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Roof Wand

21K views 56 replies 14 participants last post by  looseone 
#1 ·
Here are a few pics of the PVC wand that we use. PVC and nylon is used when possible to eliminate corrosion. The partially articulating elbows allow for various angle adjustments also.
 

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#2 ·
A 3/8" #316 grade stainless Q/C fitting is used to connect to the hose. The spray tips are shaped exactly like regular surface cleaner tips, but made of plastic. They're color-coded to each spray pattern size.
 

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#4 ·
This Is What We Use ...


Hello Kory!
This is the gun and wand we use http://www.accuspray.com/store/sprayguns/SS-Lawn_Spray_Guns.htm

There is a wand attachment for doing tile roofs, and it has a swivel to angle the nozzle like you want.
Personally, I just use a gun, and do not care for a wand.
When i am doing Tile Roofs, I simply start at the bottom, and spray up.

BUT, I found that many of my employees were uncomfortable starting at the bottom of a roof, and working up, and so we allowed them to use a wand with angled nozzles.

The reason I like this particular gun is because the trigger is recessed in the handle.
In case of a fall, one need not worry about something accidentally turning on ?

It is also light, and fairly reliable, as IF anything lasts forever with Chlorine.

We use quick change adaptors for this gun, available from Spraying Systems industrial products division, but if you have enough flow, the smallest grey shower head nozzle will flat rock on a shingle roof.

With the quick change adaptors, one can use the nylon nozzles that come in all possible shapes and sizes.

We like a 25 degree 3 GPM nozzle on small shingle roofs, and a 45 degree 5 GPM on big commercial shingle roofs when we wanna fly!

But Spraying Systems offers quick change Nylon nozzles down to 1/2 GPM, in all degrees, so even you Shurflo guys running small pumps with 3/8 hose can use this setup.

Of course, being made out of Nylon, they will enlarge a bit over time, just like Stainless Steel will, but they are cheap, like 4 or 5 bucks apiece.

We actually save the "old nozzles" when they enlarge for commercial jobs that we need the extra flow on.

The Plastic Nozzles that Don uses on his wand will last longer then Nylon or Stainless Steel will, as long as they are not made out of Nylon.

Jon Chapman, Thomas for Peerless, and me were hoping to meet you at the Tampa Roof Cleaners meeting at Hooters!

I was showing off my latest "discovery" Kory, an all Plastic Hose Reel Swivel!

It is good to 400 PSI, and is all plastic, with Teflon and Viton Innards!

It screws right on my Titan 22 inch Hose Reel's 1/2 inch Stainless Steel internal pipe.

Even when we rinsed out our equipment promptly, I always had trouble with my Hose Reel's swivels.

I tried the Brass ones, but I prefer not to have any Brass stuff in my chemical path...

I have noticed that some Brass seems to add a kind of "rust" to light colored shingle roofs that can be a bitch to get off.

So, I tried the two types of stainless swivels that Titan makes, and had problems with both, even when rinseing.

My new pump system does not require rinseing, and has also eliminated the troublesome pressure bypass regulator, and it's hose feeding back into the tank!

That dam bypass hose Kory ... air would get trapped in it, and it would pulse around like a dying Insect.

One cannot imagine the "Fun" of a bypass hose coming or breaking loose, and whipping around, marinating all things in it's path with the Love ...
Our new pump system has eliminated the need for a bypass hose and regulator, and it also does not require any rinseing either.

So, since our Hose and Pump is chemical proof, and the Hose reels internal Pipe is thick Stainless Steel, the "last frontier" to overcome was the Stainless Steel Swivel.

So, I am "Beta Testing" my new discovery, and we shall see if it is the roof cleaning advance I believe it to be ...

Are you going to come to the next Tampa Roof Cleaners meeting ??
Chris
 
#6 ·
Don...... My new Roof (Phelps) wand works Great!:thumbup: It realy cut back on the over spray and run off. The first time I tryed to use it after about 30 sec. it stopped working, though I had done something wrong. :sad: It turned out that trash had pluged the tip, cleaned it out everything OK now. Also installed a water filter ahead of tank to keep this from happening again.:smartass: See Ya!

Did you think anymore about A group of us getting together in Orlando at the big todo?
 
#12 ·
Chris
Yeah I hope we can get together maybe november ish. I was thinking maybe we can get some sponsors to pay for some of it or rent a Hall somewhere. What do you guys think? I was thinking Newagain, Ameritech and a couple others might be interested I still need to talk to Bill and Scott to see if they would even be interested in doing it.
As for the gun I like it, I need something like that I can use for when I do pool cages at high pressure. I keep burning through guns when I use the Love. I will keep useing the wand for roofs I feel more comfortable useing it. Im in brandon every other week for one of my fleet accounts we will have to grab breakfast or something one day.

Don
I am trying to get more roofs but the competition is tough I've got guys cleaning 14k Sq ft homes two stories (7k Roof space) for less than $800 bucks Im sorry but that house had a lot of veg and a steep roof. (I think Chris got that one!) anyways I have sent out a bunch of fliers and targeted the neighbor hood I did that cleaning in.

Have you guys heard of Advanced Cleaning? I seen they have a decent size fleet. They say they have cleaned 25k roofs.
 
#13 ·
#27 · (Edited)
Yeah, Mallard has been around awhile now. They're not what they once were though (at least not in Orl).
Hey Kory!
We actually did Avila on Saturday!
It turned out to be a HUGE 7500 sq ft 10/12 pitch pink glazed tile, the slippery kind!
I gave it the "secret" Apple Tri Chem treatment, MORE then just Chlorine and TSP ...
I had to increase our original estimate because of pitch, and it came out beautiful too!
I took pictures with an AudioVox camera phone, and save them, but bought the wrong kind of USB cable to dump them to my computer.

I will post them real soon, so you can see us in "action".:laughing:

I really should have called you, but we were working around the weather .....

I also took pictures of the plastic hose reel swivel mounted to the Stainless Titan Hose Reel.

The pictures are saved, just gotta get em out of the camera ... stay tuned!
 

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#21 ·
Yea, I know. Once we got comfortable with eachother he started making fun of the fact I didn't have any hose reels, and it was funny to see him try to coil up a pressure hose without getting it in a birds nest, it took him about 10 minutes every time. So he started calling it the Hillbilly Hose Reel. It's all in good fun, I still make fun of the fact that he made toothpicks of a deck by using a Dirt Killer on it....lol
 
#28 · (Edited)
Ok. I need your professional help on my roof wand. The rig I just bought came with a 35 gal chem tank with 300 feet of 3/8" chem hose powered by a Shurflo at 1.8gpm and 60 psi.

The wand that is on it is a Spraying Systems Low Pressure Chemical Gun and it doesn't work at all. The nozzle is so small that it just causes the Shurflo to cycle on and off constantly and I couldn't imagine trying to do a roof with this. Since I don't want to walk the roof when possible I want something that can spray a decent distance. Should I try to enlarge the hole in the current nozzle to get more flow and see if I can allow the pump to work without so much backpressure? Or is there a wand I could buy that would better match this pump?

Since I don't do roofs yet I would like to work with this setup without a big expenditure of money until I see the market for it. I know that some are advocates of 5/8" hose with special guns etc. and would consider that for the future but for now I would just like to get this wand working and do a few friends roofs to fine tune my approach and see if it is a service I want to add.

This is what I have now....



Thanks.
 
#29 ·
Hi Keth,

Unfortunately, with a 60 psi/1.8 gpm pump there's just not much "umph" to get any real distance out of it. It would work just fine on walkable roofs, but trying to shoot from the roof's edge, on a ladder is like peeing in the wind with something that small. Increasing the orifice opening might give you a bit more flow, but your pressure will drop also.

The 35 gallon tank is going to limit your speed/productivity too. You might be better served using that one as a storage tank for extra chem and going with something larger to spray from.

Probably not the answers you were looking for, but you're options are somewhat limited with that setup.

Don
 
#30 ·
Thanks for the advice Don. I will toy around with the orifice to see if I can get a bit more flow. As a part timer I only shedule one job a day at this time. Do you use more than 35 gallons on a single house typically?

If I were to change pumps and wand which Surflo would you suggest that would work best with the wands that you build?
 
#31 ·
Thanks for the advice Don. I will toy around with the orifice to see if I can get a bit more flow. As a part timer I only shedule one job a day at this time. Do you use more than 35 gallons on a single house typically?

If I were to change pumps and wand which Surflo would you suggest that would work best with the wands that you build?
Quantity used would be determined by several things.....The "dirty" factor, chem mixture ratio and obviously the size of the roof. There are homes that we could get by on 35 gallons, but more often than not, we're going to use anywhere from 40 to 55 gallons on the average size house in my area.

The wand that we use can be used with any of the 12v pumps that most are using these days. It can also be used with the higher flow gas-powered pumps, simply by changing tip sizes. I hooked it up to a 8 gpm pw'er, expecting to blow a few leaks in it. With a #0030 tip, it worked like a charm and provided great distance for rinsing from the ground.
 
#36 ·
Thanks Chris. I do have a flush circuit on this setup so it will help it last longer. Right now I don't see a huge demand for roofs. I ask customers and they don't seem to care. South Carolina isn't like Florida. They just live with the algae here for some reason. I want it to be on the rig just for the fact that I am planning on offering a three tiered pricing schedule along the Silver, Gold and Platinum line and am anticipating having Platinum include the roof if warranted.

When this pump burns out I will experiment with some of the other ideas that you and others have posted. I am excited about it and hope that roofs become more of a no brainer here in SC but for now I see myself doing 2-3 month but that doesn't prevent me from wanting the right gear for when it happens. I am sure my Phelps wand will get me through this transition phase in my business. Someday I may actually own one of those "sprays like a male cat" rigs.

Cheers!
 
#37 ·
Thanks Chris. I do have a flush circuit on this setup so it will help it last longer. Right now I don't see a huge demand for roofs. I ask customers and they don't seem to care. South Carolina isn't like Florida. They just live with the algae here for some reason. I want it to be on the rig just for the fact that I am planning on offering a three tiered pricing schedule along the Silver, Gold and Platinum line and am anticipating having Platinum include the roof if warranted.

When this pump burns out I will experiment with some of the other ideas that you and others have posted. I am excited about it and hope that roofs become more of a no brainer here in SC but for now I see myself doing 2-3 month but that doesn't prevent me from wanting the right gear for when it happens. I am sure my Phelps wand will get me through this transition phase in my business. Someday I may actually own one of those "sprays like a male cat" rigs.

Cheers!
You ain't gonna go wrong with a Phelps wand, lots of people use em daily.
And it will never be "obsolete", you can always use it with whatever you decide on, down the road!

If you wanna kick your roof cleaning business in the azz, advertise "Free, Non Pressure Roof Cleaning Demonstrations"

I had a guy in Hilton Head kicking azz cleaning roofs.
I taught him how to do it on the old Delco board.
He used to send me a Country Ham every Christmas, we just can't get the good ones down here.

Same with Boiled Peanuts!
All they boil down here is those darn Jumbo:thumbdown: things ..
Yuk, I like the real peanuts, but had to give both the Country Ham and the Peanuts up ... too much Sodium ...

Nice talking with ya Keith!
 
#38 ·
Boy, I know what you mean. Those boiled peanuts are no friend of mine. Just give a a roasted peanut and a beer and I am a happy man. Thanks for the advice. Will keep you posted on whether I can educate SC on roof cleaning. Tough job ahead!

Cheers

Keth (not Keith ;), really! it is my mother's fault)
 
#40 ·
Never tried using compressed air......yet. The problem is most pumps can't handle the caustic chems being ran through them and they fail quickly.

We use these:
http://www.cds-johnblue.com/featured_productDP43GRPC.htm

We have 4 of them and haven't had any problems. You'll need to clean a considerable amount of roofs to justify the expense.
 
#41 ·
This one is for Don, I don't clean roofs as such, but like the look of your wand/lance. I use a shuflo pump set-up to put down chemicals etc of flat surfaces, decking etc all the usual chemicals, Sodium Hypochlorite, Sodium Hydroxide etc, does your wand handle these ok? Do you have a web-link, and could/would you ship to the UK.

Many thanks

Roger
 
#43 ·
Sorry for the delay, Roger.

I can give you a parts list and you will be able to make your own if you want or we can try to work something out on shipping one to you. The wands are largely comprised of pvc so it's probably much more economical to do it "in-house."

Let me know what your thoughts are and we'll take it from there. :)
 
#47 ·
I use a prehistoric looking version of the Phelps Wand. I like the swivel action! I have only used these kind of wands.

I ran into Chris a couple days ago at the "love bar" and he was going to let me borrow one of his extending guns. It was badass. I would have had to change attached a connect to my hose and had to get to a roof.
 
#48 ·
I use a prehistoric looking version of the Phelps Wand. I like the swivel action! I have only used these kind of wands.

I ran into Chris a couple days ago at the "love bar" and he was going to let me borrow one of his extending guns. It was badass. I would have had to change attached a connect to my hose and had to get to a roof.
Glad you liked it Thomas!
Using wands are a matter of personal preference, some like them, some don't.
Personally, I like a gun, as it puts the nozzle farther away from the roof, letting the pattern develop better.

The wand you seen is a nice one, and telescopes out to 10 feet!

Just the thing when you need that last bit of reach ..

Our "secret weapon", so to speak.

Kinda hard to telescope PVC :laughing:
 
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