Recovery equipment questions

[John T.]

What type of recovery equipment do you use and what are some links to them that we can look at??

Also how much would one have to pay to have the type of recovery sytem that some here have in place??

NY is one day going to be like Cali where recovery is something that will have to be done alot more often.

[Paul Kassander]

I use a custom drain insert, not up on my site yet, and a vacuboom. I do alot of moving around so a latimat is not a usefull piece of equip for me plus they are a pita. The vacuboom works ok but the drain insert is the easiest and least troublesome. http://mobicleaninc.com/store/catego...nce_Items.html

[newlook]

John,

Alan has a really sweet recovery setup. We dam and evaporate if at all possible.

[HotShot]

as long as you're not using chems...can't leave the chems there or the rain will re-activate it and wash it down the storm drains anyway...

or you can go give the right person money and get a permit to dump anything you want down any drain you want. It's all about the money in my humble opinion.

Isn't the PWNA really, really big on this stuff?

[John T.]

Originally Posted by HotShot

Isn't the PWNA really, really big on this stuff?

The PWNA is but being from NY I never really took an interest in reclaiming...or Hood Cleaning...But I can see reclaiming becoming an issue here that has to be dealt with sooner or later. Oh yea and I'll still have no interest in Hood Cleaning..I'd rather not see the grime at places I want to eat at.

[FCPWLLC]

This set up looks promising...
http://sunbrite.stores.yahoo.net/scsvggaresy.html

with one of these....
http://sunbrite.stores.yahoo.net/scsc21sucl.html

[One Tough Pressure]

www.pressurewasher.net is the guy who builds those. I have one of his vacuums and it does what he said it will do, suck the @%#&* out of anything.

I use the Steel Eagle surface Cleaners, as he did not offer one at the time. Heck he had not even heard of them until I mentioned what I was going to do with his vacuum.

You can relate this system to a cold water unit and a hot box. It is nice because you can spread it out and not have the huge footprint of a Fury system which is roughly 4' x 4'.

My vacuum is 20"x31" and trhe waste tank is a 30 gallon drum at about 20". Only downfall of my unit, is that I went with a 12hp which has it's own fuel tank. Tank is only 2 gallons or so and needs filling often. No power issues with the 12 just fueling.

I think the best bang for the buck is a high quality vacuum with pump out system and sand bags/berms for outdoor work. Vacubooms are nice, but they wear out to quick for the cost. Employees will kill them quick.

[Mathew Johnson]

Originally Posted by John T.

What type of recovery equipment do you use and what are some links to them that we can look at??

Also how much would one have to pay to have the type of recovery sytem that some here have in place??

NY is one day going to be like Cali where recovery is something that will have to be done alot more often.

We invested heavily in reclaim / recovery equipment this year. Some was planned and some was bought emergently to score on the massive floods up here this year. Here is a list of equipment.

- 40 feet vacuboom with vacuboom duel head vacuum with auto pump out
- 4 sump pumps (2 of them are intellipumps)
- 75 feet 2 inch vacuum hose
- 75 feet 1/1/2 inch vacuum hose
- 2 power washer sludge pumps (worth thier weight in gold)
- 30 feet of sand berms (easily made with sand and pool discharge hose)
- oil socks
- Hydrotek water filtration system (also worth its weight in gold)
- Nikro Duel head vacuum - I Installed commercial sump pump in it for pump out capability (best electric vacuum I have ever seen)
- Steel Eagle 19 inch surface vacuum surface cleaner
- Steel Eagle 8 or 9 inch wall (I cant remember size) surface vacuum surface cleaner
- good ole fashioned floor squeegie
- Commercial dehumidifier
- blower for drying

This equipment allowed me to market and venture into interior property cleaning (cellars, commercial businesses and interior of flooded homes.)

[Mathew Johnson]

Originally Posted by Mathew Johnson

We invested heavily in reclaim / recovery equipment this year. Some was planned and some was bought emergently to score on the massive floods up here this year. Here is a list of equipment.

- 40 feet vacuboom with vacuboom duel head vacuum with auto pump out
- 4 sump pumps (2 of them are intellipumps)
- 75 feet 2 inch vacuum hose
- 75 feet 1/1/2 inch vacuum hose
- 2 power washer sludge pumps (worth thier weight in gold)
- 30 feet of sand berms (easily made with sand and pool discharge hose)
- oil socks
- Hydrotek water filtration system (also worth its weight in gold)
- Nikro Duel head vacuum - I Installed commercial sump pump in it for pump out capability (best electric vacuum I have ever seen)
- Steel Eagle 19 inch surface vacuum surface cleaner
- Steel Eagle 8 or 9 inch wall (I cant remember size) surface vacuum surface cleaner
- good ole fashioned floor squeegie
- Commercial dehumidifier
- blower for drying

This equipment allowed me to market and venture into interior property cleaning (cellars, commercial businesses and interior of flooded homes.)

To answer your other question John... I probably have around 8 to 10 K invested.

[John T.]

Originally Posted by Mathew Johnson

To answer your other question John... I probably have around 8 to 10 K invested.

Matt--For you the recovery equipment was well justified because of the work you got that needed it. So with that being said if you didn't have the work lined up would you have bought the recovery equipment in advance??

This is my dilemma..I'm wondering to myself do I buy Recovery equipment and advertise that I do this type of work to see If I can snare some or do I wait to see if I can get a recovery type job then purchase the equipment. The other problem is that you can't raise prices here to much just because you do recover. As for inside work like you did I can see where there is an absolute need to have the type of recovery equipment that you have but since I have no plans in the future to do anytype of inside work except for maybe parking garages I don't know if I can justify a $10,000+ expense in this type of equipment.

[HotShot]

One of my good buddies hits up gas stations all the time...well, actually they call him. He quotes them at a recover price which is usually a lot more becuase of the time involved and he hasn't had a taker yet. They look at him like he has a third eye or something. Most of them say "I don't need all that recover stuff" and he explains the fines that they can get and he can get and all that....they are cheapskates and they won't pay for it. One owner asked him if he was serious that he had to do all that recovery stuff....yeah, even in California.

They end up going with the Joe Blow that has a Coleman in the back of their 87 Toyota pickup....

[Mathew Johnson]

Originally Posted by John T.

Matt--For you the recovery equipment was well justified because of the work you got that needed it. So with that being said if you didn't have the work lined up would you have bought the recovery equipment in advance??

This is my dilemma..I'm wondering to myself do I buy Recovery equipment and advertise that I do this type of work to see If I can snare some or do I wait to see if I can get a recovery type job then purchase the equipment. The other problem is that you can't raise prices here to much just because you do recover. As for inside work like you did I can see where there is an absolute need to have the type of recovery equipment that you have but since I have no plans in the future to do anytype of inside work except for maybe parking garages I don't know if I can justify a $10,000+ expense in this type of equipment.

John, I bought the vacuboom system from ACR at the beginning of the year... just to have it. He sold the water filtration system to me for a price that I couldn't refuse.. I knew I would use it eventually. Believe it or not, I just used the vacuboom(s) the other day for the first time. I did one cellar water extraction job that paid for over half of my reclain equipment.

My five year plan was to have an equipment arsenal to tackle almost any job that I had the opportunity to make serious cash with... I have done that in three years.

I just bid the interior of an Audi Dealer Service shop walls and floors. I have done a dealership already.... it pays well, is quick and is easy... I will talk about marketing techniques and opportunities that I have capitalized on at Tom's roundtable next month. Hope to see you there.

On all of the convience stores, I typically used oil socks, sand berms and sump pumps to prevent wash water discharge. Piece of cake!

[John T.]

Jeff how's that swabby working out for ya. Was it worth the expense??

Home Video of the Swabby in ACTION!

Matt I'm planning on attending Tom's Roundtable. The only thing holding me back is if I get this 41 building job on Long Island..Never know what lands on ones lap.

[HotShot]

that Swabby is pretty cool. It would be great for Huge areas.

[One Tough Pressure]

Originally Posted by Mathew Johnson

Steel Eagle 19 inch surface vacuum surface cleaner
Steel Eagle 8 or 9 inch wall (I cant remember size) surface vacuum surface cleaner
homes.)

That would be a 16" and an 11". They did offer an 18" but that was made by Pro Chem and looks like a floor buffer. It is still offered by Pro Chem, but not by Steel Eagle.

I found those Nikro's a few years back, and have set up quite a few for some people. Real good vacuum for the price.