Commercial Power Washing Vs. Residential Power Washing
Although there are many similarities in commercial and residential soft washing, there are key differences that set them apart. One of the biggest differences is people and customer traffic. When soft washing a house the owners of the house are either not home or asked to stay in their house until the softwash is finished. When soft washing a retail location like Kinney Drugs you have to be sure to keep in mind the customers. A retail location is not going to shut down for half a day or a full day for a soft wash. They will be open while you are soft washing and there will be customers.
When soft washing a residential house you will not have to worry about a large volume of people walking in and out of the front door, you will not have cars pulling in and out of the driveway, and you will not have people walking on the concrete you are cleaning. When you soft wash and concrete clean at a retail business this is exactly what will happen.
When Pristine ProWash was contracted to provide soft wash and concrete cleaning services to several Kinney Drugs locations in Central New York, these key differences were in the front of our minds when performing the cleanings.
Soft Washing Kinney Drugs
Upon arriving at any of the Kinney Drugs locations we first had to assess the parking situation. When soft washing any building there will be over spray, something that we do not want to hit cars for a number of reasons:
- If a customer arrives with an open window
- Unnoticed over spray can leave soap spots when dried
- A customer could get wet when getting out of their car
When washing these locations we took extra care to ensure the safety of the customers and their vehicles.
Not any different from any other soft washing process we begin with treating the facade with our algaecide. Unlike any other soft wash you have to be mindful of the sides of the building you are treating and the number of traffic near that side of the building. The two spots on Kinney Drugs that require extra attention are the entrance and the drive thru. The other sides of the building can be treated similarly to other soft washes, be mindful of the customers! Each location had the entrance way and drive thru areas cleaned before normal business hours to not disrupt the flow of customers.
The same goes for concrete cleaning. When concrete cleaning a sidewalk be mindful of the customers and simply ask them not to walk on the portion of sidewalk you are currently surface cleaning. We do this by using safety cones and dedicate one technician to interact with the customers ensuring they enter and exit the store safely.
Soft Washing Entrances and Drive Thrus
The entrance of any business will have the most amount of traffic. At every Kinney Drugs locations that we cleaned the entrances of the building is the most important part of the soft wash for two reasons:
- The entrance is paid the most attention
- Customers will be walking in and out of the entrance while we are on site
Each Wash Has Its Own Challenges
Aside from the key differences we have outlined between a commercial and a residential soft wash, each soft wash can be different. With five Kinney Drugs locations cleaned this past season, we experienced a few challenges along the way. The largest challenge we ran into was lack of water. At two of the Kinney Drugs we soft washed, lack of water was a setback that we had to work around. At both the Brewerton, New York, and Bridgeport, New York locations, the water situation was less than ideal for a large soft wash and concrete cleaning.
At the Brewerton location there was only one exterior water spigot for us to hook up to and the water pressure was low. This meant that our soft wash equipment was using water faster than it was being replaced. This lack of water led us to operate in a different way.
For part of this specific soft wash at the Brewerton Kinney Drugs, we could only use one power washer at a time to conserve water. Meaning, instead of having one technician surface clean the concrete sidewalks while the other technician soft wash the facade was out of the question. This slowed down the job quite a bit turning it into a full day project instead of a half day project.
Difference in Material
Although Kinney Drugs has a similar design for their locations, one small difference in material has the potential to add an extra step to the exterior cleaning process.
At the Moravia, New York location there is a section of roof that overhangs the front of the building and is made of metal with a large amount of staining on it. This would we be soft washing the sides of the building and needed to clean the metal roof as well.
With brushes in hand, two technicians laddered up to the roof to first treat it with the algaecide and then scrub. In doing this the technicians had to be very careful of the run-off from the roof because the overhang was partly over the entrance. This being said, while the two technicians were applying algaecide, scrubbing, and then rinsing, there was another technician on the ground to alert them if there were any customers near the area.
With the training that our technicians receive at Pristine ProWash, we are always able to adapt to any situation during a commercial building cleaning. This is one of the many things that sets us apart from other exterior cleaning and power washing companies in Syracuse NY.
Large Stains on Brick Wall
At another one of the Kinney Drugs locations in Camden New York, we performed our commercial cleaning soft wash and concrete cleaning service, but to also removed dark black staining on the backside of the buildings facade.
The entire back wall of this specific Kinney Drugs had large black streaked stains from the top of the wall down to below the middle of the wall. To remove these stains we treated the exterior wall with an algaecide multiple times while having two other technicians scrub the wall with extension brushes. This process is time consuming and more labor intensive, but ultimately is necessary to provide the quality of cleaning we are known to offer!
This is a common soft washing tactic: treat, scrub, treat again, and repeat until the desired results. This is not always a required step, however in this case with the severity of the black stains this was a necessity.
Building Cleaning Kinney Drugs in Syracuse NY
Each of the commercial soft washes that we, at Pristine ProWash, did at the several Kinney Drugs had their differences and similarities. Slight changes in each wash due to lack of water, difference in building materials, or large black stains are easily overcome with the proper training experience that Pristine Prowash offers.
To learn more about our commercial building exterior cleaning and power washing services in Utica & Syracuse NY please visit Commercial Power Washing
