Pressure Washing With Water Recovery To Remove Bike Race Markings From Roadways

After a recent bike race in Denver’s City Park, we were called for pressure washing with water recovery to remove bike race markings from roadways.

The 46th Annual City Park Criterium took place on June 3, 2017. The race organizers used marking paint to highlight pot holes, cracks, and manhole covers  in the road so the bike racers would know to avoid them.

When you are riding your bicycle at high speeds, it doesn’t take much to catch the narrow tires and cause problems. Especially when you’re surrounded by a bunch of other people doing the same thing at the same time in the same place!

Race markings before the damage by amateurs

With the Colorado Classic Bike Race coming to Colorado this weekend, there will likely be similar situations coming up. The Colorado Classic has stops in Colorado Springs and Breckenridge before it finishes in Denver the weekend of August 12-13, 2017.

The City Park Criterium race organizers used another company with a cheaper bid before they called us back. The other company clearly didn’t know what they were doing.

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They tried to clean the street by just using a pressure washer and blasting the race markings off. But they damaged the asphalt before the Denver City Parks Department stopped them.

This isn’t the first time we’ve had someone undercut our bid – and then not be able to do the job.

Pressure washing is more than just blasting things clean with high pressure. You have to be aware of the surface you are cleaning and make sure you don’t cause permanent damage.

In many pressure washing jobs, you have to use the right materials to loosen things up. Then the pressure washing machine is used to rinse it off. The pressure washing process for this job was very similar to the process for graffiti removal.

It takes years of experience to learn how to deal with all the different surfaces and materials available. We have done hundreds of test patches over the years to make sure the process and materials would work – before we did the job.

This particular job also required pressure washing with water recovery. You can’t just wash everything down the storm drain as you go. You need to be able to collect the water and dispose of it properly. If you don’t, your company and your client can get a substantial fine from the EPA, and/or the stormwater district.

You don’t stay in the Denver pressure washing business for 32 years by doing poor quality work and overcharging your clients.