Chewing Gum Removal ?

[Brodie]

I recently started up a grounds management company offering a range of services including, All tree maintenance, landscape maintenance, design, and install along with some bush regeneration works, irrigation, fretiliser and herbicide applications and some lawn installs. As you can see we have a lot going on but we manage to do it well and keep a high standard of work.

Now that I have introduced my business a bit I have a question. We have been approached by some schools that we manage to also remove the chewing from their pavement and seating as well as possibly cleaning water fountains.

Do any of you guys out there have any experience with this sort of work? For those that do are there any methods of machines that you are using that you would recommend.

We have found a few steam based units that we will be doing some demo's with in the next week. Is a steam machine the best way to do the job?

From what I understand about the units that we will be seeing is that it will basically eject a stream of steam at about 170*C (338*F I believe) this will change the solid gum to a liquid where an injection of a specialised degreaser will break the gum down to it can be cleaned off the surface. Is this correct?

At this point in time it is just a possible extension to our services if it does not work out then all I have lost os a bit of time. But Id like something to work out because id dont really want other companies coming in at possibly taking clients just because they offer more services. It has happened before.


Thanks for any help you guys can give me.

[Pressure Washing Cleve]

I heard heat works. I use a turbo tip with a cold pressure washer at 4 gpm and 3,000 psi.

[Brodie]

I have hear some say that clod pressure washing causes some etching on the surface. Is this something that you have encountered?

Maybe this is not the case, it may have been something the guys trying to sell their machine said to keep me away from other models.

[Pressure Washing Cleve]

You're probably right. I have not noticed it yet.

[Brodie]

Just a quick update we have just done a demo with a steam cleaner and I have to say I was surprised with the results.

Chewing Gum from 20 years ago was coming off with very little effort. This system does leave a small mark on the surface but the mark left is caused from the surface only being spot cleaned. For our purpose of use this should not be a problem as we are mainly trying to remove chewing gum for hygiene reasons.

[HighTide]

I clean a lot of commercial sidewalks and pop gum all night sometimes. My unit is a 5.6 gpm @ 3,500 psi that can heat my water up to 170'. When popping gum, I use a 2,500 psi 25' fan nozzle with heat to easily remove the gum without etching the concrete. It takes a lot longer to remove the gum with cold water which can easily cause etching, even with just 2,500 psi.