Sanitizing Equipment??

[hillview]

Most all of the large companies in my area advertise that they sanitize or decontaminate all their equipment and shoes between every job. I haven't been able to find out what type of chemical that they would be applying to equipment to sanitize it and not harm the lawn at the same time and if it is really necessary. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Bryan Hilton Hill View LLC Property Maintenance

[CHEESE2009]

Lawn care business tips

THIS IS A BRILLIANT MARKETTING SCARE!!!! I truly believe it's a big waste of time unless your equipment falls into a sewer full of grubs and crud lol..... Spreading lawn disease is rare and sanitising your tools every job is crazy.... Though because it's possible by even a small bit , you can use it in advertising and it will work. "WE SELL SOFTER PAPER SO YOU CAN AVOID PAPERCUTS" lolllllllllll

__________________
Keeper of Peace
Security Officer Cheese2009
Gopher Security Central (G.S.C)
4th Floor, office 112

[stevef1201]

I cannot for the life of me remember which company it was, but climb into the wayback machine. When tuna was first being canned and sold in the US it was white tuna (Albacore), well this company was canning and selling pink tuna. Thier gimmick? " Canned before it has a chance to turn white! " People started to think that the white tuna was turning bad, so they quit buying it started only buying the pink stuff. It took the other comapnies millions in advertising to convince people that pink tuna and white tuna were in fact two different things, not that white tuna was tuna going bad.

[Hedgemaster]

It's an interesting question.

I have much to learn past my "homeowner knowledge", but when we had some funky lawn disease in our front yard, we read somewhere that the blades should be washed (with what, I don't recall) before moving to an "uninfected" portion of the property.

My wife asked if I was going to do that. "Ummmm.... yeeeaaahhhh, OK."

My solution was to either run one mower in the front and one in the back, or ignore it altogether and run the disease-ridden mower all over.
My back yard always looks like heck anyway so I didn't care.


That said, I can see the concern for transmitting diseases between clients lawns. Is this a true concern?

[CHEESE2009]

If a disease spreads, just charge to have it taken care of.... We can't lose............... lol

[wandfsmall]

Originally Posted by CHEESE2009

If a disease spreads, just charge to have it taken care of.... We can't lose............... lol

I put this along with a service center should level the deck each time we service a mower. YES we should but who wants to pay us to do it. you would have to clean out the deck completely, and use 50% bleach cleaning the entire mower and blades top and bottom to do any good. Then the bleach would kill the ground if you did not clean that off, so you would have to wash all of that off or let it dry. You are looking to add at least two hours to cleanup of every job not really cost effective. My guess is they are just saying they do something that you can not prove to make the customer think they have more value then the other guys.

[Steve]

Most all of the large companies in my area advertise that they sanitize or decontaminate all their equipment and shoes between every job. I haven't been able to find out what type of chemical that they would be applying to equipment to sanitize it and not harm the lawn at the same time and if it is really necessary. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

You should send them an email and ask how they do it. I'd love to hear the responses.

[devuono311]

The bid proposal package I just picked up for a local school district requires sanitation of all equip. before use on school property. So I'm curious what are people using?

[FloridaBoy]

I offer and do Pressure Washing for my clients. I sometimes have the washer on the trailer with me while i am mowing. I have often wondered about mounting a 50 or 100 gallon tank to the trailer ( i have 2 (two) 300 gallon tanks i use on commercial jobs with no water access or water is away from jobsite ) and doing just such a thing to my deck ( cleaning it off ) of course this would be an extra service offered to to any customer that would like to have this done before i start to do there yard, BUT, haha

* What would you charge?
* Do you use any chemicals to clean with and then rinse or just wash off?
* How much time would be involved? ( think about it, its not just cleaning the deck off, you have to cleanup the mess you made with clumps of grass, did you stain the road with the wet grass )
* Is it really proven that it helps to stop the spread of diseases, fungis, etc?

Just some thoughts thrown out there, i personally dont see myself offering this , but for the right amount of money i can do just about anything the customer asks, haha

[wandfsmall]

Originally Posted by devuono311

The bid proposal package I just picked up for a local school district requires sanitation of all equip. before use on school property. So I'm curious what are people using?

well at least on that job you could clean it the night before and start with the school, you might think of steam cleaning the mower, less damage to the equipment then bleach and less likely to kill the ground.