Henry's Housework Donates Services To Power Wash
Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials
Henry's Housework coordinates one of the areas largest community
service projects in the power washing industry. Power washers from across
the Nation joined together on August 21-22 to power wash the Jefferson
Memorial and Lincoln Memorials in our Nations Capitol.
The project was part of the Power Washers of North America's "Clean Across
America" campaign created and coordinated by Henry Bockman, owner of
Henry's Housework Inc in Germantown, MD. and President of the Maryland
PWNA chapter. The projects were coordinated in a partnership with the
Department of the Interiorbs b Take Pride in Americab initiative which
also encourages volunteers for community service projects. The group of
16 power washers from as far away as Connecticut, Massachusetts and
Georgia worked tirelessly to keep on schedule while keeping the area clear
for thousands of visitors to the memorials during the largest project ever
performed through the PWNA's Clean Across America campaign.
"These structures are a part of our nations history and dating back almost
100 years in time and they need our help" states Henry Bockman. "The
monuments will be cleaned with hot water and a maximum use of 600 Pounds a
Square Inch was imperative, anything above that could cause irreparable
damage to the monuments. The use of pressure over 1,000 PSI can cause
damage to almost any surface states Bockman, "the most common misconception
about power washing is the "MORE POWER" mentality of pressure
washer operators. But power washing is more involved than just spraying
high pressure water. It takes the proper cleaners, education and experience
to get professional results." Education is one of the PWNA's
main objectives through a variety of rigorous
training and educational programs to certify companies for Wood Restoration,
Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning, Environmental Certification and a variety of other
courses through locations around the country. Henry Bockman is just one of the growing numbers
of contractors in the country certified by the PWNA for Wood Restoration and
Environmental Reclamation. "Our PWNA certifications and 16 years of
experience give us an edge over other companies" states Henry Bockman. "They
also enable us to take on larger projects like the cleaning of these
memorials and other types of residential power washing that other companies
may not wish to pursue."
The group of power washers also included local companies Deck Medics in Rockville, Deck Protectors in Frederick and Under Pressure in Baltimore among many others. Together the group restored over 135,000 square feet of Danby Imperial Marble, Colorado Yule Marble and Indiana Limestone that was used to build the monuments. Each monument was cleaned in less than 8 hours reducing the time that would disrupt or interfere with visitors to the memorials. Normally it takes the monuments staff five days for each monument to be cleaned but this group of professionals was able to call upon their years of experience and training to clean each monument in less than 8 hours.Vendors and manufacturers from across the nation donated equipment and products for these projects. Goodyear Tire and Rubber donated over 2,500 feet of their new SpiraFlow hoses and vendors from California and Georgia donated products as well. This was a group effort and we required a lot of resources to manage this project. We received so much support from companies we had to ask a local vendor, Sun Brite Supply of Maryland in Gaithersburg to stockpiled thousands of pounds of material in their showroom until the project.Sun Brite Supply of Maryland was also responsible for fine tuning and making last minute repairs and adjustments to some of the power washers to ensure everything was running properly.The results of this "DC Dream Team" of contractors is astounding said visiting sightseers. "It's refreshing to see a group of contractors working together on these cherished monuments" The group of contractors received phone calls for days afterwards from New York and California when visitors returned home and found out that the power washing of the monuments was done for free. With so many issues going on in the world today it's good to see that people still care about our nations heritage and national treasures like these monuments" states Bill Piles from Long Beach, California.
For more information about the Clean Across America campaign or for comments and questions regarding this or other projects. Visit the PWNA web site at www.pwna.org.
