Proper Methods to Removing Gum?

Luis Orts

Luis Orts

New member
Even though my employee's have not had any issues with gum removal YET... I see a lot of hack jobs when I'm walking down some shopping centers.

I have a few questions..

1) What do you do to prevent "Zorro" marks?

2) If you clean a property that has these marks, what can you do to make it look a little better?
 
Turn the thermostat up on your heater. If your water is hot enough, not much pressure is needed. I pop gum with a 25 degree tip and less than 500psi. The low pressure prevents damage and the hot water melts away the gum.
 
Cool, they're not doing it wrong then. I just thought they were going kind of slow...

Maybe it's just a lot of gum they have to do sometimes haha

What about the second portion of my question? Just curious
 
Once concrete is etched it is etched forever. You can acid wash it but that only etches it more. Basically once its been damaged there is no fixing it unless the property owner skim coats his concrete or re-does his concrete.

That is all apart of the sales pitch. Contractors that are damaging the concrete are damaging it forever and removing the cream coat from the concrete. That is permanent damage. That is why it is better to hire a trained professional.

There are a few methods to properly removing gum.

a. Turning up the heat and reducing the pressure.
b. Angling your wand from a side and lifting the gum from side also helps remove it without etching
c. Letting hot mix of caustic or degreaser melt the gum for a little bit to make it more moist and malleable to remove
d. Surface cleaning first with hot water so it loosens up the gum and then coming back over with the wand when rinsing
e. Using a industrial scrapper and scrapping the gum off first and then coming back over and power washing

And probably more techniques that I did not list. And some people probably use a combination of the options above or other techniques as well. The best way to know if your employees are moving too slow or fast is to pick up the wand yourself. That is why it is best to do the work yourself for a year or so to learn the techniques and know how fast your guys should be moving. Not saying you should stay behind the wand forever but you want to fully understand what your employees are up against so you can also train them properly. I know exactly how long it takes to clean most of the properties I bid. I am usually right on within an hour or so. If my guys are moving faster or slower than my guesstimate there is probably something wrong.

But implementing some of the above techniques may help speed up your work flow.
 
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Well, when possible we don't like to use chems on the sidewalks.. however, I didn't know caustic made much of a difference on gum. Because even when pressure washing the sidewalks with Hot water, they still have to pop it off when rinsing (which makes sense)

My only thing is as of lately, I catch myself over-bidding certain jobs because of the gum factor. At first, I underbid at least 2 or 3 jobs and got kinda burnt for it.. and I haven't found a happy medium yet based on the amount of gum. But I have to say, the price issue really comes down to me not communicating with the right people. Sometimes I talk to people who just want a price, and I don't have the opportunity to really sell.

I have a few centers to bid out and I'm absolutely determined to knock it out of the park...
 
Right on Bradley. I will start considering a price cheat sheet for myself for when I bid out these shopping centers.

Thank you.

And thank you too Ty. You're the man.
 
Wheres that video of the girl using a small touch and a scraper to remove the gum from gas pumps? Anyway a torch and knife should do the trick lol.
 
We apply our mix, and while it's dwelling we pop gum with hot water. Then run the surface cleaner for a even out look. Post treat to brighten and role out!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
 
Ok guys the consensus seems to be high heat, low psi to remove gum. Here is my problem: I'm running a hotsy 1290ssg and the manual and my dealer have told me never to run the burner on anything other than full throttle. So if I can't lower the pressure what would y'all recommend I do?
 
Yeah, lower your pressure with different nozzles. Use the chart he posted. For instance, I have a 4200 psi unit, but I used that chart to get nozzles with a different size orifice so I can clean at 2500 psi for example.
 
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