to take along some paperwork with all that stuff in your truck! Looks like you've thought it out quite well.
Click to expand...

Not really going to have all this on the truck, more about the research and findings so far.

Anyone have any other good chems to consider?

Also any other dangers I missed please please let me know.

Lastly any input on what chemicals not to mix together.



Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4
 
tcolborg said:
So I will finally be getting my skid from Paul and the powerwashstore.com next week and now need to get some chem's for cleaning. I have been reading stuff all over the place on the forum and still need some help here. Here is what I feel like I have figured out and if you guys can chime in with input I would appreciate it. Please don't rip me one if I am wrong on any of this. There is so much information on this site that it can almost start to become confusing. I hope that this can be used to help many other new people to pressure washing.

Sodium Hypo: Basically strong version of bleach, want to get at least 10%. Will kill plants and grass if not presoaked before, during, and after use. Used for many cleaning applications such as house washing, roof cleaning, concrete cleaning (residential not a lot of grease or oil), can be used on fences and decks but might not be best choice.

Caustic Soda: Known as sodium hydroxide, comes in beads, flakes, and liquid format. Very aggressive cleaner! Used for things like concrete cleaning (heavy grease, oil, drive-thru, etc), can be used to strip fences and decks, KEC, any others???? Mixed with water and generates heat from chemical, dangerous to skin exposure and breathing exposure. Can damage metals and stain asphalt if not rinsed.

Butyl: Known as E-B Glycol Ether. A lot less aggressive then Caustic soda. Used for things like concrete cleaning (heavy grease, oil, drive-thru, etc) but not as effective as caustic. Can cause skin and breathing irritation but not as bad as caustic. Can dangerous to plastics.
Sodium Percarbonate: A mix of sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide, not as strong as SH. It is an oxygen based bleach that starts to work once combined with water. Can be used on roofs and mainly for wood and decks. Good for cleaning but won't really strip the wood from current seals or stains.

Oxalic Acid: An organic compound used to neutralize caustic washes. Can be used to brighten wood as well as concrete, but will stain asphalt white if left.

Roof Snot, Simple Cherry, etc: Surfactant used to break surface tension and help detergents clean better. Also help control runoff of chemicals.

EBC: Cleaner that can be used for multiple situations grease, oil, house wash, etc. Also a surfactant and helps boost SH cleaning power.

So that is what I have figured out so far but I am sure there is a lot I am missing.
  • What would you recommend getting to start for cleaning mainly residential with some commercial cleaning mixed in
  • Other safety issues or possible damage caused by each of these?
  • Cost effectiveness of each?
  • Best distributors for chemicals?

I appreciate any help on this guys.
Click to expand...


Green wash with roof snot works wonders on roofs so I hear and the AC'a bleach wash is perfect also you can use it on a lot of things especially on your softwash equipment
 
tcolborg said:
So I will finally be getting my skid from Paul and the powerwashstore.com next week and now need to get some chem's for cleaning. I have been reading stuff all over the place on the forum and still need some help here. Here is what I feel like I have figured out and if you guys can chime in with input I would appreciate it. Please don't rip me one if I am wrong on any of this. There is so much information on this site that it can almost start to become confusing. I hope that this can be used to help many other new people to pressure washing.

Sodium Hypo: Basically strong version of bleach, want to get at least 10%. Will kill plants and grass if not presoaked before, during, and after use. Used for many cleaning applications such as house washing, roof cleaning, concrete cleaning (residential not a lot of grease or oil), can be used on fences and decks but might not be best choice.

Caustic Soda: Known as sodium hydroxide, comes in beads, flakes, and liquid format. Very aggressive cleaner! Used for things like concrete cleaning (heavy grease, oil, drive-thru, etc), can be used to strip fences and decks, KEC, any others???? Mixed with water and generates heat from chemical, dangerous to skin exposure and breathing exposure. Can damage metals and stain asphalt if not rinsed.

Butyl: Known as E-B Glycol Ether. A lot less aggressive then Caustic soda. Used for things like concrete cleaning (heavy grease, oil, drive-thru, etc) but not as effective as caustic. Can cause skin and breathing irritation but not as bad as caustic. Can dangerous to plastics.
Sodium Percarbonate: A mix of sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide, not as strong as SH. It is an oxygen based bleach that starts to work once combined with water. Can be used on roofs and mainly for wood and decks. Good for cleaning but won't really strip the wood from current seals or stains.

Oxalic Acid: An organic compound used to neutralize caustic washes. Can be used to brighten wood as well as concrete, but will stain asphalt white if left.

Roof Snot, Simple Cherry, etc: Surfactant used to break surface tension and help detergents clean better. Also help control runoff of chemicals.

EBC: Cleaner that can be used for multiple situations grease, oil, house wash, etc. Also a surfactant and helps boost SH cleaning power.

So that is what I have figured out so far but I am sure there is a lot I am missing.
  • What would you recommend getting to start for cleaning mainly residential with some commercial cleaning mixed in
  • Other safety issues or possible damage caused by each of these?
  • Cost effectiveness of each?
  • Best distributors for chemicals?

I appreciate any help on this guys.
Click to expand...

Tristan! This is about the 3rd or 5th post with the EXACT same questions I have - just getting into the biz myself! So thank you for posting and everyone else for chiming in...

Quick question, where can I get F9?
 
CL Scott said:
Tristan! This is about the 3rd or 5th post with the EXACT same questions I have - just getting into the biz myself! So thank you for posting and everyone else for chiming in...

Quick question, where can I get F9?
Click to expand...

No problem man, I understand man it can be overwhelming. If I can help someone else in my shoes fantastic.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4
 
tcolborg said:
So I will finally be getting my skid from Paul and the powerwashstore.com next week and now need to get some chem's for cleaning. I have been reading stuff all over the place on the forum and still need some help here. Here is what I feel like I have figured out and if you guys can chime in with input I would appreciate it. Please don't rip me one if I am wrong on any of this. There is so much information on this site that it can almost start to become confusing. I hope that this can be used to help many other new people to pressure washing.

Sodium Hypo: Basically strong version of bleach, want to get at least 10%. Will kill plants and grass if not presoaked before, during, and after use. Used for many cleaning applications such as house washing, roof cleaning, concrete cleaning (residential not a lot of grease or oil), can be used on fences and decks but might not be best choice.

Caustic Soda: Known as sodium hydroxide, comes in beads, flakes, and liquid format. Very aggressive cleaner! Used for things like concrete cleaning (heavy grease, oil, drive-thru, etc), can be used to strip fences and decks, KEC, any others???? Mixed with water and generates heat from chemical, dangerous to skin exposure and breathing exposure. Can damage metals and stain asphalt if not rinsed.

Butyl: Known as E-B Glycol Ether. A lot less aggressive then Caustic soda. Used for things like concrete cleaning (heavy grease, oil, drive-thru, etc) but not as effective as caustic. Can cause skin and breathing irritation but not as bad as caustic. Can dangerous to plastics.
Sodium Percarbonate: A mix of sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide, not as strong as SH. It is an oxygen based bleach that starts to work once combined with water. Can be used on roofs and mainly for wood and decks. Good for cleaning but won't really strip the wood from current seals or stains.

Oxalic Acid: An organic compound used to neutralize caustic washes. Can be used to brighten wood as well as concrete, but will stain asphalt white if left.

Roof Snot, Simple Cherry, etc: Surfactant used to break surface tension and help detergents clean better. Also help control runoff of chemicals.

EBC: Cleaner that can be used for multiple situations grease, oil, house wash, etc. Also a surfactant and helps boost SH cleaning power.

So that is what I have figured out so far but I am sure there is a lot I am missing.
  • What would you recommend getting to start for cleaning mainly residential with some commercial cleaning mixed in
  • Other safety issues or possible damage caused by each of these?
  • Cost effectiveness of each?
  • Best distributors for chemicals?

I appreciate any help on this guys.
Click to expand...
Good stuff here. Like CL Scott said "great stuff for us noobs".
 
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