Plastic Sheeting

Bill Clough

New member
Is anyone buying plastic from Sherwin-Williams?? I'm buying 12'X200' 1.5ML from them and the price goes up every week. When I started buying from them the price was under $12 per roll. I just paid $27.51 per roll. Is any finding any better deals than that.
 
Well here I go again

Last time I mentioned this I got pretty well beat up but here I go again.
I have been doing this for over 15 years with success. Plus it is a little better enviromentally. I purchase 3 mil clear plastic. 100 x 20. I reuse the plastic. Yessssssssssss Not from every job but with most of my regular customers the job is a wrap and blast. New jobs which are usually bad usually make me throw the plastic away. But..............regular customers the plastic is not that dirty and we put the dirty side up until it is unusable. The 3 mil doesnt get holes as easily as you might think. Plus I save a buttload of money. I keep the plastic either in contractor bags or a barrel. Think about it, when I do a college the multitude of hoods . Some not that dirty but very large. Do I really need to throw all that plastic away? If it was 1.5 mil probably yes cause just walking on it creates a hole and you can't pull the duct tape off without ripping it. But the 3 mil is fine and reusable. You would be suprised how long plastic lasts. When scraping grease we seldom just drop it on the plastic. We use some type of container to keep from dropping it.
Another money saving tip from Martha Stewart.
OK YOU ALL MAY BEGIN THE BEATING
ED
 
If that work for you great-but with employees and larger jobs-I jsut can't see it working for us. Time is money.
 
Larger Jobs

What exactly makes you think you have larger jobs. We do a large University that has 12 hoods in one building. About 10 in another and then there is the Campus center that has another 12 locations along with 3 other buildings that have extensive cooking and baking areas. That is only one of the colleges we do. Additionally as I said, much of the plastic is still in good condition so we reuse it. I try to avoid the grease pits. Leave them to you.
One thing that really irritates me is that some people have locked in opinions before they even try something different. Do you think I am talking out of my bung hole? This is what I do and it has and does work. Psst another thing I do that you will find ahhh ...............just impossible.
I use portable cold water electric machines exclusively. I run the restaurants hot water thru them. OH NOOOooooooo Thats not how everyone else does it.
Guess what, it works just fine. It has worked for 15 years. The first 5 years I lugged one of those Hot water machines around. Now we operate from a little itty bitty van and can do almost everything anyone else can do.......except chinese. I leave them to you too.

Open your mind grasshopper.
 
oh yes employees

You think I have no employees? The last time I went out on a job was about ohhh 10 years ago. Except for an occasional emergency. So what does that have to do with the price of tea in china anyway.
 
Ed - you took it the wrong way - it works for you great. We service several large casinos that are time sensitive. We use 1mill. Just because it works for us that does not mean it will work for you-Both you and I are near the same age and we have our own way of doing things. Don't take offence.
 
Time is Money

What is the difference between taking the used plastic off and throwing it away in a trash recepticle or shoving it into a bag and keeping it?
 
portable cold water electric machines

Ed you mentioned you use "portable cold water electric machines exclusively" ... and ... "run the restaurants hot water thru them".
I'm thinking about buying a new power wash and wasn't sure a cold water machine would hold up to the hot water...about how hot is the restaurant water you are using...Most are running around 190-200 degrees, are you mixing it with cold water? Any info would be helpful thanks. I think the plastic idea is cost savings for sure.
 
Cold Water Machines

We check to see how hot the water is and adjust it by touch. Some restaurants have a system that jacks up the water temp significantly. We try to stay away from them. We just use water at about 140 to 190 degrees and a feed hose that will take hot water. Cant use a garden hose. We have been using the Northern Hydraulics ( North Star )pressure washers. Recently the unloaders on the cat pumps have been giving us trouble. We had to replace them with better ones . First time that has happened.
 
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You don't need no stinking pressure washer....or plastic sheeting....all you need is a badazz TGP mofoamer and a garden hose....and an Ultimate No Excuse Scraper for those pesky wok kitchens;)
 
I have to weigh in on the reusing of plastic. While you may save some money on the plastic and the firre marshal may like your cleaning job. The health inspector would have a stroke i think if it were known that platic that had been used to hold back caustic and non caustic chems that were used in grease removal had come into contact with a food contact surface.
You would be hard pressed to justify the reuse of plastic in a deposition or civil case where someone was claiming injury or sickness from the contact.

If it is wrong to reuse food containers to store food after they have been opened in a commercial kitchen then I would have to say that the re-use of plastic would definately be frowned upon. Also I know several of the chefs/kitchen managers and GM's that would flat throw me out if I unfolded used plastic to drape thier grills and prep areas. I would hope the plastic would just be a cost of the job when bidding.
 
Aghhhhhh

Damn boy, the crud that goes down on plastic is enough to make anyone sick. What do you think we do rub it on the dishes. It goes back on the appliances. Another thing is that we throw the nasty plastic away. We keep the reuseable stuff. Not too dirty. You cant reuse 1.5 mil cause by the time the job is done it is ripped up. Would the health inspector eat off the floor of your truck.
 
Yall I am buying 10x20 3 mil at Fred's for $ 3.99 a roll.. 6 years ago i was getting 10x100 4 mil for 13.00 a roll when I bought a pallet.. I dont see how yall use 1.5 mil if I accidently hit it with my machine It would be all over ... I like 4 mil but the 3 mil does pretty good.. I did try 2 mill one time and hit it on the edge with about 3100 psi and 210 degrees and blew a big hole in it... and yes I do reuse the plastic if it doesnt smell to bad....
 
We have been buying 8x200 2 mil at the local drywall distr. for under $17 a roll. Other dealers in town are as much as $10 higher. Hardware stores will get up to $50
 
Most Pump seals are rated for water temp near 140. Also, leaving the machine run in bypass will heat water enough to wear the seals out over a period of time. Pulling the trigger every 5 to 10 min. will release water in the by-pass loop and allow for longer life on pump seals.
 
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