Welcome to the UK Window Cleaning Forums

Starting or own a window cleaning business? We're a network of window cleaners sharing advice, tips & experience. Rounds for sale & more. Join us today!

Roof cleaning pics (cherry picker used)

Jake

Well-known member
Messages
3,438
Managed to get a cherry picker withoit the silly ipaf cert,

Jobs going well, finishing off tomorrow!

I've done most of the roof now, I took this picture much earlier in he day... It's 80% done now,

Pressure washer worked a treat - can't fault it for £290, and thanks for all the advice guys..

View attachment 4112

 
Why did you decide to use a cherry picker on this job? Looks quite simple for access. You put a roof ladder on anyway? Does the cherry picker reach over to the back?

 
View attachment 4115

Why did you decide to use a cherry picker on this job? Looks quite simple for access. You put a roof ladder on anyway? Does the cherry picker reach over to the back?
Because I didn't pay for it :D

And the roof ladder wouldn't reach one side of the house plus it was really dodgy, the house is really high, the pictures do not do it justice, we needed a large cherry picker to get to the pitch, it was much much safer and easier, the customer paod for the cherry picker (there very very wealthy & get on with them very well)

The roof ladder was too short for the left hand side of the house, and also made the pitche'd roof bits very difficult to clean.

 
View attachment 4116

The roof ladder was only feasible on the side you can see in this picture. And it was almost impossible to do the pitches bits, they have solar panels on the other side of the house, this meant we couldnt use the roof ladder any further along than seen in pic...

Thankfully they insisted on renting a picker, and we got a great deal £80 plus vat for 2 days! Plus I wasn't paying - so made compete sense, so much safer as well.

 
It booms out right to the eve, we don't need access to other side as that's full of solar panels - which is tomorrow's job.

 
You can see just how steep this roof is in this picture below, it's not fun using a roof ladder at that gradient, especially using a powerful pressure washer!

View attachment 4117

 
That's a copied idea from America called the pitch witch but some have odd ideas how to use one /emoticons/biggrin.png

[media]

[/media]
 
I reckon one of them would be pretty useless... The sheer pressure of my washer would blow the little trolley in the air! Plus it's £675! Our cherry picker was £108 inc vat, miles cheaper, loved it as well, good fun !

It's always good to be able to use the turbo nozzle and get up close to the roof so I didn't miss bits, it's definatley the safest and best way to do it, the cherry picker just made it so so much easier, I couldn't believe how easy it was when your just hovering above the roof and blasting straight down,

It was horrible being on the roof ladder with the pressure of the lance, and trying to balance with just your legs... Plus you get covered in moss, **** and spray when your on the ladder!

 
its worth looking into as its a one of payment also evrytime u get a picker out u have to pay for it :-( plus the company has it in a package with a high pressure washer

 
wud one these not work
I made up my own one of these things as an experiment. Lets just say I only used it once! It's a nice idea in theory but in practice quite awkward. It could work on a simple gable roof but add hips and dormers etc and it won't work. The power pole from omni is a beast too so ******* heavy! To do a two storey house you need a pole 35' plus and unless it is really ridged and really light its going to bang and whip all over the show. It would be like cleaning solar panels from the ground I guess...

Anyway pressure washing roofs is hit and miss. The one I did looked **** after, all patchy and faded where the bare concrete was showing through.

Sorry to say it @Jake but the roof looks pretty tired after you have pressure washed it

 
That is the problem with pressure washing a roof as it can take years off the tiles let alone blow mortar out from the joints etc using high pressure. There was a chap on here that cleaned roofs for a living up in Scotland but also used a fungicidal wash afterwards then sealed/repainted the roof.

I made up my own one of these things as an experiment. Lets just say I only used it once! It's a nice idea in theory but in practice quite awkward. It could work on a simple gable roof but add hips and dormers etc and it won't work. The power pole from omni is a beast too so ******* heavy! To do a two storey house you need a pole 35' plus and unless it is really ridged and really light its going to bang and whip all over the show. It would be like cleaning solar panels from the ground I guess...
Anyway pressure washing roofs is hit and miss. The one I did looked **** after, all patchy and faded where the bare concrete was showing through.

Sorry to say it @Jake but the roof looks pretty tired after you have pressure washed it
 
The costs for this can run into the £1000's. If someone has this sort of money to spend on cleaning and painting their roof they may as well save up some more and have a new roof!

There was a chap on here that cleaned roofs for a living up in Scotland but also used a fungicidal wash afterwards then sealed/repainted the roof.
 
I made up my own one of these things as an experiment. Lets just say I only used it once! It's a nice idea in theory but in practice quite awkward. It could work on a simple gable roof but add hips and dormers etc and it won't work. The power pole from omni is a beast too so ******* heavy! To do a two storey house you need a pole 35' plus and unless it is really ridged and really light its going to bang and whip all over the show. It would be like cleaning solar panels from the ground I guess...
Anyway pressure washing roofs is hit and miss. The one I did looked **** after, all patchy and faded where the bare concrete was showing through.

Sorry to say it @Jake but the roof looks pretty tired after you have pressure washed it

Rascal - you do realise that the pics only show what I had done up to that point? The black tiles were yet to be done, the whole roof is now back to original colour, it's looks mint, customer was over the moon!

 
its worth looking into as its a one of payment also evrytime u get a picker out u have to pay for it :-( plus the company has it in a package with a high pressure washer
Customer pays for cherry picker,

I won't be doing these sort of jobs unless the price is right and unless the home owner fronts the cost of cherry picker etc

This is just an add in service guys, I'm a full time window cleaner, only do pressure washing when a customer asks, and if it's worth my while, this job was more than worth my while, lots of dollar!

 
Rascal - The whole roof looks like the left part of the first photo I posted now, I just completely forgot to take an after photo of the whole roof. Next time I go back I will,

The roof was black and caked in moss, it's now back to original colour all over.

One of the homeowners friends has now asked me for a quote, so might be doing another one soon!

 
This photo clearly shows where you have cleaned and my opinion is the tiles look pretty bad after cleaning. You can see the tiles on the dormer are newer and have colour throughout and are much better suited to pressure washing. I'm not knocking your work Jake just saying from my experience you have to be carefull with pressure washing roof tiles......

 
Nope hadn't done the top of the roof where it looks bad, I was on my way up there in the cherry picker to do that bit, I'd done the dormer, but the higher bit hadn't been done, it had just been lightly sprayed from a distance, once I'd got above it and gone over it properly it looked miles better,

I'll take a photo next time I'm there, it looks so much better now,

You don't half ask a lot of questions rascal! Like with he cherry picker, you seemed almost annoyed that I used one!

Trust me there was no way we could have done the whole roof without one, it wasn't bought for fun mate /emoticons/smile.png

 
That's what a forum is all about no?! /emoticons/smile.png Just curious about the cherry picker, I used to do a lot of roof cleaning and access was my biggest issue. I only used the pressure washer once on a garage roof though......

You don't half ask a lot of questions rascal! Like with he cherry picker, you seemed almost annoyed that I used one!
 

Latest Posts

Back
Top