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How would you clean this?

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Would you scrape the worst off then weed kill with resolva then pressure wash then fill with sand? 

How much?  It's quite small. Approx 3.5 metres wide by 15 metres long

 
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Would you scrape the worst off then weed kill with resolva then pressure wash then fill with sand? 

How much?  It's quite small. Approx 3.5 metres wide by 15 metres long




i would  weed kill it first leave a week , scrape the worst of it off , then apply hypo mix , leave it to dwell for 40 muinits then pressurewasher with flat surface cleaner and do the edges with a vario nozzle ot turbo , let it dry and re sand . Price wise we have a minimum set up price of £150 , that’s not a big area but it’s bad so would be looking for around £250 in total , and wouldn’t be bothered if I didn’t get it 

 
I would be looking for £300 but I would be sanding the next day. I would hit with my twin turbo nozzle to see how it comes up. If there was still lichen then I would hypo and leave for 45mins. Then I would go over again with single turbo nozzle and rinsing with the vario nozzle, 4 to 5hrs. A hour the next day sanding.

 
Would off the shelf - resolva weed killer do it?  I only have a cheap electric pressure washer for such a small job would I be better to hire one for £75?

 
Would off the shelf - resolva weed killer do it?  I only have a cheap electric pressure washer for such a small job would I be better to hire one for £75?




There is is no point putting weed killer on it if you want to wash it the same day , a karcher isn’t going to look at that you need a decent pressure washer for that at least 15 ltr per muinit and 3000 psi ,if hireing one see if you can get a flat surface cleaner as well as a turbo nozzle it will be quicker , I think you will also need to hypo it as I expect it’s covered in black /silver licken hypo will kill that off pretty  quick , but a pressurewasher on its own might leave marks . 

 
Ask if anyone on here has a good PW and lives near you then you can half the job. You can also get some practice with a real PW. I cleaned a decking not long ago and it took me 45mins at most but went through 500l of water. Home owner told me that it took her a full day with a karacher and she was knackered.

 
Ok I'll hire one.  Just haven't the money for a decent Honda ot

There is is no point putting weed killer on it if you want to wash it the same day , a karcher isn’t going to look at that you need a decent pressure washer for that at least 15 ltr per muinit and 3000 psi ,if hireing one see if you can get a flat surface cleaner as well as a turbo nozzle it will be quicker , I think you will also need to hypo it as I expect it’s covered in black /silver licken hypo will kill that off pretty  quick , but a pressurewasher on its own might leave marks . 


Was going to use weed killer (resolva) a week or two before pressure washing to kill roots. Was going to cut back the big plants before applying the weed to them. 

Will hire a pressure washer. Cant afford to buy a loncin or Honda at the moment 

 
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Don't cut down any weeds because the weedkiller gets absorbed through the leaves so the more the better. Good idea hiring a PW which will give you experience of what one to buy in future.

 
Don't cut down any weeds because the weedkiller gets absorbed through the leaves so the more the better. Good idea hiring a PW which will give you experience of what one to buy in future.




Hss hire want £147 though for a day for powerful ones. That's ridiculous.   I might just use my little lidl one.  It's quite a small space. 

 
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You're not going to get through that with domestic machine..

Try Jewson. I know by me when I needed to hire a machine, not one supplier had a turbo lance. Luckily I managed to get my old machine fixed on the day it broke down and got through the job. That was an electric industrial pressure machine wash but you cant run continuously with an electric. There only designed to work around four hours max a day. 

Electric are for washing cars. You need petrol/diesel for that drive.

 
Dont use a domestic machine, people trotting them out gives us all a bad name and puts passers by/relatives off using a pressure washing service in future due to the limited results and time taken on the job (this would take days with a small machine). I'm not being harsh for the sake of it but your going to need something with a bit of grunt (at least 15lpm as stated by the other poster) to make a dent on that lot, ive had dozens of jobs like this that end up taking a reasonable amount of time with an actual machine let alone with a domestic electric pressure washer. Either hire a decent machine and bear the cost while using it as a profitless but educational process or leave it to someone who can make a professional job of it. My approach would be to weedkill with any easily available glyphosate based killer and leave for at least a week, then return to clean it with the FSC and turbo with re-sanding to follow the next dry day, also with the fact I tend not to use hypo as I dont like the potential hazards (not judging anyone who uses it as its a personal choice and the results are often indeed great) I would opt for a biocide treatment post cleaning to kill and prevent recurrance of algae and lichen as those bricks look black, little chance of getting them totally clean with a powerful petrol set up alone and zero chance of getting them in any way acceptable with a domestic appliance.

If by some chance you get it looking reasonable by one method or another then do yourself a favour and offer no assurances against weeds coming back, as in cases like this one they certainly will, and quickly as the roots will be well under the stones and youve no hope of killing the whole lot (not to mention the fresh ones that will be seeded in on the wind almost as soon as the sands been brushed in). leave them with an aftercare sheet advising regular weedkiller application throughout the season and any info on preventing algae/lichen infestation in the future, covers your back and will stop calls 3 months later complaining its a forest again. just my thoughts and a bit of advice. take it or leave it bud

 
Dont use a domestic machine, people trotting them out gives us all a bad name and puts passers by/relatives off using a pressure washing service in future due to the limited results and time taken on the job (this would take days with a small machine). I'm not being harsh for the sake of it but your going to need something with a bit of grunt (at least 15lpm as stated by the other poster) to make a dent on that lot, ive had dozens of jobs like this that end up taking a reasonable amount of time with an actual machine let alone with a domestic electric pressure washer. Either hire a decent machine and bear the cost while using it as a profitless but educational process or leave it to someone who can make a professional job of it. My approach would be to weedkill with any easily available glyphosate based killer and leave for at least a week, then return to clean it with the FSC and turbo with re-sanding to follow the next dry day, also with the fact I tend not to use hypo as I dont like the potential hazards (not judging anyone who uses it as its a personal choice and the results are often indeed great) I would opt for a biocide treatment post cleaning to kill and prevent recurrance of algae and lichen as those bricks look black, little chance of getting them totally clean with a powerful petrol set up alone and zero chance of getting them in any way acceptable with a domestic appliance.

If by some chance you get it looking reasonable by one method or another then do yourself a favour and offer no assurances against weeds coming back, as in cases like this one they certainly will, and quickly as the roots will be well under the stones and youve no hope of killing the whole lot (not to mention the fresh ones that will be seeded in on the wind almost as soon as the sands been brushed in). leave them with an aftercare sheet advising regular weedkiller application throughout the season and any info on preventing algae/lichen infestation in the future, covers your back and will stop calls 3 months later complaining its a forest again. just my thoughts and a bit of advice. take it or leave it bud
Great advice.   

What are the potential hazards with hypo compared to biocide?  They're equally dangerous unless you're using an adonometre, arent they?

 
Biocide is a lot easier to handle in my opinion as the risks arent as great with things like accidentally killing large swaths of lawn, bleaching coloured surfaces,  letting it get into the watercourse and getting caught out and fined by councils, accidentally having it get into your eyes and then needing emergency care/possibly losing your sight and as a byproduct losing your income stream, (Although I do tend to worry about ultra worst case scenarios). The key difference in the two that I love is that biocide can typically be used post cleaning and left to dry in to do its work over time, whereas hypo is sprayed on and then washed off (hence the getting into the street/lawn/unwanted areas) benz do some good products but I can say with a great deal of experience using different products that the best one for me by a country mile is wilkos green gone. its £6.50 for three litres and that'll cover up to 150m2 when diluted down, just an application of that alone is enough to kill and remove algae and lichen from fences and decks and the results are visible after a day or so and continue to get better over the course of a week. Hypo is cheap as chips again but it does come with its accompanying risks and I would exercise caution with it if you choose to go down that route, safety gear is a must....think heisenburg from breaking bad levels of PPE 

river


That said plenty of people do use hypo and the results are brilliant, but like I said I am an overly cautious person by nature

 
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Hypo is needed for instant results the customer wants a dirty house this morning and a clean one this afternoon bio won’t give you that , hypo is perfectly safe IF you know what you are doing , in 10 years using it we have never killed any customers plants or grass ,there are a lot of scarmongerous out there claiming that it’s dangerous , and used wrongly  it can be , but used safely and with training it’s perfectly safe , as an example what are you swimming in in a swimming pool ?? What is your pre packed salad washed with in a supermarket ? What is put in drinking water ??. Hypo but in the correct strength , it’s exactly the same using it for softwashing , I have a very large koi pond in my garden with fish over 30 inches long and I hypo the edges of the pond every year and have never had a problem as I know how to use it , but in the wrong hands you could easily kill the fish they are very sensitive to hypo . Bio products also have there place they are very good to use after softwashing with hypo as a preventative to slow down re growth of algy etc , I have done a lot of experiments over the years with bio products and they do a reasonable job but can take up to 6 months or more to give the desired results and customers won’t pay and accept that in my experience. Best thing to do is try it on your own house do halfwith a hypo mix and half with bio and leave it and see for yourself the results you get that’s what I did , it’s all down to experience using different  products , you will over time learn what’s best for different situations 

 
Hypo is needed for instant results the customer wants a dirty house this morning and a clean one this afternoon bio won’t give you that , hypo is perfectly safe IF you know what you are doing , in 10 years using it we have never killed any customers plants or grass ,there are a lot of scarmongerous out there claiming that it’s dangerous , and used wrongly  it can be , but used safely and with training it’s perfectly safe , as an example what are you swimming in in a swimming pool ?? What is your pre packed salad washed with in a supermarket ? What is put in drinking water ??. Hypo but in the correct strength , it’s exactly the same using it for softwashing , I have a very large koi pond in my garden with fish over 30 inches long and I hypo the edges of the pond every year and have never had a problem as I know how to use it , but in the wrong hands you could easily kill the fish they are very sensitive to hypo . Bio products also have there place they are very good to use after softwashing with hypo as a preventative to slow down re growth of algy etc , I have done a lot of experiments over the years with bio products and they do a reasonable job but can take up to 6 months or more to give the desired results and customers won’t pay and accept that in my experience. Best thing to do is try it on your own house do halfwith a hypo mix and half with bio and leave it and see for yourself the results you get that’s what I did , it’s all down to experience using different  products , you will over time learn what’s best for different situations 


This is exactly what im talking about, its an excellent chemical but I just dont use it personally. dont write it off on my say so. Take Pjj's advice and get educated on it (training, personal use etc) ive never said to swear off it but i do advise to exercise caution. my opinion is why take a risk when it can be avoided and have the same result achieved. think youve opended up a rift in the hypo/non hypo community here triangle ?

 
This is exactly what im talking about, its an excellent chemical but I just dont use it personally. dont write it off on my say so. Take Pjj's advice and get educated on it (training, personal use etc) ive never said to swear off it but i do advise to exercise caution. my opinion is why take a risk when it can be avoided and have the same result achieved. think youve opended up a rift in the hypo/non hypo community here triangle ?
I wasn’t criticising what you said you are right to be cautious , I was just trying to show that hypo used correctly is a very safe product, a lot of people demonise it ,it is a very cheap and good agent for steralizing and sanatising surfaces , along with bio products ( we use algo clear pro ) to slow down re growth it will give instant results which customers want , they don’t want to have to Wait several months to get a clean property , I found bio on it’s own did work on a number of things but it was blotchey for months as some things it killed quickly and some much slower causing a mottled affect on the surface , where as using hypo within 45 muinits the whole surface looked the same , sorry if it appeared I was finding fault with what you said I didn’t mean to do that just trying to show with a bit of knowledge it’s a very good cleaning agent 

 
Yes nothing beats hypo and if there is I have not heard of it. Clearing gutters in a big mansion yesterday and I got talking to the owner regarding PW his Greek period sandstone wall. He took me over to a bit that recently had hypo on it and said his pal had done some time ago. I shook my head and said "I done it last week when I was cleaning your windows so your wife could see the difference." So I have the job to clean it all in the spring time. I think I will get a lot of work from them and as @Pjj said it all came from cleaning her mum's windows.

 
Dont use a domestic machine, people trotting them out gives us all a bad name and puts passers by/relatives off using a pressure washing service in future due to the limited results and time taken on the job (this would take days with a small machine). I'm not being harsh for the sake of it but your going to need something with a bit of grunt (at least 15lpm as stated by the other poster) to make a dent on that lot, ive had dozens of jobs like this that end up taking a reasonable amount of time with an actual machine let alone with a domestic electric pressure washer. Either hire a decent machine and bear the cost while using it as a profitless but educational process or leave it to someone who can make a professional job of it. My approach would be to weedkill with any easily available glyphosate based killer and leave for at least a week, then return to clean it with the FSC and turbo with re-sanding to follow the next dry day, also with the fact I tend not to use hypo as I dont like the potential hazards (not judging anyone who uses it as its a personal choice and the results are often indeed great) I would opt for a biocide treatment post cleaning to kill and prevent recurrance of algae and lichen as those bricks look black, little chance of getting them totally clean with a powerful petrol set up alone and zero chance of getting them in any way acceptable with a domestic appliance.

If by some chance you get it looking reasonable by one method or another then do yourself a favour and offer no assurances against weeds coming back, as in cases like this one they certainly will, and quickly as the roots will be well under the stones and youve no hope of killing the whole lot (not to mention the fresh ones that will be seeded in on the wind almost as soon as the sands been brushed in). leave them with an aftercare sheet advising regular weedkiller application throughout the season and any info on preventing algae/lichen infestation in the future, covers your back and will stop calls 3 months later complaining its a forest again. just my thoughts and a bit of advice. take it or leave it bud


I've just used hypo and guessed roughly four to one on patios and a couple of walls.  Hand pump sprayer and backpack.   

How about biocide?  I did go on a Softwashing course with this Michael bloke.  He was banging on about biocide and how great it was. Also trying to sell an adononmeter which he recommended set for less than 3% of the biocide.   As I am not wanting to be a serious softwasher I am not going to pay that, is there another way to administer the biocide?   Spoke to someone else who sells pressure washers and he said they're both bad for your health--hypo would burn your eyes if it got in them and biocide would slowly make you blind.    I don't particularly want to use either substance regularly but the odd job here and there would be ok

 
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Just use a pump sprayer with full PPE on. I don't think its that dangerous as long as you wear a mask, goggles, face visor and rubber boots and gloves. Just make sure you have access to clean water so you can quickly rinse away if you hit anything that you shouldn't, like plants. Continually spraying with water will nutralise nearly anything.

 
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