[paul mc]

have been asked to clean costumers driveway. its got a fair bit of garss between bricks would you use any chemical an would you need a powerful washer.

[steve_doyle]

sodium chlorate weed killer and clean in 7-10 days time.

[drive surgeon]

turbo!

[Griffus]

I'd just blast it off with a turbo nozzle. Take care not to get things wrong and lift the blocks though!!

Sodium Chlorate is good stuff but be sure to wear gloves and wellingtons and watch out for splashes on exposed skin. Oh, and wash your hands after use!

Incidentally, the law is changing on the usage of Sodium Chlorate as of July 2009 it will be withdrawn from sale and outlawed for use as of July 2010.

The picture below shows a small job we did last year. This was using only a turbo nozzle and took a max of 3 hours + resanding on a return visit: -

[holmesclean]

Have you got an after picture would be interested to see as the before picture is a mess.
Regards

Tom

[drive surgeon]

what the hell are we all gonna use to kill weeds if sodium chlorate is banned in 2009?

[Griffus]

Here you go Tom: -

[dandandan]

Wish i could have a pound for how many albums that will be copied into,ha ha,there the jobs you love doing.How many buckets of crap did you get off that?How did you price it,£50 an hour?dan

[Griffus]

We always charge by the metre.

This job however was done FOC for a good friend.

[dandandan]

An hour i said,ha ha

[Roger Oakley]

Nice work Ian,
Just a little to much sand in some of the pavers though 

[drivewasher]

Nice work Ian,
Just a little to much sand in some of the pavers though 

Hi Roger.

I dont think he's sealing it so the exesss should get weathered out quickly.
I always leave a little to much sand on the surface (I dont seal) for the elements to batter about and and hopefully keep any joints toped up that inevitablt "settle"

[dandandan]

I used to charge by the metre till i realised one really bad metre of block  with no drainage can take twice as long as a moderately bad one with good drainage so now i work out how long it will take and price accordingly,roughly £50 an hour in total for clean and sand.I blow it over with blower then to get the excess sand off to save it getting walked into houses,it looks a lot neater too.Great job that you did mate.Good luck.

[drive surgeon]

yeah dan its no good pricing per sq metre all the times as some dont need much doing where others are thick moss and weeds. its more the time not the lenght!

[drivewasher]

I price by Sq mtre all the time. It's the only way to be consistent. But I do add on the total if it's a pain in anyway IE bad drain/no drain or bad weed infestation. Just use the per mtr price as your base price

[Griffus]

For us it is swings and roundabouts so to speak. By charging by the square metre we have a 100% consistant approach to quoting. Drainage can be the worst issue but good and bad jobs tend to average themselves out.

Another reason is that a lot of drive cleaning work comes by recommendation and so people already have an idea as to what they will be paying before we quote.

We too have a petrol blower which works well on more open jobs but is no good when jobs are surrounded by walls. The first time I tried this out I ended up looking like Lawrence of Arabia 

[drive surgeon]

WELL DO YOU TELL THE cUSTY IN YOUR QUOTE HOW MUCH YOU CHARGE PER SQ METRE OR JUST A BULK FIGURE.

[Griffus]

Initially I talk them through our charges. I tell them everything up front so there are no surprises. Finally we only accept payment once they are totally happy with all works carried out.

Touch wood; We have never had anyone less than delighted.