con roof help please

[Greener]

Hi all, I have a great customer that I clean on a regular basis, I clean the house and conservatory up to the guttering he has asked me to quote for the con roof. I would appreciate a bit of help now ive cleaned quite a few roofs now but this one is different than them due to the pitch of the glass its nearly horizontal, I'm more than happy I can clean it but im a bit dubious about the rinsing process? I find in most roofs ive cleaned the rinsing part takes me just as long as the cleaning getting every little bit off? What do you boys use/do to remove all the debris? Thanks in advance Greener

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[Alien Human]

I would get my combi ladders out, get them into platform position, connect up to customers outside hosepipe and use my old sill brush VERY GENTLY to give it a good rinse and GENTLE scrub down. Would then connect up to my van and wash & rinse with purified water. Time consuming but that's why I charge more for them. Here's one I did this week......which to be fair you can't really see how clean the top is......but gives an idea View attachment 4303

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[TolishAPurd]

Would it help to use a squeegee on a pole to get the worst of the tap water off, before rinsing with pure? Should be easy enough with straight pulls.

 

[Smurf]

On that type of low pitched roof they tend to get quite a bit of build up of debris under and around the lead flashing etc. I tend rather than trying to flush it out I vacuum it out first using a guttervac instead. That way I reduce the amount of **** that goes all over the glass in the cleaning process.

Regarding the final rinsing down I turn the flow rate on the pump controller to full as I'm not that bothered how much pure water I use as my pure freedom trolley is connected to two tanks in the van (approx 700 litres)

For me I prefer not to attempt to clean a glass conservatory roof on a hot day as I find it harder to clean. I much prefer to do job like that on overcast days and ever when it's raining.

Regarding fine particles being left on the glass you can spend all day trying to chase them away but you have to decide when it's time to stop. I just let the customer know this and as long as the frames & glass is cleaner than when I started they don't seem to mind and are normally very happy with the job.

The other option you could trad the glass with say a wagtail but I tend not to as the fine particals of tile grit could scratch the glass.

Note: If it happens to be self cleaning glass then be careful what method & chems you use.

 

[Smurf]

Myself I live in a hard water area so I avoid using tap water.

I would get my combi ladders out, get them into platform position, connect up to customers outside hosepipe and use my old sill brush VERY GENTLY to give it a good rinse and GENTLE scrub down. Would then connect up to my van and wash & rinse with purified water. Time consuming but that's why I charge more for them. Here's one I did this week......which to be fair you can't really see how clean the top is......but gives an idea View attachment 6540View attachment 6541View attachment 6543

 

[Alien Human]

Myself I live in a hard water area so I avoid using tap water.

Very true Smurf....I should have added that I do that for the first clean then just pure for maintenance cleans. I live in Brighton which is the hard water capital of the whole entire universe :thumbsup:

 

[Alien Human]

Would it help to use a squeegee on a pole to get the worst of the tap water off, before rinsing with pure? Should be easy enough with straight pulls.

That's a good idea :thumbsup:

 

[Smurf]

May I add that style low pitched roof is one of my pet hates to clean properly but is a lot easier to clean than alot of the others I get to do.

 

[Smurf]

Nice job by the way :thumbsup:

I would get my combi ladders out, get them into platform position, connect up to customers outside hosepipe and use my old sill brush VERY GENTLY to give it a good rinse and GENTLE scrub down. Would then connect up to my van and wash & rinse with purified water. Time consuming but that's why I charge more for them. Here's one I did this week......which to be fair you can't really see how clean the top is......but gives an idea View attachment 6540View attachment 6541View attachment 6543

 

[Tuffers]

Hi all, I have a great customer that I clean on a regular basis, I clean the house and conservatory up to the guttering he has asked me to quote for the con roof. I would appreciate a bit of help /emoticons/wink.png now ive cleaned quite a few roofs now but this one is different than them due to the pitch of the glass its nearly horizontal, I'm more than happy I can clean it but im a bit dubious about the rinsing process? I find in most roofs ive cleaned the rinsing part takes me just as long as the cleaning getting every little bit off? What do you boys use/do to remove all the debris? Thanks in advance Greener

Would custy give 2 hoots if you knocked the owl off the roof

I find that the lead flashing stains glass roofs and they really do look shite when you've cleaned the glass. If there is a lot of moss etc on the roof I find that sweeping it off with your water turned off using your WFP helps. As Smurf said, you can chase the small bits all day while rinsing and bits off trees and out of the air will always fall on the roof even while you're still cleaning it. You can scrub the frames and glass and get most of the muck off and then change to a clean brush and rinse while the brush is still on the glass, this will bring small particles that are left down with your brush.

 

[Greener]

I would get my combi ladders out, get them into platform position, connect up to customers outside hosepipe and use my old sill brush VERY GENTLY to give it a good rinse and GENTLE scrub down. Would then connect up to my van and wash & rinse with purified water. Time consuming but that's why I charge more for them. Here's one I did this week......which to be fair you can't really see how clean the top is......but gives an idea View attachment 6540View attachment 6541View attachment 6543

Hi @Alien Human, that's exactly what I do with that type of roof Tap water then good rinse with pure ;-) thank god for the combi ladder/platform set up defo one of my best purchases to date :thumbs: I don't really have a problem with that style of roof I actually enjoy them, its just the rinse Id like to get quicker at. I was thinking the a squeegee on a pole scenario as suggested by @TolishAPurd :thumbsup: but I haven had a lot of experience with Trad equipment and as @Smurf said im a bit worried about scratching the glass. Its quite a large con id say about 18ft from front to back.

 

[Taxlossloz]

I did one identical last week

Spent ages

Looked ****!

Brush it loads then squeege on unger pole

Don't bother rinsing you just move muck around

And tell customer it's the hardest type of windows to clean

And hope it chucks it down just as u finish !

 

[Dave B]

Very true Smurf....I should have added that I do that for the first clean then just pure for maintenance cleans. I live in Brighton which is the hard water capital of the whole entire universe :thumbsup:

500ppm here

 

[Alien Human]

500ppm here

!!! Brightons just been knocked off the number one spot......surprised - thought your area would be a bit lower than that

 

[spruce]

I have found that when it comes to the rinse, I adjust my angle adapter so the brush is pointing back toward me a little. So as I'm pulling the brush towards me the jets are squirting forwards and driving any debris towards the gutter.

You will never get it perfect as has been said, but a glass roof does need more attention.

We did have one that was such a pain we actually squeegeed the rinse water off.

I agree with @Smurf and others that the amount of grit that gets under the seals on the rails is unbelievable. I hate cleaning conservatory roofs period. I see another local cleaner now refuses to clean them or gutters, so I get the job once a year.

 

[SolarPanelCleaning]

If it's near a tree they'll be bits under lead and plastic. Charge double what you think it'll be and use loads of time and water. Bloody bits.

 

[lou]

using custies outside tap/hose 1st helps a long way