Looking for some ideas on rinsing asphalt parking lots to make them go faster

Christopher

Moderator
I have some customers that every once in a while they want the asphalt parking lot rinsed off, it is just dirt and rock so the parking lot does not look as good as it did.

The asphalt is porous so dirt does get in there, don't need pressure just rinsing here.

I thought of a water broom at an angle to push the dirt away at an angle, just have to change out the nozzles and angle the broom but not sure if it would work and then it is only about 16" wide, some of these areas to be rinsed are up to 15,000sq.ft. more or less.

A surface cleaner is not needed as the dirt is not embedded.

A firehose is overkill, not that much dirt to need something like that and there is no hydrant near the area, plus it would flood their property which they don't want.

I am sure I am not the only person out there to try to think of a better way to rinse these asphalt parking lots faster.

I was even thinking of using my vacuum recovery surface cleaner, just change out the nozzles for lower pressure nozzles but not sure if it would pick up all the dirt fast enough plus there are a lot of rocks there, I guess I could use a leaf blower first.

Wanding the parking lot does ok but there are low spots there which kill time, sometimes you are fighting against the wind, sometimes you have to rinse the same area as the water and dirt move sideways as you rinse which is another big time killer.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks.
 
We "Blow" a lot of Parking lots either with a fleet of Back pack blowers or parking lot push blowers…. Water flow can get more dirt and sand out from the aggregate in the asphalt. But as soon as it rains…or the sprinklers turn on…. it will all find its way back to the areas of least resistance. Of course … if you can hook up to a hydrant the flow will clean it really fast…… Tough questions!..
 
I use 1 1/2 " line from a hydrant when I can. Other than that I just use my pw. Just recently added 4.8 GPM to my 5.5 GPM thanks to Russ J at Southside Equipment for the siamese kit. I have to say 10+ GPM is much faster than 5.5 but I will still use my fire hose when I can. I prefer fire hose because of speed. When rinsing asphalt it's all about volume of water not pressure. Don't forget to filter debris.
 
Chris we do a lot of new construction cleanups the biggest part of that is washing asphalt parking lots. Blow as much as possible off the accumulation of sand and rocks is what slows you down. If you can tee 2 machines together for higher flow that will help alot, nozzle your machine so its only about 1000 psi you don't need high psi. Working with two machines is better than just one, two high gpm machines would be ideal. Whatch which way the flow rolls and start at the high part. we usually run 3 8 gpm and one 10 gpm machine and can get about 100,000 sq ft done in 3 to 4 hours
 
10 gpm and a 15 degree nozzle. I like the 48" lance it gives good reach and still easy to control. I start high work to the low areas. With the higher flow it is much easier to push the water and dirt out of the low areas too. you could start with getting a billy goat blower too for the precleaning billygoat blower.png
 
I have the 8gpm and 5.5gpm on the trailer and usually use the 8gpm but have not tried connecting them together for rinsing asphalt, maybe I should try next time.

This time there were not many rocks in the parking lot and not much dust to blow away, it was all in the cracks and crevices so had to rinse everything.

I would not mind using a 1.5" hose but no hydrant close but on this property they did not want it flooded by using a firehose so I try to do what I can without flooding the property.
 
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