Mixing Chemical At The Job

Apple Roof Cleaning

Apple Roof Cleaning

Roof Cleaning Instructor
I know a roof cleaner who has a Ford Ranger with a Motorcycle trailer.
He has a 225 gallon tank with pure chemical in it.

When he gets to the job, he pulls out a 35 gallon plastic mixing drum, fills it with chemical, and then water/surfactant, and cleans.
He uses an electric Delavan pump.
 
Ashley Phillips said:
Why not mix it all together?
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Saves weight and Gas, no need to carry water around, use the customers, mix at the job.

David has a point, HUGE DOT violation :eek:
 
Safely transport SH etc and mix at the site. Why waste gas and why waste a good roof mix if you don't need it !

Streamline is the way to go... You can still be most professional as well.
:D
 
I mix on site as well, I carry 2-15gal drums of SH and mix in 30 gal drum, unless I'm doing more than one job I carry more SH. Can use my 1/2 ton Nissan 4 cyl. and save.
 
We had a 100 gal tank and never used it. Converted it to a PW float tank. I buy 5 gal SH carboys for $1 gal more per gal than 55 gal drums. It's over one hour round trip and $$$ in gas for the 55's. Plus it may sit for a while. My pool supply guy gets fresh pallets of the 5's weekly and he's 1 mile away. We only do 2-3 roofs a week.

With a trailer full of PW stuff it made more sense. We mix what we need on site in a 50 gal tank. It we run a little short we mix a little more. Seems like I would always make too much before we site mixed. For you guys that do several a day it would probably not make sense. Average house here uses 20 -30 gal mix. Almost never get them to buy a whole house just the north side. We have a line from the float tank to rinse the Delavan and stainless roof reel and line.

We run a full size van and trailer so it wasn't a storage issue just made more sense. Plus we dump the float tank after the last job. I'm sure you guys without employees, that your largest expense is fuel like ours. Lighter is better.
 
We dont like mixing in the drive way, just seems a little more professional to come premixed. However, mixing onsite may look like you mix what is required for each job, and maybe that is more proffesional. I dont know...lol
 
David O'Connell Jr said:
Hokey, And a huge DOT violation.
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How is hauling a 225 gallon tank of mixed roof cleaner not a DOT violation, but hauling a 225 gallon tank of SH is?

Scott D. said:
We dont like mixing in the drive way, just seems a little more professional to come premixed. However, mixing onsite may look like you mix what is required for each job, and maybe that is more proffesional. I dont know...lol
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Most of my customers aren't even home when I do their roof, and when they are, they stay inside and leave me alone. They haven't a clue whether I'm premixing or mixing in their driveway. I'll typically put whatever SH I need in my roof tank and then add the water when I get to the job. No sense in hauling the water across town.

David O'Connell Jr said:
A guy here got pulled over and wasn't allowed to move. Fine $1200.00
He had a 225 gallon tank.
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What was the violation, specifically?
 
I too am interested in the DOT violations. Since I haul 5gal carboys I'm sure it doesn't apply. I do keep MSDS sheets in a folder, fire extinguisher, first aid kit etc. But I'm really weak on the DOT rules.

I also have never had a customer watch me mix which we do in the street never in a driveway. Almost never home. I'm not sure who it would look less professional to?
 
Placard

I beleive that if you haul any corrosive product like S.H.,that is 1,001 lbs or more your vehical needs to be placarded as corrosive, hazard class 8. A 55 gal drum can be 550 lbs, so just hualing 2 of them can require having the placard. The D.O.T. has come under the jurisdiction of Homeland Security over the past fw years and the haz-mat laws have gotten tighter. ALWAYS have a MSDS in the vehical for ANY chems you may be carrying. Even if they are only small amounts. Be careful of the quantity of Haz-mat products you carry because unless you are placarded, with more that 1,001 lbs of any haz-mat, you are in violation. So a 525 gal tank filled with 12% SH you would need to be placarded.
 
it would require more than just a placard.........that is if you want to be legal.....go to the DMV website you can find the laws/answers you are looking for...
 
You cannot carry more than 100 (113 I think is the number) gallons of the CHL.
You can have 2 100 gallon tanks.

It goes by tank capacity, regards of the amount in the tank. SO if you have 10 gallons of CHL in a 200 gallon tank your breaking the rules.
 
IndyExterior said:
I too am interested in the DOT violations. Since I haul 5gal carboys I'm sure it doesn't apply. I do keep MSDS sheets in a folder, fire extinguisher, first aid kit etc. But I'm really weak on the DOT rules.

I also have never had a customer watch me mix which we do in the street never in a driveway. Almost never home. I'm not sure who it would look less professional to?
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DOT is fairly strict, here in Indiana. Call me sometime, and I will go over some of the things I learned when my friend got pulled over by DOT.
 
We mix on site. 3 tank system - water, bleach, & mix tank. We ride with some water, once on scene we lay 2 water lines to house and start filling the water tank. I estimate ammount to clean given surface, then I gravity feed bleach into mix tank according to strength desired. Once the bleach is in we start filling through a line off our 15gpm rinse pump plumbed to a agitator at the bottom of the mix tank. About half way into filling process we gravity feed our mixing agents making a fresh cleaning solution for each job and surface. While this is taking place we are pulling lines, etc..
 
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