Hack work, my own, please help!

[Tony Shelton]

I'm doing the front of a manufacturing facility that runs 24 hr shifts everyday except for Sunday with an 8 hr shift. Thank goodness my time is limited. I worked on this Sunday and told the owner I would come back every Sunday until the job is complete. So he's not pissed about this hack looking job.

Keep in mind this is my FIRST job larger than a sidewalk and entryway!

I was able to do about 3000 square ft in 3 hrs. I thought I had a little striping. Ron said that might be from not rinsing enough. I didn't know till the next day the whole job was striped! Was I walking too fast? Why did this happen?

I didn't use any chemicals at all. My water was about 190. Why did I get all this white stuff all over the pavement?

Why did it take me longer to rinse than wash? I tried rinsing with the variable pressure wand. I tried with a 25 then a 40 tip. I tried higher pressure, I tried low pressure. It just took forever.

I went over with the surface cleaner first doing about 500 square feet then rinsing. I rinsed with hot water and got up all the gum in each area immediately after each rinse with low pressure and 200 degree water. (The gum was the only good accomplishment of the night.)

These pictures are ENHANCED with photoshop to draw out the detail so you can see what happened. The last two pictures were not enhanced to show you how it looks to the naked eye.

I'm not a hopeless case. I just need some help.

 

[ckingclean]

You probably need to use some chemicals. I imagine it had not been cleaned in a while right?

 

[Tony Shelton]

You probably need to use some chemicals. I imagine it had not been cleaned in a while right?

It had been about a year, but it didn't look that dirty.

 

[John Orr]

IMOHO, you used too much pressure for the "cream" of this particular pour of concrete. Sometimes, it just doesn't take much to expose the aggregate. For this reason, whenever possible, I wash with the "grain" of the concrete and try not to overlap any more than possible - and carry a variety of nozzles.

As you can see, the marks occur where you have either overlapped and/or where you stopped moving while still running the surface cleaner. These overlap marks are where the cream has been damaged. The only "solution" is to try to blend the damage. (The way I can tell if the cream is "soft" is if the run-off is milky.)

 

[Tony Shelton]

IMOHO, you used too much pressure for the "cream" of this particular pour of concrete. Sometimes, it just doesn't take much to expose the aggregate. For this reason, whenever possible, I wash with the "grain" of the concrete and try not to overlap any more than possible - and carry a variety of nozzles.

As you can see, the marks occur where you have either overlapped and/or where you stopped moving while still running the surface cleaner. These overlap marks are where the cream has been damaged. The only "solution" is to try to blend the damage. (The way I can tell if the cream is "soft" is if the run-off is milky.)

I thought that might be the case, but if you run your fingers across the concrete you can't feel a difference where the lines are. Up close it doesn't look like damage. But that would explain the white stuff on the asphalt. The other small areas I used this same surface cleaner on didn't do this. I thought I must be walking to fast.

 

[David O'Connell Jr]

what size tips? 1000 sqft/ hour is very slow. what size machine do you have?

 

[Scott Stone]

You should probably go and redo this area again, and plan on hitting all of the areas twice that you are doing at this facility. I would be willing to bet a lot of money that it has been far longer than a year since it was washed. There is probably a ton of buildup on this concrete, and being in Vegas, you are dealing with a ton of environmental fall out, dust and such, that a lot of areas of the country do not have to deal with like we do in the desert.
Go back, and redo the area. Make sure your surface cleaner is working right, that all the tips are spraying, and take your time. Clean perpindicular to what you already done to see if that helps.

And, if the customer, for what ever reason is happy with what you have done, and it does happen, I have a guy that I just fired that can help you out.

 

[Jonathan Ellis]

Scott,

If you fired him, I would guess that there is a reason.

 

[Maj.]

IMOHO, you used too much pressure for the "cream" of this particular pour of concrete. Sometimes, it just doesn't take much to expose the aggregate. For this reason, whenever possible, I wash with the "grain" of the concrete and try not to overlap any more than possible - and carry a variety of nozzles.

As you can see, the marks occur where you have either overlapped and/or where you stopped moving while still running the surface cleaner. These overlap marks are where the cream has been damaged. The only "solution" is to try to blend the damage. (The way I can tell if the cream is "soft" is if the run-off is milky.)

I have cleaned some concrete like this and I fixed the problem by using less pressure at the time that I was cleaning it. The concrete that I was cleaning was new, on one driveway (new meaning 11 months to a yr.) the second was 1-2 yrs old. I have seen it many times and I agree that I think it is the cream in the concrete. I always try to test an area when the concrete looks new, and not that dirty. When I cleaned the concrete that I am referring to I also had the white sand everywhere. When I noticed that I was striping the concrete I stopped and lowered my pressure by using my ball valve. When I was cleaning I didn't go as far as you did so I only had a small place to worry about if I remember right I tried to go over it again to try to blend it using the same pressure if not a little less. Hope this helps.

 

[Tony Shelton]

what size tips? 1000 sqft/ hour is very slow. what size machine do you have?

I've got a Water Jet. I don't know what tips, I bought it used, but it was only a few months old and still set up the way it came from Landa. I did however have them put a new swivel in it. I watched them myself, they put in the right one, brand new straight from Landa.

Come to think of it I didn't have this problem before they put the new swivel in. I did a lot of demos and this never happened. And the other two small jobs I did before the swivel swap didn't have any of this either. Do you think they tweaked the position of the tips?

 

[Tony Shelton]

And, if the customer, for what ever reason is happy with what you have done, and it does happen, I have a guy that I just fired that can help you out.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

 

[John Orr]

The Water Jet is height -adjustable, exactly the solution for preventing this in the future.

 

[Ashley Phillips]

When the concrete was poured they added too much water to it and it is soft. You will have to do it again to fix it and like John said you gotta blend it in.

 

[John Doherty]

IMOHO, you used too much pressure for the "cream" of this particular pour of concrete. The only "solution" is to try to blend the damage. (The way I can tell if the cream is "soft" is if the run-off is milky.)

Tony those pictures make my stomach hurt! Blending is the only way to fix it. In the future if you see that milky runoff, raise the bar or change tips.

 

[Russ Spence]

you will then be the "Blendmaster" like on Dr Doolittle ....... hahaha

 

[John Doherty]

And, if the customer, for what ever reason is happy with what you have done, and it does happen, I have a guy that I just fired that can help you out.

This is the funniest line I've seen in a long time. I'm suprised that guy made it from here to AZ, small world!

 

[Tony Shelton]

Tony those pictures make my stomach hurt! Blending is the only way to fix it. In the future if you see that milky runoff, raise the bar or change tips.

These were 15030 tips and I have a 3500/4.8gpm machine.

I couldn't see any milky runoff when it was wet. I did most of the job in broad daylight and didn't see any lines except in one area about 5ftx20ft and I did try to blend those in. It wasn't till the next day till I could see all the other lines.

The pictures below were taken right before I left. And as you can see, there's almost no indication that the lines are there. As a matter of fact I went home pretty happy with the job, but not so happy about how long it took.

The one picture has some kind of paint that wouldn't budge. I knew I would have to come back so I was going to get on the board to find out how to take care of that.

How can I know in the future if my work is going to look like this the next day?

 

[Ashley Phillips]

After you blend all of that in, it won't happen again.
The best way to learn is by screwing up.

 

[Tony Shelton]

And also, thanks you guys for helping me with this.

I'm soaking all of this in. I just want to do a good job for my customers. This is all new to me.

I experimented on over 60 scrap AC coils before I cleaned the first one for a customer. I should have gone out to closed businesses and experimented first.

I understand that most of your worst employees could do a better job than this, but I'm here to learn. I haven't had an employer to train me.

Keep suggestions coming. I want to completely avoid anything like this in the future. And if you can see the pictures clearly enough please give me any suggestions that come to mind.

Thanks again.

 

[ckingclean]

When the concrete was poured they added too much water to it and it is soft. You will have to do it again to fix it and like John said you gotta blend it in.

We have this problem everywhere here. Everyone taking shortcuts to make the concrete easier to spread and work with.

To help blend, don't do straight lines. Swirl the surface cleaner in circles so that it doesn't show the distinct lines. If the customer complains, explain to them that it wasn't your fault, it was poor quality concrete.