Legalities of equipment etc

[LiamChecks]

Boring topic I know...

But want to make sure everything is fully legal, mainly from a disposal POV.

I offer Render cleaning, Roof cleaning, Gutter cleaning & Patio cleaning.

Render cleaning - Currently using pureseal hypo, doing everything to a good standard and when rinsing hypo off walls, naturally the run off is towards the road most of the time going straight into drains - what's the deal here, legally?

Roof cleaning - Again, when spraying biocide/hypo on roof after scraping, naturally this can flow into the guttering and down the downpipe straight into the drain - similar as above, what's the best course of action and what should be done?

Gutter cleaning - When emptying the gutter vac, is it best to get your gloves on, dig in and grab the muck to put into green bags to take away and put in own bin when home and then flush the vac through, tipping the murky water down a normal drain once done?

Patio cleaning - more hypo based again really. run off into drain malarkey but a very small part of my business.

Thanks all, any recommendations/best practices from your experience and also some info on the legalities would be very useful.

Liam

 

[Part Timer]

Anytime you use chemicals to clean you either need to remove it or get permission from the local water board to allow it down the drain, or just hope you don't get caught.

Pollution prevention for businesses

How businesses and organisations can avoid causing pollution from oil and chemical storage, car washing, construction and other activities.

www.gov.uk

We either dispose of contents of gutter vac under bushes, customers bin, or remove and dispose back home. As there are no chemicals, and as long as you don't block the drain, then rinsing clean is ok.

 

[LiamChecks]

Anytime you use chemicals to clean you either need to remove it or get permission from the local water board to allow it down the drain, or just hope you don't get caught.

Pollution prevention for businesses

How businesses and organisations can avoid causing pollution from oil and chemical storage, car washing, construction and other activities.

www.gov.uk

We either dispose of contents of gutter vac under bushes, customers bin, or remove and dispose back home. As there are no chemicals, and as long as you don't block the drain, then rinsing clean is ok.

Thanks matey.
Yeah the chemicals are a bit of a tough one - because realistically I doubt many get permission, and I very much doubt many remove it as such... But I also don't want to get some busy body having a pop.

 

[scottish cleaning service]

I went on a £500 two day softwashing course and I believe it was well worth it, gained a city and guilds certificate.

 

[LiamChecks]

I went on a £500 two day softwashing course and I believe it was well worth it, gained a city and guilds certificate.

Happy to do these things - what course was it mate?

also, what did you achieve other than that certificate? For example, if you're now washing with hypo, are you following all legalities now since?

 

[RickyG]

Happy to do these things - what course was it mate?

also, what did you achieve other than that certificate? For example, if you're now washing with hypo, are you following all legalities now since?

purple rhino have got some day softwashing courses coming up £127

 

[Pjj]

99% of firms from one man bands to large organisations don't inform the authorities or get permission, not saying it’s right but if everyone applied for permission the back log would take years to authorise, provided from your risk assessment you are taking all reasonable precautions you SHOULD be ok , I regularly deal with the EA and water authority and in 25 years have never had any issues , but this whole thing is a potential mine field and a very grey area , what one says is ok someone else will say it’s not ,let us know how you get on this is a very interesting subject and no clear answer to a lot of it . Agree with @Part Timer about gutter waist however if you remove it from site technically you need a waist carriers licence so yet again more issues to deal with ???

 

[scottish cleaning service]

Happy to do these things - what course was it mate?

also, what did you achieve other than that certificate? For example, if you're now washing with hypo, are you following all legalities now since?

Mine was with Michael Conway but not sure if he still runs the courses. [email protected] was his email address.

 

[Pjj]

Mine was with Michael Conway but not sure if he still runs the courses. [email protected] was his email address.

Think he died from biocide induced throat cancer didn’t he ?.

 

[LiamChecks]

99% of firms from one man bands to large organisations don't inform the authorities or get permission, not saying it’s right but if everyone applied for permission the back log would take years to authorise, provided from your risk assessment you are taking all reasonable precautions you SHOULD be ok , I regularly deal with the EA and water authority and in 25 years have never had any issues , but this whole thing is a potential mine field and a very grey area , what one says is ok someone else will say it’s not ,let us know how you get on this is a very interesting subject and no clear answer to a lot of it . Agree with @Part Timer about gutter waist however if you remove it from site technically you need a waist carriers licence so yet again more issues to deal with ???

Bloody heck it can never be easy can it haha!

Thanks mate, very helpful as always!

 

[scottish cleaning service]

Think he died from biocide induced throat cancer didn’t he ?.

Never heard anything about him.

 

[Part Timer]

Think he died from biocide induced throat cancer didn’t he ?.

He is dead, from something induced by what he was using for softwashing, not sure what it was exactly though.

 

[Pjj]

He is dead, from something induced by what he was using for softwashing, not sure what it was exactly though.

He had throat cancer from using biocides he told me that himself several years ago when I was looking at doing a course , Hurd he had died and guess it was from that , not a nice way to go , this is why it’s important to understand what you are using and use the appropriate PPE

 

[Part Timer]

Happy to do these things - what course was it mate?

also, what did you achieve other than that certificate? For example, if you're now washing with hypo, are you following all legalities now since?

If you go on the course I went on then they say cleaning with Hypo, for anything but sterilisation, is illegal. Again a grey area but something I am avoiding until it is properly clarified.

 

[Pjj]

If you go on the course I went on then they say cleaning with Hypo, for anything but sterilisation, is illegal. Again a grey area but something I am avoiding until it is properly clarified.

Without wanting to create an argument if that’s the case how do Benz and pure seal sell hypochlorite products that are registered by the authorities for softwashing and algae and bacterial removal? I think some of theses courses the people doing them don’t like hypochlorite based products so push the biocide treatments in stead, it’s interesting though that bleach or hypochlorite are of the same family of chemicals biocides ????, the whole thing needs major clarification, but still no ware near happening, it’s also interesting to note that insurance companies will cover you for softwashing using hypochlorite if it was illegal I doubt they would cover it ? Just a thought .

 

[spruce]

99% of firms from one man bands to large organisations don't inform the authorities or get permission, not saying it’s right but if everyone applied for permission the back log would take years to authorise, provided from your risk assessment you are taking all reasonable precautions you SHOULD be ok , I regularly deal with the EA and water authority and in 25 years have never had any issues , but this whole thing is a potential mine field and a very grey area , what one says is ok someone else will say it’s not ,let us know how you get on this is a very interesting subject and no clear answer to a lot of it . Agree with @Part Timer about gutter waist however if you remove it from site technically you need a waist carriers licence so yet again more issues to deal with ???

We have had several letters from our local council advising that if we remove gutter waste from a customer's property, whether commercial or residential, then we need a waste carrier's licence, no matter how small the waste amount is. We were also informed that we needed to prove we were using a company that would sort and dispose of said waste to council and environmental regulations.

We dispose of gutter waste under a customer's hedge, bushes or other inconspicuous place on their property. I usually flush the poles, flexible hose and vacuum cleaner on our front lawn. When quoting, we look around to find a suitable place to dump this waste, letting the customer know of our intentions. If there is no place to dump this waste, then we walk away from the job.

When using my vacuum cleaner, I find it works better when the gutters have water in them, so the contents are slushy. We can't put that wet waste into the grass cuttings wheelie bin. On occasion, we use a customer's compost bin.

 

[Pjj]

We have had several letters from our local council advising that if we remove gutter waste from a customer's property, whether commercial or residential, then we need a waste carrier's licence, no matter how small the waste amount is. We were also informed that we needed to prove we were using a company that would sort and dispose of said waste to council and environmental regulations.

We dispose of gutter waste under a customer's hedge, bushes or other inconspicuous place on their property. I usually flush the poles, flexible hose and vacuum cleaner on our front lawn. When quoting, we look around to find a suitable place to dump this waste, letting the customer know of our intentions. If there is no place to dump this waste, then we walk away from the job.

When using my vacuum cleaner, I find it works better when the gutters have water in them, so the contents are slushy. We can't put that wet waste into the grass cuttings wheelie bin. On occasion, we use a customer's compost bin.

We do a large nursing home gutters every 3 months it’s around 300 meters and it’s commercial sized round gutters about 6 inches wide , they hire a small skip each time and we just about fill it ?? it’s good as we don’t get involved in the waist removal . I find it easier to leave the waist at the customers property nothing worse than having seagull poo bags of rubbish leaking in the van , it’s only rare occasions that we remove it from site I charge more if we have to . I have never been asked by anyone in an official capacity what happens to it and we used to do local authority work , on the odd occasions we do remove it there is a local privately owned dump ware I can despose of it legally luckily we do the owners windows so he doesn’t charge us for it , but as I say it’s only rare occasions we remove it . It’s surprising if you tell the customer it will be a further £50+ to dispose of the waist they usually find somewhere it can go ??

 

[LiamChecks]

We have had several letters from our local council advising that if we remove gutter waste from a customer's property, whether commercial or residential, then we need a waste carrier's licence, no matter how small the waste amount is. We were also informed that we needed to prove we were using a company that would sort and dispose of said waste to council and environmental regulations.

We dispose of gutter waste under a customer's hedge, bushes or other inconspicuous place on their property. I usually flush the poles, flexible hose and vacuum cleaner on our front lawn. When quoting, we look around to find a suitable place to dump this waste, letting the customer know of our intentions. If there is no place to dump this waste, then we walk away from the job.

When using my vacuum cleaner, I find it works better when the gutters have water in them, so the contents are slushy. We can't put that wet waste into the grass cuttings wheelie bin. On occasion, we use a customer's compost bin.

It's interesting you mention this as I would assume most homeowners would not be happy with gutter waste dumped into the hedge - I would as a customer I think just expect the company to take the waste.

 

[scottish cleaning service]

I just bag it and put it in their waste bin if there is no place to put it.

 

[Part Timer]

Without wanting to create an argument if that’s the case how do Benz and pure seal sell hypochlorite products that are registered by the authorities for softwashing and algae and bacterial removal? I think some of theses courses the people doing them don’t like hypochlorite based products so push the biocide treatments in stead, it’s interesting though that bleach or hypochlorite are of the same family of chemicals biocides ????, the whole thing needs major clarification, but still no ware near happening, it’s also interesting to note that insurance companies will cover you for softwashing using hypochlorite if it was illegal I doubt they would cover it ? Just a thought .

I said Hypo, not tested and approved hypo based products, they do push Benz products. I'm not trying to be confrontational as I know there are many on here that hypo everything. The OP asked for opinions, mine is one and yours is a different one. It's up to the OP to decide which he wants to trust. Your van insurance will insure you driving at 100mph, doesn't mean they pay out if it all goes wrong.

 

[Part Timer]

It's interesting you mention this as I would assume most homeowners would not be happy with gutter waste dumped into the hedge - I would as a customer I think just expect the company to take the waste.

For small residential jobs then you'd need to charge an additional £40 as you would need to dispose of the waste straight away as your house isn't a waste transfer station and you're breaking the law keeping it there. Or carry it around in your van until you have enough to go to a waste transfer station.