power washing technical specs

[architect100]

looking for a good technical specification related to power washing / cleaning of an existing parking garage? one which covers, water temp., nozzle recommendations, range and psi information, use of solvents, and reclaiming and/or disposal procedures? thanks.

[One Tough Pressure]

200° Hot water, a surface cleaner and 3000 psi are the most common approaches to this.
Chemicals vary depending on what is on the surface and how bad it is.
Recovery is pretty much mandatory. Check with the building plant manager and ask him where the drains go, he should know.
What type of equipment do you have now, or what do you have in mind to buy?

Reading this bbs is one of the best lessons one could ask for. There is tons of info here. Try the search function.

[Scott Stone]

Alan,
You need to look at who is doing the post. I don't think that this poster is a pressure washing contractor, judging from his login ID.

Alan is right, to a certain extent, and a lot of the specifications will depend on if the garage has been used yet, and if there are oil stains inside of it.
I will give you the specifications that I am familiar with from Government contracts that I have bid.
They usually specify 3000 PSI and 200 degrees. Some also specify a minimum gallons per minute. In this instance the standard is 5 GPM, however, the more the better, and usually the larger and more experienced contractors have a higher GPM available to them. You want to specify a surface cleaner, and not a wand. There is less likely a chance for damage if you do this. Usually on the surface cleaners they have 15 degree nozzles, although some may be different.
If there are oils that you are worried about being removed, you can specify a residual oil test to see that it is 95% clean. If you specify a higher percetnage than that it will be nearly impossible to get it clean enough. I have seen it specified that way, and that is why I pointed it out.
You also might want to specify what type of cleaners. The choices are citrus based, Sodium Hydroxide based, and acid based. All of them will work to a certain extent. It is just a matter of you determining what will work best on the substrate, and making sure that the contractor follows the specifications.
Recovery is a strong point of debate. There are the immediate recovery systems, such as a Fury system. They are not commonly available, but they are out there. You can also specify a Vacuum berm type system. These are commonly called Vacu-Booms, and tehy work well, but the water is not recovered as quickly. It actually has to flow down to the boom, and get vacuumed up and pumped back to a holding tank. They can also use a suction pump system, where the water is sandbagged and using a roofers pump, pumped back to a holding tank.
As for disposal of the wast water, you should have it specified in the contract that a waste water disposal proposal should be included in the contract. It really depends onyour area, what is needed to dispose of the waste water.
If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call, and I will help all that I can.

Scott Stone
cell 602-509-9741

[Jon]

Scott one thing I think got overlooked here, the closed loop system of reclaiming, filtering and reusing the water such as Alan and I have set up.

Would you not include that too since we all know there is no way any of us can hold all the water we put down, would take a tanker truck.

[Beth n Rod]

The gentleman who is posting was referred to the BBS by me. He called, found us online, checked out PWNA, and needs help for a spec he's writing as I recall, and Scott wins the prize, he is an architect who is trying to learn for his project.

Any help you guys can give is appreciated. He's out of his element here, but we're in ours....

Great responses by the way....

Beth

[Dave Olson]

Some parking garages have sealed floors. If this is the case a floor scrubber may do the best job. There are several manufacturers of this equipment. Walk behind as well as riding units.

This type of equipment can clean much like a street sweeper, and pick up there waste water.

Dave Olson

[Scott Stone]

Jon,
You are correct. I taught you well, Padawan Learner. I don't think that the Closed System is somethign that they would need to specify, although it would definitely be to the contractors advantage to employ it.
David, that is also true. He did not specify if it was sealed or not. If they spent their money the most wisely, they should probably seal it, although there could be disadvantages to that as well. I am thinking that somethign like V-Seal would be best.

Scott