Another stupid question from yours truly :) Question about running out of water

Do you bring your own water when you clean traditionally? If you run out do you use the customers sink/spicket?

If you do bring your own, do you buy from store for quality or just use spicket at home?

I’ve never had any issue with using the home owners water, except on the occasion when they are not home and the water supply may be turned off. Some homes are winterized when they leave for the winter, in this case I would bring my own water. Lol! I’ve even filled buckets from a river or creek near the home.

Next time you get the chance, measure the TDS of the creek. I’m honestly interested to see what it comes out as.

Pretty much every residential job I do I start by hooking up my hose to the house regardless of whether I am pressure washing or planning on running my WFP for the window cleaning. I like to have the option of a hose that I know that works in case I have to rinse something off my skin or flush my eyes in an emergency if I am using some form of chemicals during the cleaning process. When I know I am going to do my commercial store fronts that I won’t have access to a spigot, I will pre-fill my tank with water that will get me through most if not all of the day’s worth of cleanings. However, I am 95% residential and my larger commercial cleanings I have a Zurn key for the commercial spigots.

The question is, what do you have room for and what do you have access to?

Most commercial strip mall jobs won’t have a spigot out in the open with easy access. If you are lucky to find one, it will be locked behind a Zurn spigot housing like this one:image
You need to have a special square key to open them and also open the valve.image
You can find one on amazon by searching for: Zurn P1300-PART-13-KEY Hydrant Key. They are roughly $13 and it is always good to have one.

Most clients do not care if you tap into the spigot to fill a 5 gallon bucket, but on the flip side, you don’t always know the water source or content when doing so. Most are city water, others are hydrant lines running though the building which have a lot of standing water and can often have loose particulates since it is not for consumption. Other houses may have well water, which depending on your region can be a good or bad thing. Here in Florida, Artesian well water is full of iron and lime deposits and normally has to be filtered and treated with salt, chlorine and other chemicals before it is used in the home.

1 Like

Simple answer here, buy a water key for commercial, no need for resi.

1 Like