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Hey Chris, Happy Be-lated Thanksgiving! I was down your way last week, spent the Holiday over at Palm Coast playing golf and eating way too much food. Good times for sure! Now its back to the grind and trying to get caught up from being gone last week.. 

 

I'm with you on PowerWash.com, I met those guys down at the PWNA Convention, a very first class company with lots of good products and chemicals.

No first hand knowledge on Ugly Shingles / Certified Softwash systems but did talk to a few guys down there that spoke very highly of them and use their system.

 

One of these Florida runs I'm going to make my way over to Tampa and treat you to a good meal and a couple of cold beverages of your choice, then we can go take a look at a couple of your rigs so we can copy the secrets to your success! I'm due for another run this winter without the family..

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Hey Chris, Happy Be-lated Thanksgiving! I was down your way last week, spent the Holiday over at Palm Coast playing golf and eating way too much food. Good times for sure! Now its back to the grind and trying to get caught up from being gone last week.. 

 

I'm with you on PowerWash.com, I met those guys down at the PWNA Convention, a very first class company with lots of good products and chemicals.

No first hand knowledge on Ugly Shingles / Certified Softwash systems but did talk to a few guys down there that spoke very highly of them and use their system.

 

One of these Florida runs I'm going to make my way over to Tampa and treat you to a good meal and a couple of cold beverages of your choice, then we can go take a look at a couple of your rigs so we can copy the secrets to your success! I'm due for another run this winter without the family..

Just let me know in advance my friend!

90% of my business is cleaning roofs. We do very little soft wash exterior cleaning, by choice.

The real money is in the soft washing of roofs, at least here in Tampa.

We have idiots cleaning entire houses (minus the roof) for 125.00 for up to 3,000 sq ft!

My trucks are designed to soft wash roofs, a lot of them, as fast as it is possible.

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I was wondering how to build my own soft wash rig

Well ...... first you will need a pump and a tank, but I have seen people out soft washing using a plastic garbage can as the "tank", and dollar store garden hose.

You will need to tell us a litte more about your budget, so we can help you with a soft wash system

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Hi Y'all. I am new to this forum but have been soft washing for about a year now. I Have a very simple system but it is time consuming. I found a 70 gal tank with a 3.4 gal a min pump on craigslist for $70. I hooked it up with some plumbing parts from home depot and used a 200' garden hose and made my own sprayer from pvc pipe and a ball valve. I recently bought 250' of 3/8 chemical hose because the garden hose finally failed. I think I should have bought 1/2" hose because now my pump cycles very rapidly.  I am rinsing out of a 5gal bucket that I have to fill up 2 or 3 times. I would like to upgrade with hose reels, a three way ball valve for switching from SH to water for rinsing, but I am barely scraping by in this business as it is and all that stuff is very expensive. I would like to learn more about setting up a system that is very simple yet very user friendly and cheap!  I am in the west palm beach FL area and it's very competitive.

Any advice?

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Hi Y'all. I am new to this forum but have been soft washing for about a year now. I Have a very simple system but it is time consuming. I found a 70 gal tank with a 3.4 gal a min pump on craigslist for $70. I hooked it up with some plumbing parts from home depot and used a 200' garden hose and made my own sprayer from pvc pipe and a ball valve. I recently bought 250' of 3/8 chemical hose because the garden hose finally failed. I think I should have bought 1/2" hose because now my pump cycles very rapidly.  I am rinsing out of a 5gal bucket that I have to fill up 2 or 3 times. I would like to upgrade with hose reels, a three way ball valve for switching from SH to water for rinsing, but I am barely scraping by in this business as it is and all that stuff is very expensive. I would like to learn more about setting up a system that is very simple yet very user friendly and cheap!  I am in the west palm beach FL area and it's very competitive.

Any advice?

Get RID of that 3/8 hose for starters! 

Get and combine 2 lengths of 100 ft 5/8 hose from the dollar store if you are money challenged, it will last for awhile.

Just flush it out good, when u are done.

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Really? the guy at mako hose and rubber said it would be fine and it was $200. That sucks!

Take that 3/8 shit back bro. It is choking your softwashing pump, and that small diameter hose will soon find it's way under the shingles, then rip them when you pull on it!

When you use the proper 5/8 hose, you will think you got a new pump,. compared to that 3/8 crap.

You were new to softwashing, you didn't know, but now you know.

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Yeah, they wouldnt take it back. I put it on ebay and craigslist.

That 3/8 stuff was 250'

Prior to that I was using 200' of 5/8 garden hose but it breaks down fast and kinks so much it drives me nuts.

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 There probably not going to let you return it after its been used because they cant put it back on the shelf. How much hose are you running?

I know a soft wash roof cleaner here in Tampa that used to buy and use lifetime guarantee 5/8 garden hose from Kmart or Sears.

When it started to fail from all the Softwashing of roofs he did, he simply rinsed it out, and returned it! 

 

 

Live and learn! Ya think they'll exchange it for 5/8? Only used it for one job. Thanks for the advice. I am so glad I found this Forum.

LOL, be sure and rinse it well, and tell then you only ran water through it! 

Never mention Bleach, or that it was part of your Soft Wash System! 

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Hey all, not been on in a while what with Christmas and over indulging. Belated Happy & Healthy 2014 to everyone. 

 

Right down to business.  I'm trying to build my own first soft wash roof cleaning system (I live in the UK), I've sourced and bought a 12v pump went for what I thought was a good pump after reading up on them.  I've got the Pentaflex Flojet pump.

 

I'm now trying to source the other bits and pieces, I already have a 400lts baffled tank but might use an old wheelie bin I have to start with, and i've got the battery   I'm having troubling sourcing a stainless steel manual hose reel at a reasonable price, I'm getting some crazy quotes as it would appear stainless steel is very expensive.

 

I did look at the Powerwash.com kit but shipping and import tax to the UK ruled that out.

 

If anyone can recommend a hose reel I'll have a look to see if I can find the same thing in the UK or see what the cost to import would be.

 

Also looking at the Powerwash.com system has a nice 5/8 polypropylene 3 way marine valve if anyone can recommend a good one of them that would be great.

 

If anyone can assist me in getting the rest of my kit I'd be extremely grateful to you.

 

Thanks in advance

Jonathan 

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Cris do you like to use a hose reel or loop the hose on a rack ?

We don't use Hose Reels on our Softwash Systems, we simply loop the hose around a large plastic box.

If you choose to use a hose reel, be sure it is has at least a stainless steel inner manifold, and rise it out quickly, after each and every soft wash or roof cleaning job, or it will fail.

The hose reels all failed on us, even when we rinsed them out, so we said screw that, and have not used a hose reel on our 2 soft wash roof cleaning trucks in 4 years.

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Hey all, not been on in a while what with Christmas and over indulging. Belated Happy & Healthy 2014 to everyone. 

 

Right down to business.  I'm trying to build my own first soft wash roof cleaning system (I live in the UK), I've sourced and bought a 12v pump went for what I thought was a good pump after reading up on them.  I've got the Pentaflex Flojet pump.

 

I'm now trying to source the other bits and pieces, I already have a 400 liters baffled tank but might use an old wheelie bin I have to start with, and i've got the battery   I'm having troubling sourcing a stainless steel manual hose reel at a reasonable price, I'm getting some crazy quotes as it would appear stainless steel is very expensive.

 

I did look at the Powerwash.com kit but shipping and import tax to the UK ruled that out.

 

If anyone can recommend a hose reel I'll have a look to see if I can find the same thing in the UK or see what the cost to import would be.

 

Also looking at the Powerwash.com system has a nice 5/8 polypropylene 3 way marine valve if anyone can recommend a good one of them that would be great.

 

If anyone can assist me in getting the rest of my kit I'd be extremely grateful to you.

 

Thanks in advance

Jonathan 

The Soft Wash Chemicals will soon eat up the baffles in your tank Jonathan!

A tank with internal baffles is a big No No, for a Softwash System.

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Chris would you be able to take some close up photos of your setup for me and also a list of what a basic soft wash roof cleaning setup would require, i'd be extremely grateful to you if you could help me out on this.  I'm trying to have something up and running and be able to test come March as that's when the weather is the UK should start to improve.

 

As for the baffled tank although it's called a baffled tank it doesn't actually have baffles in it its one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/window-cleaning-water-tank

 

I'm probably going to use a spare wheelie bin for it as it's all made out of heavy duty plastic and should with stand the chlorine, also its cheaper to replace than my baffled tank.

 

Many thanks in advance

Jonathan

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Jonathan;

Chris and my set ups are pretty much identical, except for the size of somethings. You may not want to go this big to start with, but hopefully it will help you to see what you need.

 

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Just some hose. I recommend 3/4" somewhere around 150--200' and a nozzle (adjustable). Some tarps and you're ready to go.  A ladder also.

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Thanks Gary, I'm trying to source the parts here in the UK which is taking a bit of time but I won't give up as I think this could be a very nice niche market in the UK.  I'll keep you posted.

 

Just to check you'd recommend 3/4 over 5/8?  The 12v pump I'm using is a 5.5bar max with 7 gpm.

 

Thanks again

Jonathan

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That looks like the Pudding, and should work a treat! 

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