Pressure washers or water bowsers come in different types and sizes, ranging in power from a few hundreds pounds per square inch (psi) of water pressure to several thousand, with some powered by electric and others by gas engines.

Every water bowser also has a range of settings to enable it to tackle a wide range of tasks. If you set the pressure too high, or use the wrong type of pressure wand tip, you could end up power etching your decking rather than just cleaning it – leaving you with the much more arduous task of re-sanding the wood or even replacing the decking.

To clean your decking without causing damage, make sure you use the appropriate:

• pressure setting;
• wand tip; and
• power washing technique.

If you don’t own this type of cleaning equipment yourself, pressure washer hire is widely available from garden and tool hire centres.

Choosing the right pressure setting

Power washers have many applications and as a result they come with a variety of settings to suit different jobs. When it comes to cleaning wood, try to use the lowest pressure possible to clean the wood effectively without causing unwanted damage. Soft wood such as pine or cedar need settings as low as 500-600 psi, while harder woods may be able to take a slightly higher pressure of up to 1200-1500 psi.

Choosing the right pressure washer wand tip

The fan tip is the best type of wand tip to use for cleaning wood. Fan tips are measured in degrees, with a 40-60 degree tip size most suitable for cleaning wooden decking. Alternatively, if you are very careful, you can use a rotating tip.

Using the right power washing technique

Start in an inconspicuous area of the deck using a low pressure of 600 psi to see if that is effective enough to clean the wood properly, holding the wand pointing away from people and any glass doors or windows. You could test the pressure on a stair tread, since in a worst case scenario these are easier to replace than a main deck board.

Keep the wand held about 24” away from the decking, feathering it into range of about 12-18” from the decking. If you find 600psi is not cleaning effectively, increase it incrementally, checking all the time that it is not damaging or etching the surface of the wood. As soon as you reach an effective pressure, stick with that setting.

Once you have found the right settings, work from your house outwards, following the grain by feathering the spray lengthwise, cleaning the deck with a sweeping motion. Try to keep the wand at the same distance from the wood as you work by moving your arm laterally backwards and forwards.

How to fix rough, raised wood fibres

When you use water on wood, it can create raised fibres and a rougher surface. You will minimise this if you find the right settings and use the right power cleaning technique, but the chances are you may have a few spots that need sanding afterwards. Pay particular attention to hand rails, which may give people splinters if they have raised fibres – sand them down to create a smooth surface ready for a fresh application of wood sealer. For handrails, choose a sand paper of up to 100 grit, while for the main decking you can use a 60-80 grit sand paper and hire a random orbital sander using a 5″ pad.

Decking
Our hire equipment will tackle straightforward cleaning operations such as keeping decking free of garden grit.

Patios and Porches
Mid-range pressure washers will provide you with all the cleaning power you need to attend to patios, with the convenience of a wheeled trolley. All the accessories are handily stowed on board.

Mildew
The build-up of mildew can be a recurring problem but our hire products will easily cleanse any areas where this is occurring.

Roofs and guttering
Roofs and guttering get clogged up with unwanted materials over time. Blocked guttering can have serious consequences. Jet wash hire is one way of countering this. We can supply an extra pressure washer hose that will provide hot pressurised water, coupled with an industrial strength degreaser.

Oil and other chemical spillages
This same device can be trained on those thoroughly unpleasant stains, such as oil seepage and other industrial spillages, as well as grease or even ice.

Windows
Because all our hire devices deliver water at high pressure, they can be used for many tasks, from industrial usage to domestic. If you require giving window panes a thorough clean, there are many types of pressure washer hire you can consider, from cleaning machines to simple accessories like hoses.

Vehicle Cleaning
If you really want to get the job done, getting into every awkward recess, your best option is hiring a pressure washer. An electric hot water pressure washer is a heavy duty hot pressure washer that is suitable for cleaning vehicles, as well as many industrial applications. Fitted with an on board chemical tank, this apparatus will remove most stains, including oils, spillages, grease and ice.

Exterior Walls
Many types of water bowser hire are more than capable of getting exterior walls and doors looking as good as new.

Doors
It’s important to keep doors looking fresh, so considering hiring our water bowser products to give your doors a spring clean that will have them looking factory fresh again.

Hiring a water bowser makes many jobs much easier, especially when you do not have access to a mains water supply. Needless to say, we offer an excellent range of versatile water bowsers for various tasks and volumes.

We are so much more than just your handiest and well stocked UK tool hire centre. Stocking popular brands such as Kärcher, Demon and Kranzle, we can supply exactly the type of cleansing equipment to suit any operation. Our diverse range of products includes pressure washers and accessories, both petrol-fuelled and electrically operated, as well as water bowser hire. These washers are suitable for many applications; domestic, commercial or industrial.

The very useful electric pressure washer can be used with a water bowser to great effect. This excellent mid-range pressure washer offers maximum cleaning power with the convenience of a wheeled trolley. All its accessories are stowed on board. There are times when you might be faced with really obstinate stains – such as oil spills in your garage, or seepage on your driveway. While these would be beyond the scope of most standard cleaning devices, pressure washers can be used for the fast, efficient removal of traffic film, oil, grease, grime and moss. Because directing water jets can be used for so many applications, these handy tools are just as effective for cleaning patio areas after those occasional summer barbecues.

If you need an industrial pressure washer, combine with a larger water bowser for the efficient and fast removal of traffic film, oil, grease, grime and moss. Units can be fed from mains tap, 45 gallon drum or bowser. The washer is fitted with automatic chemical intake and you can easily vary the pressure by using the controls. The industrial pressure washer can also be used as a patio cleaner.

Safety Tips

• Always wear Safety glasses, dust mask and gloves to protect yourself

• Never point or spray any other person or animal with a pressure washer as these frequently operate at pressures between 1,000 to 5,000 psi and doing so can cause serious injury.

• Always grip the spray gun with both hands and assume a solid stance as pressure washers are notoriously powerful water jets that can cause loose debris to move when in contact with the water jet.

• Always use a circuit power breaker when using an electric pressure washer and when spraying always keep clear of electrical devices such as lights and outlets as the water can cause them to damaged or short circuited.

• Pressure washers frequently use detergent so you should always start the pressure washer at the lowest power setting and gently adjust until you reach the optimum setting for the task at hand.

• Never use a pressure washer when up a ladder or scaffolding as one could easily slip due to the recoil of the pressure washer or the water which could make the surface slippery.  Use an extension Pole if you need to pressure washer high places.

Given their constant use and tendency to quickly look tired and worn, driveways are exposed to a wide range of substances from road dirt to mud, oil stains to grease, all with which contribute to a dirtying a concrete, tarmac or paving stone driveway.

Without regular cleaning, these elements would stain and become hard to remove, so pressure washer hire would help remove dirt and stains far more easily and effectively than trying to use a normal hose which would lack the power to clean off stubborn stains.

Pressure Washing Driveway Cleaning Tips

• Always wear safety goggles and gloves when using a pressure washer.

• Always use a circuit breaker if using an electrical pressure washer and keep it a safe distance from where any potential water could go.

• Clear the drive way of cars and use a broom to sweep lose debris and dirt off the driveway before starting.

• If you have any excess oil or grease marks, then you can help to soak it up by using either saw dust or cat litter.

• If you have any stains then pre treat with an appropriate cleaning agent. A degreaser for greasy marks, or for oil stains you can get suitable oil stain remover from your local hardware store. Soak the strain for at least 5 to 10 minutes before spraying off.

• If you are pressure washing a concrete driveway then you should be looking at setting it to at least 3,000 psi to get most benefit.

• Begin using the pressure washer spraying away from the surface from approximately 3 foot away before bringing it back towards where you started in a forward and back motion.

• Check to see if the surface is becoming clean and if not, then move the pressure washer closer to the driveway surface when spraying.

• Make a few passes on the driveway to help eliminate all remaining lose debris and any lightly stained dirt from the surface.

• If you are using a drive cleaning detergent then apply this to the driveway as per user instructions. You can also use scrubbing attachments to the pressure washer to help give a more powerful clean. Rinse the detergent off thoroughly to leave a clean driveway.

Pressure washer hire is a cost effective solution for helping with all those tough outdoor cleaning tasks making light work of what could otherwise be both labour and back intensive hard graft.

Being both versatile and easy to use, pressure washer hire is a formidable cleaning tool, which has really no limit as to what you can clean with one but the most common cleaning tasks domestic users use a  pressure washer for includes cleaning :

• Garden Paths and Driveways
• Patios
• Decking
• Guttering
• Cars / Boats/ Bikes / Dog Kennels
• Garden Furniture and Walls
• Outdoor Equipment
• Brickwork
• Wheelie Bins
• Windows

Hiring a pressure washer will help you blitz all those tasks and more with little effort and the domestic pressure washers for hire only require connection to a mains electricity supply and either a mains water tap, water tank or butt via a garden hose. They are far more effective than just using a garden hose as they can increase the water pressure by up to 25 times thus making them so ideal for tough cleaning jobs.

How do Pressure washers work?

Pressure washers which can also be known by other names including Jet wash, Power Wash and Water Bowsers are machines that works by increasing water pressure before distributing it in a controlled manner via a spray gun.   Available in a number of different variants for both domestic and commercial use, pressure washers either run on mains electric, supplying both cold and hot water via the spray gun or petrol and diesel operated machines which are primarily more for commercial and industrial uses.

Water Bowser hire are another type of mobile pressure washer that normally come on a trailer and with a holding water tank making it ideal for jobs in areas that don’t have access to a water tap.

They are a number of manufactures of pressure washers for hire but the main ones include Karcher, Demon and Kranzle.

Nozzles and Attachments

Depending which pressure washer you use, will depend on which type of nozzle attachment is fitted and how powerful the spray gun will be. Domestic pressure washers for hire usually come with a variable nozzle attachment that allows the user to easily change both the power and the degree spray by simply turning the nozzle clockwise or counter clockwise.

Commercial and industrial pressure washers can have different fixed nozzles fitted depending on the type of job they are being used for. This flexibility allows for commercial uses such as cleaning hard surfaces, disinfecting buildings, cleaning drains or even removing graffiti. One of the most popular pressure washer attachments is the extending lance. This allows you to use a pressure washer anything from large vehicles and vans to a 2 or 3 storey building whilst still being safely on the ground.

Pressure Washing Cleaning

Different nozzle settings should be used depending on what you are cleaning but as a guide line you should look at the following :

Degrees Setting – Nozzle blasting setting

This is the most powerful setting for a pressure washer and you should set this setting when looking to do jobs such as :

• Removing heavy dirt and mud from equipment such as lawn , farming or construction machinery.
• Removing stubborn stains from concrete and cement.
• Removing oxidation and rust from steel

15 Degrees Nozzle Setting

This pressure washer setting would be ideal for a number of tasks including:

• Stripping paint
• Removing grease and dirt from machinery
• Removing oxidation and rust from steel

25 Degrees Nozzle Setting

This is the ideal pressure washer setting for general cleaning:

• Cleaning gutters, decking , roofing etc
• Removing mildew and algae from items

40 Degree Nozzle Setting

This is the usual setting for cleaning machinery such as cars , bikes or boats and also for removing dirt from patio’s  and driveways.