HWE large areas with a portable

[John Buxton]

I have a high end hotel that needs 15000 SF of axminster wool cleaned on a quarterly basis. It includes a grand staircase, and meeting rooms. I am thinking about buying a portable cause a truckmount is a PITA downtown (plus the cost of buying another 5oo feet of hose).

There's not a janitors closet close only a sink. Any thoughts on what portable unit would be best for this situation?

I'm also getting a Cimex to encap it periodically. I demoed the Cimex last week, and it looked real good.

 

[danpauselius]

We just did 18,000 SF in a retail store last night with a porty. Sink was in the back room so we had to run back and forth with the unit for dump and refills. We use a Pathfinder portable but I'm sure there are about 1000 better portables out there. I will say this, if you rotary scrub first, it will look damn good with just about any porty.

 

[hogjowl]

My first thought was to consider a Steamin Demon. However, unless you can get a glide for it, and I'm pretty sure you can, I wouldn't consider it. Without a glide, it's really difficult to move in some situations. However, the sink attachments and auto pump-out are really nice.

NOTE: I don't own one, only demo'd one at a commercial account I have. I have no idea if they are really practical, but I was impressed with what I saw. The only reason I didn't buy one is the concrete in this paticular account is so uneven that the Demon, being something like 20 inches wide, was leaving pools of wet carpet.

 

[danpauselius]

John Burris (JB) could give the pros and cons of the Steamin Demon. I would think that at 15,000 SF of hallways, the hose runs would be ridiculous, even for a SD.

 

[Kevin B]

I would think a portable capable of running 2 inch vacuum hose. Maybe an electric truckmount like a bane.

 

[diamond brian]

Don't forget about the good ol' Castex Falcon walk-behind. With a decent pre-spray, hot water, and a few air-movers, it'll do a great job.

With all the BB salesmen touting Cimex and OP, I think folks have forgotten how good these machines are for large areas.

And used ones can be picked up pretty cheap now too.

 

[hogjowl]

Do they come with auto dump and fill?

 

[Ron Werner]

two things
its an axminster wool. whatever you do, don't over wet. Get it dry as fast as possible.

The other point, how in blazes do you clean 15-18000sf with a porty in one night!!
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[Jim Morrison]

John, I have given some thought to that situation recently. I use a Ninga and recently did 3 banks with it. A supply hose for fresh water is a must. My feeling on the auto pump out (never tried it myself) is that it would be one too many hoses / cords to manage.

If you had a helper with a multisprayer, he could prespray ahead of you.The helper would keep tabs on fresh water / mix emulsifier. When he knew the waste tank was getting full he could shut you down momentarily and dump out a couple of pails of waste water, fire you back to keep the wand moving.

my 2 cents

 

[hogjowl]

On the Demon, the supply hose and the dump hose are both about the size of your bird finger and are bundled together until about 1 ft. from the faucet. If you can manage one hose, you'll a shoe in for managing both.

 

[John Buxton]

Thanks for all the input. I thought of a Steamin Demon first but its only good for 200 feet. I think the sink could be about 350+ feet from the farthest point. Plus the demon will not do the staircase.

My thoughts are a walk behind with an attachment for a stair tool is my best bet.

My goal is to clean 5000 SF monthly, or 1250SF weekly -which will equal 15000 per quarter.

I want to keep the equipment there to lessen the hassles of taking my extended van downtown all day.