Pressure Washing of Paving Equipment and The EPA

Many pressure washing companies will be glad to take on additional work when a company calls them up to come and wash, but the days of cleaning asphalt compactors, steamrollers, paving equipment with diesel fuel are gone forever. If you are caught doing it the old fashioned way it's a $1,000 fines in the United States, fist offense and you pay for cleanup. The second offense is $10,000 and one year in jail and you pay for cleanup, in August of 1999 Newfoundland became the last place in North America to outlaw washing out asphalt dump trucks and paving equipment. It is now illegal every in the US and Canada to hose down paving equipment in this manner. This is because one gallon of Diesel fuel can pollute one million gallons of fresh drinking water about the allowable limits for safe potable water supplies.

There are, however ways to clean and still retain your affluent and then take that water for treatment. In our company we use a vacu-boom system; See the link for a picture of the containment device to collect the waste water:

http://www.truckwashguys.com/reclamation.shtml.

A typical paving machine such as this costs $250,000. It must be cleaned off at the end of each day with a thorough cleaning after a weeks work, if not it will build up and never come off, much the same as a Cement Truck. Dirty machines do not operate as effectively. Daily service for a medium sized paving unit should be in the neighborhood of $45 and we charge $85 for weekly thorough cleaning, but you will have to judge your market and competition before you set your prices. We do have quantity discounts for large companies with many units such as Penhall, JTL, Granite Construction, Tutor-Saliba and RPC, Inc. In your area you may have some of the same names. You might wish to find out who the bigger fish are and set your prices accordingly after you set your basic pricing structures based on supply and demand for services and competition in your market.

Small asphalt compactors are about a 15 - 20 minute job, once your crew gets good at it. At $125,000 average price, it is worth a quick blasting weekly and all the operators know this. Most paving companies also own a fleet of ten wheeler dump trucks. These also need cleaning on a regular accelerated schedule. We also recommend offering detailing services to these company for their dump trucks, which can be detailed on a rotating schedule with other dump trucks, 2 each week.

Keep your pressure washing business EPA compliant and be sure not to overlook paving companies, there are usually anywhere from three to a half a dozen such companies listed in most phone books, even in rural or suburban markets. Think about it.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

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