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Gino, if you tarp the bushes and have a good water job done by the ground man you should never torch any plants.  Just make sure the solution drains away from the plants roots.  I like to use a strong solution on the tile roofs that I clean because they are usually 4k-6k sq ft homes and I do not have time to go back and do touch ups.  Dilution is the key ingredient to any runoff.  Many people like to softwash.  I do not.  I prefer a 13 hp honda gx390 with a gear driven pump that puts out 8.5 gpm.  That much water has never failed me.  When the house has gutters I also use AC's gutter cane to diluted any solution in the gutters before it has a chance to go down the down spouts.  If the customer does not have gutters we use old 4' x 8' political signs (Check out my facebook page on June 2012 for an example) that we collect after election day that are made out of coreoplast (may be spelled wrong).  I put these signs under the eves and let the soluton fall off of the roof onto them while they are sprayed off at the same time. Be careful when it hot tarping plants.  In Texas it gets so hot in the summer that a tarped plant will die due to heat stress.

Hoses do not put out near as much water.  Here is an example that had lots of flowering vegetation below and varnished window shutters.  I was spraying the gutters with roof mix because the over spray from the roof had left streaks in them.  By the way, if you don't know already, never let SH sit on varnished wood or it will curl.

Good luck getting rid of the bad habit of man handling a surface washer on the roof.  Some one will get hurt doing so and once your solution is dialed in your will never go back to using one as they limit your profitability. 

DomeEnterprisesLLC wrote:

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Thanks for the great info guys I appreciate it a lot. I really want to get away for the surface cleaner method, we actually did a chem roof today and it went pretty well, I used 40gallons SH and 60gal of water, 12lbs of tsp and dawn dish soap, It didn't soap up as much as I hoped and was running off but it did the job, I will post some photos. Marcus I think my ratios were off in the past, I sometimes don't want to make it to strong just because I don't want to torch any plants. Chris we do use tarps and my guys are on the ground covering things up and keeping everything wet constantly, in the past I have only burnt one bush and replaced it for the homeowner. Again thanks for all the input everyone.

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 Brother Gino, when using TSP, it is always best to allow the amount you are gonna use to soak in the tank with water overnight.

TSP needs some time to soak to unleash it's magic. 

Replace the Dawn with Ultra Gain Original Scent Dish Soap. Only use TSP Gino on bare cement tile roofs, on glazed tile is is not needed.