Cleaning on the job

[RArmitage]

I have been plastering for my parents in house renovations for a while and I am now moving into going pro and working in nice clean houses.

For my the renovations I have been throwing my slurry into the gardens as they get done after the house is finished and the waste is skipped.

When on the job where can I throw my slurry from customers houses, as throwing it down the drain outside is a no no due to likelihood of it being blocked. Transporting a bucket full of water and slurry is also impossible as it will spill and ruin my vehicle. I have had a look through the forum already but couldn't find a thread that answers this exact problem just ones that say how to clean the bucket, it is just the disposal I'm concerned about, sorry if it is a repeat.

 

[roughcaster]

I think everybody has that problem. If i've got a bucketful of dirty slurry water with nowhere to empty it, i'll let all the gunge "settle" to the bottom of the bucket for half hour or so, then using a small 1 litre tub, remove the "cleaner"water and throw that away. I then get a few handful of bonding coat or multi finish, and mix it into the "gunge/slurry at the bottom of the bucket. That thickens it up a lot, then you can put it into a bag and dump it. The other thing i do is, if i'm working in a house where they have a lot of chips on a border/pathway, or down the edge of a drive, i'll pull some of the chips back and pour the dirty water into the hole, then pull the chips back over. If it's really runny slurry/gunge though, i do as i said to start with, drain it off, thicken up the slurry/gunge with a couple of handfuls of bonding/multi, then put it in a bag and dump it, no problem with it at all.

 

[RArmitage]

Wont that just create the same problem again when moving from the bucket to the bag, wouldn't there be some dregs of muck left in the bucket, which when cleaning would create the same prob?

 

[roughcaster]

No,, because the gunge has been thickened up with a couple of handfuls of bonding plaster/powder, or multi finish powder. It's gone from a runny slurry, to a thicker plaster, ready to throw into a bag. I do it a lot, and once it's been thickened up, just scrape it out with a bucket trowel, bag it, then wash out the bucket,, simple, give it a try.

 

[gregers]

have a couple of old buckets handy that you can clean your good buckets into for the final bit.i bet the old hands here have more then 2/3 buckets with them at any 1 time.

 

[roy c]

We have got a load of old sand and gravel bags and most of our waste products go in these.The guy we work for has a load of rental garages and we have one for storage so we store our waste bags in there till there is an opertunity to put them in a skip or take them down the amenety site. We also put an old empty skim bag or cement bag inside the sand bag as it stops the sloshing about when you put plaster waste in it...And like rc said a few hand fulls of powder to send it off..

 

[Micilin]

Not really adding much to the excellent advice above, but think of ways to generate less waste and dirty water.

And remember too that finish/bonding is water soluble so will break down if tipped anywhere as long as not in big lumps , which will break down but take a long time.

Things to help .

Maybe if more than a one day job , then on arrival in the next morning can you tip off the clean water from your cleaning bucket/ water bucket to use, and deal with the slurry then. This stops stirring up a big load of dirty water that you can't use and will have to tip out.

How much water do you need for cleaning? Can you reduce this? Can dirty tools or mixer be dry cleaned a bit into a bag before the necessary wet clean?


However the nature of the trade means that you will have to dispose of some waste as mentioned above in other posts and I can't think of better advice on actually getting rid if it.