Dedicated Pump?

GumDestroyer

New Member
I have a tile roof to clean. Lot's of lichen, mold/mildew. I there any way around not going with a dedicated pump for this one job? My system is a DS injection system. There is only a couple of tile roofs in my area as almost everything is comp and cedar. Just don't see another one of these in the near future.
 

Doug Rucker

PWN ADMIN TEAM -
Staff member
Mike, is it one story or two story. If it is one story possibly. If it is two story, i really dont see any other way around it than a dedicated roof pump.
 

New Look

Registerd User
one story I xjet. I don't get the "calls" for roof cleaning to look at a dedicated pump...yet! I think we have had only 2-3 this year. Doug on the other hand is the "Fiddler on the Roof"....good play by the way! :)
 

Doug Rucker

PWN ADMIN TEAM -
Staff member
Mike, as Carlos said you can x jet it, but IMO it will take a long time. You must shoot everything head on on a tile roof, nothing side ways as it will not clean up 100%. Downstreaming you would never et your "mix" hot enough for a ttile roof. Feel free to call me if you need to.
 

New Look

Registerd User
Mike, as Carlos said you can x jet it, but IMO it will take a long time. You must shoot everything head on on a tile roof, nothing side ways as it will not clean up 100%. Downstreaming you would never et your "mix" hot enough for a ttile roof. Feel free to call me if you need to.

Ditto...the last 2 roof jobs was a bear...not so much that they were diffficult jobs BUT...as Doug indicated the xjet will just take longer vs. a dedicated pump. What we did was improvised with what we had as I mentioned before we do not go after roofs out here as they do in some parts of the country. If a customer calls me up and asked for a quote...I will go out and take a look at it and price accordingly. If the job appears to be too complex for me...I will pass.
 

TPenland

New Member
Question...haven't done any roofs yet (lost the bid one the only one I had), and I read this post about dedicated pumps vs DS and X-Jeting. Is the reason for a dedicated pump so that you can pump your solution straight onto the area being cleaned without the risk of dilution by DS'ing over a long distance?
 

New Look

Registerd User
Question...haven't done any roofs yet (lost the bid one the only one I had), and I read this post about dedicated pumps vs DS and X-Jeting. Is the reason for a dedicated pump so that you can pump your solution straight onto the area being cleaned without the risk of dilution by DS'ing over a long distance?

Hey Travis...that is one of the reasons if you are DS'ing. If you xjet it is very time consuming. Normally I jet out of a 5'er. What I did on my roof job is premixed my roof mix into a couple of 5 er's and placed them on the roof in strategic areas. Reason being is that I did not want to have to go up and down the ladder every time to refill on chems. The problem with taking a 5 gal. pail of chems up a ladder is obvious. One slip or mis-step and your chems are going all over you and the house and landscaping.

The dedicated pump approach is the proper and correct way of laying chems/soap on roofs. Another problem with xjetting is that Xjets produce more than enough mist to possibly carry over onto the next house. As you probably know, roof mixes are pretty strong with SH and etc. and I am sure that we don't want to have to worry about whether or not our "mist" is damaging the neighbors house. I was lucky on the roof that I did....it was a single story and was in a wooded area with no neighbors! If it was a 2 story home...I would not have even done the job.

If you look at 3 of my pics...you will see what I am talking about. I have 5'ers placed at certain spots on the roof which is not the most productive nor safest way to go.
 

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GumDestroyer

New Member
Ditto...the last 2 roof jobs was a bear...not so much that they were diffficult jobs BUT...as Doug indicated the xjet will just take longer vs. a dedicated pump. What we did was improvised with what we had as I mentioned before we do not go after roofs out here as they do in some parts of the country. If a customer calls me up and asked for a quote...I will go out and take a look at it and price accordingly. If the job appears to be too complex for me...I will pass.

I trust your judgment Carlos.
 

Doug Rucker

PWN ADMIN TEAM -
Staff member
Question...haven't done any roofs yet (lost the bid one the only one I had), and I read this post about dedicated pumps vs DS and X-Jeting. Is the reason for a dedicated pump so that you can pump your solution straight onto the area being cleaned without the risk of dilution by DS'ing over a long distance?

Yes, that is one reason. Some of the others for me are: 1) I never have to walk on the roof as roof pumps will shoot 30-40 feet. However, if I can safely walk on the roof I will. 2) I can cover a lot more sq feet a lot faster 3) IS the preferred 'soft" wash method. 4) I use electric pumps, which produce no noise, and allows me to talk to my ground man without yelling, AS WELL AS CUSTOMERS THAT WALK UP INQUIRING WHAT I AM DOING, can start early if I need too, no gas expense, 5)no waste of chem 6) if we pressure washer to rinse and wet landscape the ground man can be doing a house ash at the same time, (but there goes the quietness as mentioned in #4. And many more.

I also use my roof pump for house washes. About the only time I fire up my rig is if I am cleaning cob webs, dirt dobbers, or concrete. Saves a lot of hours on the rig. Roof Pumps are relatively inexpensive to replace if and when they go bad.
 

PressurePros

New Member
Mike, for under $400 you can set up a 5 gpm 12V system including pump, hose, battery, and gun (no reel). Its well worth the investment. Carlos, you do enough chemical concrete cleaning that you would get tons of mileage from one as well.
 

Doug Rucker

PWN ADMIN TEAM -
Staff member
And you can run just about any chem through as long as you clean em out and keep em maintained.
 

New Look

Registerd User
Mike, for under $400 you can set up a 5 gpm 12V system including pump, hose, battery, and gun (no reel). Its well worth the investment. Carlos, you do enough chemical concrete cleaning that you would get tons of mileage from one as well.

Yep....I reckon so. Give me a shout this week brooooooo!!!!
 

GumDestroyer

New Member
Mike, for under $400 you can set up a 5 gpm 12V system including pump, hose, battery, and gun (no reel). Its well worth the investment. Carlos, you do enough chemical concrete cleaning that you would get tons of mileage from one as well.

Maybe I need to consider that Ken. I might call you for more info after I finish these two decks.
 

GumDestroyer

New Member
Thanks Carlos for your willingness to help on info. for this type of set up. I might get on the bandwagon sounds like I could do more than just tile roofs with it...

Mike
 

Torque454

New Member
Nice to know others are doing the same thing that I had in mind. I have general pump's version of the x-jet and it has way too much mist and uses too much chemical. I dont like downstreaming either, because i dont want to go back and forth to shut the chemical off all the time. Ive been rinsing with the same tip I apply chemical with. (pretty much a straight jet of water under low pressure. You could use a garden hose to do what I do). Then even if i go back and shut off the chemical, I still have 150-200 ft of water in the hoses that has chemical in it.

For this reason I am wanting to build a chemical sprayer dedicated to applying chemicals (i mainly wash houses) My thought is to take a 15 gallon chemical drum, mount it on a cart/hand truck (or dolly whatever you want to call it) and put on a pump/battery on top and some hose. Probably a little hanger somewhere on the dolly/cart to wrap the hose around on. Then use this setup for my chemical sprayer. I have a 15 gallon sprayer already that has a 1gpm pump and would take a 2' x 4' wagon to tow it around. Its not really ideal, only has a 15 ft hose and not really enough flow or pressure.

I have also considered using a hypro roller pump (i have a silver series 7gpm pump on the shelf and a two different motors I could use to drive it) that is possibly trailer mounted (which would need several hundred feet of hose) or put it on a dolly/cart as well. I suppose a 5 gallon bucket or two would work as well and i could just put a pump and battery or engine on a cart and move it around.

One thing ive been using the most is a rechargable 5 gallon electric backpack sprayer. Cheapie from harbor freight but works great. Kinda heavy to carry around and its only got a 1gpm pump also but that might be able to be changed, the pump has the standard flange found on alot of electric pumps. That could be my best option? I dont know.
 

New Look

Registerd User
Nice to know others are doing the same thing that I had in mind. I have general pump's version of the x-jet and it has way too much mist and uses too much chemical. I dont like downstreaming either, because i dont want to go back and forth to shut the chemical off all the time. Ive been rinsing with the same tip I apply chemical with. (pretty much a straight jet of water under low pressure. You could use a garden hose to do what I do). Then even if i go back and shut off the chemical, I still have 150-200 ft of water in the hoses that has chemical in it.

For this reason I am wanting to build a chemical sprayer dedicated to applying chemicals (i mainly wash houses) My thought is to take a 15 gallon chemical drum, mount it on a cart/hand truck (or dolly whatever you want to call it) and put on a pump/battery on top and some hose. Probably a little hanger somewhere on the dolly/cart to wrap the hose around on. Then use this setup for my chemical sprayer. I have a 15 gallon sprayer already that has a 1gpm pump and would take a 2' x 4' wagon to tow it around. Its not really ideal, only has a 15 ft hose and not really enough flow or pressure.

I have also considered using a hypro roller pump (i have a silver series 7gpm pump on the shelf and a two different motors I could use to drive it) that is possibly trailer mounted (which would need several hundred feet of hose) or put it on a dolly/cart as well. I suppose a 5 gallon bucket or two would work as well and i could just put a pump and battery or engine on a cart and move it around.

One thing ive been using the most is a rechargable 5 gallon electric backpack sprayer. Cheapie from harbor freight but works great. Kinda heavy to carry around and its only got a 1gpm pump also but that might be able to be changed, the pump has the standard flange found on alot of electric pumps. That could be my best option? I dont know.

I have a devlan for a 5 'er that is similar to what you say above. The 5 gal. bucket sits in a cradle with 3 wheels and I have a band that secures the bucket in. The pump sits right over the 5 gal bucket that is specifically to fit perfectly over the top of the bucket. I have about 10-15' of goodyear hose with a trigger gun. I have some pics of it somewhere...will post them after I dig em up!!!

Good thread!!!
 

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