I Need Help With New Construction Concrete!!

S

Speed's wash

New member
I went out to do a house wash for a home builder this afternoon and boy was it a nightmare. When I opened the garage door the floor was covered in sheetrock joint compound and paint and the driveway just had a few tire markes and some dirt.
The problem is that the builder said that the last guy he hired tore up the concrete. When I asked what he did he said that there was bed rock showing when he was all done. I thought the guy had really screwed up until I fired up my 24in. Steel Eagle Surface Cleaner and noticed that it took of the top layer of concrete and some the small bedrock was showing. I stopped cleaning the driveway at that point and I moved into the garage with my 40 degree nozzel to see if I could blast away all of the morter but it did not budge so I grabbed my stiff brush and started to scrub. This worked pretty good but would have taken a long time. I would have been better off with a scrapper then a pressure washer. Does anybody have any thoughts about this?
I tried to clean the driveway with my wand but could not even get the dirt off with it. In one spot I put the nozzel about 1in from the concrete surface and it started to take off the top layer of concrete so I just stopped, picked up my stuff and left. I feel really bad but I did not want to damage the concrete.
What did I do wrong? Was I not doing somethig right or has the concrete not cured enought to be pressure washed?
Should I tell the builder that the concrete needs to be sealed after it is pressure washed. I cannot figure out why I was not able to get the dirt off of the driveway without using alot of pressure. This would have been a great contract yielding about 7 houses a week but I guess I will not get it since I had to leave the job unfinished.
Could someone please give me some advice as to what I should do or not do?

Thanks
 
Speed,

Roger does this new construction several days a week - give him a call sometime this weekend - there are some tricks & chems that will help you.

336-516-6139

Celeste
 
Speed's wash said:
I went out to do a house wash for a home builder this afternoon and boy was it a nightmare. When I opened the garage door the floor was covered in sheetrock joint compound and paint and the driveway just had a few tire markes and some dirt.
The problem is that the builder said that the last guy he hired tore up the concrete. When I asked what he did he said that there was bed rock showing when he was all done. I thought the guy had really screwed up until I fired up my 24in. Steel Eagle Surface Cleaner and noticed that it took of the top layer of concrete and some the small bedrock was showing. I stopped cleaning the driveway at that point and I moved into the garage with my 40 degree nozzel to see if I could blast away all of the morter but it did not budge so I grabbed my stiff brush and started to scrub. This worked pretty good but would have taken a long time. I would have been better off with a scrapper then a pressure washer. Does anybody have any thoughts about this?
I tried to clean the driveway with my wand but could not even get the dirt off with it. In one spot I put the nozzel about 1in from the concrete surface and it started to take off the top layer of concrete so I just stopped, picked up my stuff and left. I feel really bad but I did not want to damage the concrete.
What did I do wrong? Was I not doing somethig right or has the concrete not cured enought to be pressure washed?
Should I tell the builder that the concrete needs to be sealed after it is pressure washed. I cannot figure out why I was not able to get the dirt off of the driveway without using alot of pressure. This would have been a great contract yielding about 7 houses a week but I guess I will not get it since I had to leave the job unfinished.
Could someone please give me some advice as to what I should do or not do?

Thanks
Click to expand...

This is an older thread, but it still happens more than not, I thinks it worth discussion again to find out what went wrong.
Any thought on what cause it and how to prevent it????
 
WOW!!!!!!!!!

Ok the sheet rock will come off with a garden hose.

Next the mortar will come off with a rubber mallet. POPS right up…Usually.


The over spray paint they often spray wd-40 around the base so that it also comes up. If they did not don’t worry.

Baking Soda, the large jumbo box at Costco. Put holes in the top and make like a salt shaker. Wet the concrete a bit and start shaken. Garden hose will remove that also.

Rinse with wand and never use your surface cleaner it’s not needed and will only cause damage.

NEW CONCRETE HAS A 30 day curing process. Its green and the crème will come up very easy. The stem wall will be tough and you can hit those hard.
 
CarolinaProWash said:
Speed,

Roger does this new construction several days a week - give him a call sometime this weekend - there are some tricks & chems that will help you.

336-516-6139

Celeste
Click to expand...

come on lets here roger, i want to know his secrets....
 
Let me start off by saying once you know how to do new construction clean up it is a breeze and you will love it. We work for Colorados largest home builder and we have over 20 of their communities throughout the metro area.


Yes you are right the floor is usually covered in joint compound, paint, chew, pepsi and whatever else the people building the house leave in there.

Here is our way of doing it.

Garages: 145' Water & XJet Nozzle (not kidding)

Driveways & Sidewalks: Cold Water & XJet Nozzle.

Never use a roto nozzle or a surface cleaner, usually the concrete is really new when they call you out and you will for sure tear it up. The Xjet works perfect (I know, it is not made for this, but it works awesome). We have NEVER damaged any concrete!

Let me know if you have any other questions, or feel free to call me

Nicole 303-877-1540
 
You guys must not have red clay! New construction here is covered with the stuff. The only way I've been able to get it off is with a surface cleaner and acid. Thankfully, I've never been asked to clean concrete that young (30 days - maybe we just have slow builders?). I guess if I were asked to clean fresh concrete, I would have to use the x-jet method and explain that the concrete will still have the red clay tint. Anybody from the south have this same problem?
 
I use hydrochloric acid based cleaners on the driveways with hot water to remove red clay. I always use a wand on drives, walks and patios. New concrete is too soft for the surface cleaner. I also use a variable pressure wand usually with a 40 degree tip.

I have used the surface cleaner on the garage slabs because they are usually a harder concrete. Hot water gets the sheetrock mud up. Hot water will usually get latex paint up too. I have used a rubber mallet and chisel like Ron said to remove large chunks of mortar or construction adhesive. Splashes of mortar that are in noticable areas but too small to chisel will usually come up with acid.

Here is a sidewalk before and after along with a pretty bad mortar spill.
 

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PowerWash Pros said:
Let me start off by saying once you know how to do new construction clean up it is a breeze and you will love it. We work for Colorados largest home builder and we have over 20 of their communities throughout the metro area.


Yes you are right the floor is usually covered in joint compound, paint, chew, pepsi and whatever else the people building the house leave in there.

Here is our way of doing it.

Garages: 145' Water & XJet Nozzle (not kidding)

Driveways & Sidewalks: Cold Water & XJet Nozzle.

Never use a roto nozzle or a surface cleaner, usually the concrete is really new when they call you out and you will for sure tear it up. The Xjet works perfect (I know, it is not made for this, but it works awesome). We have NEVER damaged any concrete!

Let me know if you have any other questions, or feel free to call me

Nicole 303-877-1540
Click to expand...


Nicole -

What kind of chemicals and dwell time are you using? What is your average time at each job? Do you bid these jobs or they just call you with an address and you bill them?
 
Bryan C said:
Nicole -

What kind of chemicals and dwell time are you using? What is your average time at each job? Do you bid these jobs or they just call you with an address and you bill them?
Click to expand...

Bryan - We have a set bid for each house we do and we set those bids with the home builder before we start a community. We average about 45 minutes per house ( 3 Car Garage ). We dont use any chems, we are not allowed to. We have red clay here, but it is worse the closer you get to the mountains. Most of the homebuilders back fill with clean fill dirt so we dont run into much red clay.
 
Thanks. How steady are you from construction clean-up? How much advance notice are you getting for each job?

Do you have any competetion for this stuff or are you the only one? How long to typically get paid? Just bill once the job is done?

Sorry for bombarding you with questions - I want to target this work in my area as there are a ton of builders...
 
I started out using Crete Clean from Sun Brite but I don't think they sell that anymore. I have also used Pro BRC from Sun Brite and NMD-80. All of those cleaners are hydrochloric acid based.
 
Bryan - They usually want the washes same day.. sometimes we can fit that in but most of the time I make them give me at least 3 days notice. Getting Paid = oh thats funny.... We have invoices 4 months old, they pay on thier terms and they dont give a crap about you. That is when you lien their property, then they pay.

Anyway, this is a funny subject - I just ended our contract with our homebuilder, I was sick of 1. not getting paid 2. getting called out for 1 house 50 miles north of our office 3. crabby, snotty supers . I wont work for this company again. Not all companies are like this, the smaller builders are much better.

:):)
 
Oh Nichole - isn't it satisfying to can a big builder :) I got to do it twice to the same company a couple years ago - very liberating and FUN! I agree, small builders are the best!

Celeste
 
Oh god it was great. Your right you feel liberated almost. :p

Anyway, I am glad to get rid of them


Hey Matt (SHARK) - Want a lead for a homebuilder that needs a new power washing company? I will give you ALL the info, but let me warn ya, they are butts.
 
I am looking into post contstruction cleanup. I do mostly commercial and fleet washing. What is the best way to market to builders?
 
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