Matt

Even if the entire rig was trashed, that was an excellent snag. There's not much to a pressure washer, and the engine is 50-75% of the total cost, so if that engine runs that's darn good. If you know a buddy that can weld, there's not much to a trailer either, so if you can slap on a pump and add on some accessories and the thing shoots hot water that's very, very good.

Just figure I'd say hey and welcome. I'm a former lawn care business guy myself. The career ended up throwing a lot more responsibility at me, so I ended up having to give it up the lawn care. Just like you mentioned, the health care benefits with my agency are insanely good, so I'm hanging on there while I get things in order myself for the roof cleaning business. Best of luck to you.

I'm looking at 2016 for the business being up and going. Don't worry though Chris, the moment it is, I'll be putting all of my information into my signature and probably changing my forum name to be appropriate for the business.

Good to see you typing again!

That's awesome!

I can't remember if it's automated or not. You're showing as a Premium Member under your name. Anyway, in general if you have any forum access issues I would call Gary at 502-773-1730, It's what I did back when I joined.

I'm not a roof cleaning expert mmason, so I probably can't help you with any advanced roof cleaning questions, but consider this for a moment. Roof cleaning is gaining some popularity, but is not grossly over-saturated with information and product visibility like say, carpet cleaning or lawn care. In lawn care, I could research the most obscure piece of equipment that I had never even heard of, and 600 people had already written a 10 paragraph review on it. With roof cleaning it's a little different, but that's a pretty neat area to develop something and become a contributor yourself. Maybe there is an additive or emulsifier that makes want you want to do a lot more plausible, but it's one of those obscure things that 600 people haven't written a 10 paragraph review on yet. There's actually a lot of areas in this service for growth when it comes to compiling information and lists. Consider my own post looking to gather peoples results on exposures to SH at various concentrations. As far as I know, this is the first time this question has been asked with the intent of actually gathering tangible data, but sometimes it's fun to go out and try to create your own informational post. It doesn't have any responses yet, but maybe one day it will, I should have probably bumped it up.

You're looking for Kuri-Tec, or more specifically model K1154. I do believe K1156 has exactly the same specs, it's just blue colored instead of red. This is the style.

Here's a uh...pole...softwash...creature thing in action. It's true though, the ladder with standoffs just doesn't seem to be easily beaten as far as an effective solution is concerned.

The issue becomes the material composition. Fiberglass is generally "eh" against SH, and aluminum is no good at all. Is there a PVC one maybe? Or perhaps you could fabricate your own?

From a business stand point consider this. If you get to the point where you're like, "Ugh, not ANOTHER 3 story 6000 square foot house. That's the fifth one this week. Man I wish I had gotten a 1" pump setup." you're in the best possible and most justified position for an upgrade. The other setup, regardless if it is 1/2" air or 12v will still be a great backup.

Ah, if you've got $2500 just for the pump, tank, hose, etc, then you've got plenty for a modest set up. I say modest because if you go big, you can eat up that $2500 extremely fast. I've been working on small engines for years, so I picked up a 16.2 CFM air compressor on Craigslist for $400. I put about $100 into it and it's a champ. If you're handy with machines and you know what to look for, there's plenty of decent air compressors on Craigslist. If you go new though, you can spend a lot in a hurry. The HF beast can set you back around $1100 plus tax. A beefy full stainless steel reel is another $350-550 depending on the model. Consider $200-300 for some chemical hose and $100-200 for some 3/4" mean green rinse hose and you've eaten through more money. A modest set up would be the $500 HF beast's little brother, a 1/2" Kynar pump, some 5/8" chemical hose, the 3/4" mean green, and your choice of how you want to set up your hoses, tanks etc. Even if you grow out of it and start venturing into 1" territory, you've still got an excellent back-up setup with those components.

Hey guys. I can tell you, I'm going through the exact same process you are, except I'm going through it a lot slower since I'm still at my full time career. I'll be putting up a Youtube video going through literally every single expense I incurred getting my rig together for the premium guys, but the biggest thing I can tell you is that there are a lot of little expenses that add up. What I mean is, obviously you'll need your compressor, pump, hose, fittings, rinse system etc, but consider some additional stuff like safety equipment (masks, goggles, gloves, harness etc), ladders, tools, chemicals, hardware (I think I've probably spent about $50 just in hardware alone, nuts, bolts, washers, etc), some prep work for the inside of the enclosed trailer so the fumes don't destroy everything etc. If you want to get out there cleaning, Gary's advice is very good, there's nothing wrong with one of those pre-made electric systems. Many people will tell you it's not perfect, but it gets you out there getting experience, and plenty of folks have had great success with electric systems. Also consider some budget for marketing if you haven't already. I was set on roughly $2500 for my setup as well, but I put aside another $2500 just for potential marketing materials.

This is kind of a morbid topic, but I noticed there is very little information on this subject. Now, there's really no scientific method to gaining data for this, but I wanted to at least compile some various responses based upon the exposures people have had (all of which I'm hoping are accidental!) to various concentrations of SH. Some things to include would be the percentage of concentration you were exposed to, the duration it was on your skin, and the effect. For instance, I'm curious what (if anyone's) findings were when being exposed to 1% SH, or 2% SH, or 4% etc. From trying to search for and reading peoples exposures, it looks like there are even effects that are found long after the exposure actually occurred. Anyhow, I'll be interested in any responses. Who knows though, maybe I'm the only person interested in this question.

Get well soon my man!