Stripping Beams - pressure washer

[Jellyfire]

Hi, We've just moved into our 16th-17th Century cottage in Suffolk (at last!), this is all very new to me so Im likely to be bombarding the boards with questions over the coming months.

I've decided to get the messiest job out of the way first and strip the beams. I've done a couple of test patches using Klingstrip which have turned out really well, and I'd like to get on with the rest.

The only issue was having to refill a bucket of water every 5 mins when cleaning them down, as they clean up immaculately with fresh water, but after a couple of wipes with a sponge I end up just spreading black murky water all over them.

Has anybody used the Vacwash attachment from Strippers of Sudbury or similar? Does it make the task easier, and does it just attach to a wet/dry vacuum cleaner or will I need an actual pressure washer? And most importantly does it cause any damage to the wood?

All help gratefully recieved!
thanks

 

[skier-hughes]

I've used one after coming to the same conclusion as yourself, 10 years with a scrubbing brush and lots of mess or invest in a vacwash. I was lucky I bought mine off a fellow board member, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy new knowing what I know now.
A decent sized wet/dry vacuum saves too many trips outside to empty.
A decent pressure washer that will turn itself off when you release the trigger is needed.
If possible a hot water one is supposed to work best, but I only used a karcher one with cold water.

As for damage, I didn't notice any really. SOme of my wood had got a little rotten in places and the jetwash did dislodge a few peices of rotten wood, whether this is a good thing so we repaired it or a bad thing is down to peoples personal view, but no discernable damage to our 500 year old oak beams.
Can't say how much of a timesaver and how much easier it is on the back, but be prepared for some aching arms.

 

[Moo]

One advantage of a carpet-cleaning machine is that it sucks up the water, saving one the chore of mopping up the flood.

Regarding the problem of constant trips to empty the tank, would it be possible to rig up some sort of sump (a bucket with a hole near the bottom, to which is attached enough hosepipe to reach outside)? And, conversely, fill the tank using a hose with an on/off trigger?

 

[Penners]

Picking up on skier-hughes' post above, the vac-wash attachment is definitely a huge time-saver (it was actually my daughter's kit that he bought). But be prepared for the fact that the actual vac-wash head is only a modest part of your overall cost. As s-h says, you'll also need a good sized wet/dry vacuum and a pressure washer. Totalled up, it's a pretty substantial outlay.

But of course you can always hope to sell the kit on, once you've finished the job.

 

[skier-hughes]

One advantage of a carpet-cleaning machine is that it sucks up the water, saving one the chore of mopping up the flood.

Regarding the problem of constant trips to empty the tank, would it be possible to rig up some sort of sump (a bucket with a hole near the bottom, to which is attached enough hosepipe to reach outside)? And, conversely, fill the tank using a hose with an on/off trigger?

The pressure washer is connected to mains water, like one you use maybe to wash your car.
The vacuum cannot have the outlet left to run out. I bought a length of wide pipe, but the pressure in the vacuum must be such that it is required to be sealed, as all that happened was water kept getting sucked back up into the filter. I used to be good at physics etc, but I'm pretty much useless now. Suffice to say, no you can't

 

[Moo]

I wasn't thinking of anything as technical as that! My ideas are more of the Heath Robinson type.

All I envisaged was a bucket into which one would empty the dirty water from the carpet-cleaner + a pipe that would drain the bucket contents somewhere outside, and a hose for refilling it. The aim being to save repeated trips to the kitchen sink to empty and refill the device's tank.

 

[skier-hughes]

Think it would take up too much time. My wet/dry vac holds maybe 6 buckets of water, so you'd spend more time filling buckets and emptying them than wheeling the vac outside and opening up the waste to let it run out.

 

[Moo]

Ah, but the point of my system is that you wouldn't have to cart anything outside. The dirty water would be decanted into the adjacent bucket and thence, via the hosepipe, to the outside.
It (the tank) would then be refilled by means of the other hosepipe that is attached to the kitchen tap, with one of those on/off trigger things at the business end.
So no traipsing to and fro at all.

 

[skier-hughes]

but by the time you have decanted into the bucket and got that emptied via the pipe several times, you could have pushed the vac outside and emptied it???
The vacs have their own emptying hose, but this has to be sealed whilst it is sucking, so you cannot fill and empty at the same time.

 

[Jellyfire]

Thanks for all the input. Sounds like a vacwash, pressure washer and wet and dry vac it is then! I like the hole in the bucket and hosepipe idea, would make life much easier if just using a sponge, but my inherent laziness dictates that the fully automated route is the one for me!

many thanks, will try and post up some before and afters when I get going!

Lee

 

[Penners]

will try and post up some before and afters when I get going!

Yes, please do.

 

[Moo]

but by the time you have decanted into the bucket and got that emptied via the pipe several times, you could have pushed the vac outside and emptied it???
The vacs have their own emptying hose, but this has to be sealed whilst it is sucking, so you cannot fill and empty at the same time.

No no no!! The hose would be fixed to the bucket near the bottom, so the dirty liquid would just flow through it. No need to lift the bucket at all. Of course, you'd have to decant the tank into the adjacent (that's significant) bucket, but I'd regard that as a trifling nuisance compared to lugging the full tank to the kitchen sink and back every time it needed emptying and filling.
And lying on the floor beside the tank would be the clean-water hose, so all you'd have to do would be aim it and squeeze the trigger for as long as it takes to fill the tank.

 

[Moo]

I like the hole in the bucket and hosepipe idea, would make life much easier if just using a sponge,

I'd not thought of using it for sponging, actually. My idea was based on experiences with one of those carpet-cleaning vac things.






(the ones that squirt out clean liquid from one half of its tank and then suck it back into the other half of the tank)

 

[skier-hughes]

Moo I understand your idea, but my problem is the decanting from one large bucket 5 times into one small bucket adjacent to it, would take more time than wheeling the large bucket outside and emptying it.
My wet/dry vac had wheels and an emptying hose, so all I had to do was unconnected the vacwash, wheel hte vac outside and point the hose down to the moat, go inside wash out scrubbing brush come back outside collect vac, take inside and connect back up and away I went again.

 

[Moo]

Ah - I hadn't considered the relative size of the buckets (I've only used small domestic carpet cleaning machines). But, surely, if the small bucket had the hose coming out somewhere near the bottom, the water would just drain continuously as you emptied the large bucket into it. A bit like pouring it down the kitchen sink....

(One of these days I'm going to have to play around with bucket and hose to prove to myself whether or not the theory works in practice).



ps Does this exchange qualify as one of the daftest threads on the forum?

 

[Penners]

Does this exchange qualify as one of the daftest threads on the forum?

Knowing the history of this forum as you do, I'm astonished that you should ask that question.

This thread is markedly sane and modest compared with many.

 

[Moo]

Phew. That's a comfort.