Pressure Cleaning the City of St Augustine Parking Garage

Christopher said:
Thanks for sharing your info on the parking garage cleaning David.

Good luck on getting more great parking garage cleaning jobs.

Did you get any video of the cleaning in progress?
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Thanks Chris! I am wishing that I did now. I will video the next bank drive thru and see how it turns out.

Nigel. I did not do any comparisons as every oil spot was sprayed with sodium hydroxide. I did clean a few parking spots where the Power Stroke was not used and those spaces were tougher to clean.
 
810f250 said:
The main issue I have with Powerstroke is the suds, it slows the mosmatic surface cleaner rotating speed.
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Nigel,
I have used Power Stroke for 3 years now and have only downstreamed it and it goes on pretty sudsy, then goes away while sitting on the concrete, then re-suds when the surface cleaner hits it. I don't ever recall the suds being so much that it slowed my BE surface cleaner's rotating speed though.
 
810f250 said:
The main issue I have with Powerstroke is the suds, it slows the mosmatic surface cleaner rotating speed.
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Mine slows down even without the suds, using just cold water. Constantly have to lift it up a litttle to let the water out.
 
What about the specifics David?

How many sq.ft.?
How many guys?
How many days to do the job?
How many and what size surface cleaners?
Any issues or problems with the job?

Thanks.
 
Christopher said:
What about the specifics David?

How many sq.ft.?
How many guys?
How many days to do the job?
How many and what size surface cleaners?
Any issues or problems with the job?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Chris, I cleaned the main level of the garage only and it measured just under 100,000 s.f. The main level gets most of the cars and the upper levels weren't near as dirty (the city may clean the 2 upper levels some day). With this project being just the main level, I cleaned it by myself over 7 nights and probably averaged 8 hours per night. Used a 5.6 gpm @ 3,500 psi hot water skid while pushing a 24" BE stainless steel surface cleaner. The gum was awful as you can imagine after 3.5 years of buildup and easily took half the job time to remove it all.

My heater stopped working at the very beginning of the second night (not included in the 7 nights of cleaning). Quit after I couldn't get it going and went home and drove rig to Jacksonville the next morning for servicing. Was told it was an electrical issue (the heater only had 150 hours on it when it quit working). Also, tuned up the Vanguard 18 h.p. and changed oil in the engine and pump and had whole setup checked out and adjusted by my mechanic.

I can only imagine how much easier this job could have been had I bought an 8 gpm PW already. I will likely buy one before March as that is when I start my 6 days per week season. Also, looking forward to hiring my first full time employee. Just picked up a couple of condo projects for November and hope to use the proceeds from one of them to buy the new setup. I am tired of working by myself all the time and looking forward to being a boss!! I do have a guy that I use to clean roofs as I like being the ground guy on those type jobs.
 
HighTide said:
Nigel,
I have used Power Stroke for 3 years now and have only downstreamed it and it goes on pretty sudsy, then goes away while sitting on the concrete, then re-suds when the surface cleaner hits it. I don't ever recall the suds being so much that it slowed my BE surface cleaner's rotating speed though.
Click to expand...

The re-suds is where the problem lie with me, I get upset that i have to go slower.

Doug Rucker said:
Mine slows down even without the suds, using just cold water. Constantly have to lift it up a litttle to let the water out.
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At least the BE has notches in the brush skirt, mosmatic does not, it traps most of everything under the dome.

This is one of the key features of the waterjet and the steel eagle, no brush skirt , water evacuation is faster, ....couple that with low rotating resistance swivels, dueblin, that makes for a faster forward motion.

Dont get me wrong i like my mosmatic, but I wish for the day of a side by side comparison with a dueblin SC
 
HighTide said:
Chris, I cleaned the main level of the garage only and it measured just under 100,000 s.f. The main level gets most of the cars and the upper levels weren't near as dirty (the city may clean the 2 upper levels some day). With this project being just the main level, I cleaned it by myself over 7 nights and probably averaged 8 hours per night. Used a 5.6 gpm @ 3,500 psi hot water skid while pushing a 24" BE stainless steel surface cleaner. The gum was awful as you can imagine after 3.5 years of buildup and easily took half the job time to remove it all.

My heater stopped working at the very beginning of the second night (not included in the 7 nights of cleaning). Quit after I couldn't get it going and went home and drove rig to Jacksonville the next morning for servicing. Was told it was an electrical issue (the heater only had 150 hours on it when it quit working). Also, tuned up the Vanguard 18 h.p. and changed oil in the engine and pump and had whole setup checked out and adjusted by my mechanic.

I can only imagine how much easier this job could have been had I bought an 8 gpm PW already. I will likely buy one before March as that is when I start my 6 days per week season. Also, looking forward to hiring my first full time employee. Just picked up a couple of condo projects for November and hope to use the proceeds from one of them to buy the new setup. I am tired of working by myself all the time and looking forward to being a boss!! I do have a guy that I use to clean roofs as I like being the ground guy on those type jobs.
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Thats a task.
 
Thanks for the info David. I bet that the job seemed to take forever until finally the light at the end of the tunnel, especially the gum.

I have a Deublin swivel on one of my 24" steel eagle units and it is very dependable, almost 8 years old and not rebuild yet where the Whisper Wash swivels have been rebuilt several times over on the big guy and classics.
 
810f250 said:
The re-suds is where the problem lie with me, I get upset that i have to go slower.



At least the BE has notches in the brush skirt, mosmatic does not, it traps most of everything under the dome.

This is one of the key features of the waterjet and the steel eagle, no brush skirt , water evacuation is faster, ....couple that with low rotating resistance swivels, dueblin, that makes for a faster forward motion.

Dont get me wrong i like my mosmatic, but I wish for the day of a side by side comparison with a dueblin SC
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Yeah I have a BE also, and at the end of every job I'm soaked from my knees down because of those notches. I just use the Mosmatic and deal with the lifting. I just have to decide if I want to lift the cleaner to let the water escape or have soaked pants. Too bad cause I actually think the BE cleans netter and I too love my Mosmatic.
 
Doug Rucker said:
Yeah I have a BE also, and at the end of every job I'm soaked from my knees down because of those notches. I just use the Mosmatic and deal with the lifting. I just have to decide if I want to lift the cleaner to let the water escape or have soaked pants. Too bad cause I actually think the BE cleans netter and I too love my Mosmatic.
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Dont mean to jack the thread, but

Doug, are the surface cleaners the same size (BE vs mosmatic) and with the same make and size of nozzles attached to the same pw machine? Also check the distance from the nozzle tip to the cleaning surface.
 
I just changed out the 4 castor wheels on my BE surface cleaner (thanks Russ for getting them to me) and...WOW...what a difference a new set of wheels makes. I wish I would have changed them out prior to this big job. I have a large $300 driveway to clean on Monday and am now looking forward to it!!
 
David, have you used any other brands of concrete cleaners for drive thru's or parking garages?

I tried the Powerstroke on a few drive thru's many years ago and in my opinion it really did not do that much, if anything at all. It seems rather weak compared to other cleaners out there.

I bought the small package, I think it was called the power pack to try it out and then I was bidding on a large parking area and ordered a couple of their drum kits and never used them. Now they are rock-hard in the boxes and I think that if I add some chemicals to them, maybe they would work better.

When I looked on the msds it only mentions butyl. No caustic, No Sodium Metasilicate, No Potassium Hydroxide, etc...... I don't think that a good concrete cleaner is made just from butyl and surfactants but I could be wrong.

I know that some guys on the bbs say that it is a good chemical but I am wondering if they have tried something stronger or better to have a better frame of reference.

What do you think?

Thanks.
 
Christopher said:
David, have you used any other brands of concrete cleaners for drive thru's or parking garages?

I tried the Powerstroke on a few drive thru's many years ago and in my opinion it really did not do that much, if anything at all. It seems rather weak compared to other cleaners out there.

I bought the small package, I think it was called the power pack to try it out and then I was bidding on a large parking area and ordered a couple of their drum kits and never used them. Now they are rock-hard in the boxes and I think that if I add some chemicals to them, maybe they would work better.

When I looked on the msds it only mentions butyl. No caustic, No Sodium Metasilicate, No Potassium Hydroxide, etc...... I don't think that a good concrete cleaner is made just from butyl and surfactants but I could be wrong.

I know that some guys on the bbs say that it is a good chemical but I am wondering if they have tried something stronger or better to have a better frame of reference.

What do you think?

Thanks.
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I think David's method of straight hydroxide on the tough stains and then the downstreaming of powerstroke was probably a good idea - the tough stains were getting treated, then the emulsifying and surfactant properties of the powerstroke would have helped with keeping dirt suspended for rinsing.

Personally, I don't like the powerstroke - When I bought a 5 gallon bucket of it a while back I ended up adding hydroxide to the mix for downstreaming.

I now just use a sodium hydroxide and myristamine oxide blend now for oil and degreasing. Will use BT200 on some properties also.
 
Christopher said:
David, have you used any other brands of concrete cleaners for drive thru's or parking garages?

Thanks.
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Chris, I haven't used anything else. I took the advice of someone from the first day I started three years ago and have been using it ever since. I really think I need to try a few other concrete cleaners and would be open to any suggestions. The Power Stroke by itself doesn't clean a drive-thru very well so I hit the oil stains with strait hydroxide. Is there a couple of cleaners that I could order a sample pack? Thanks!
 
Thanks for the info Steven. I was thinking about making the drum kit and adding a bag of beads to it to make it stronger and it probably will work a lot better.
 
There is a good degreaser from PWP that I have heard good things about, forgot the name but maybe Steven has tried it.

I have heard good things about the degreaser that Russ J. sells at Southside Equipment.

Brad Jarman at Midwest Cleaning Solutions also has some good chemicals, give him a call.

Most of the vendors will send you a sample if you cover the shipping, give them a call.

I am like some of the guys here on the bbs, I usually make my own blend of degreaser and it works good.

Like everything else out there, you have to be careful, use proper ppe and don't get complacent with safety issues.
 
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