Our outdoor bib is on the reclaimed line. Can you fill from it?

Which system a water point is on is worth knowing before anyone connects to it, and where the answer is the City's reclaimed system we do not assume past that point. The City publishes restrictions for that system, including that it cannot be connected to potable water or other additional water sources, and the City material we have read says nothing about vehicle washing in either direction. That makes it a question for you and the City, not one we should be answering on your behalf. If it turns out to be the only usable water point at the yard, that changes the plan rather than ending it.

Our shop is inside a historic preservation overlay. Does that affect washing trucks in the lot?

The code's cleaning standards are written about the building's surfaces, not about your trucks. If spray from a wash could reach that wall, where the unit is positioned and where the spray goes is a fair thing to ask us about before the night of the work. Whether anything you are planning needs a Certificate of Appropriateness is a question for the City, whose Historic Preservation Board rules on those applications, and not for us — we will not tell you it does, and we will not tell you it does not.

Fleet washing in Orlando

Nothing about how a truck is washed changes at the Orange County line. What changes in Orlando is how much of it is written down. The City's code names surface cleaning among its historic preservation standards, the City has published where its stormwater goes, and it runs a second water system of its own in parts of town. Three things a fleet yard here can settle on paper before anyone unrolls a hose — and one of them is the sentence where we tell you what we are not equipped to do.

Where Orlando's stormwater goes is written down; where your lot's goes is a question

Where the wash water goes is the first thing worth asking at any yard. In Orlando the City has written down where stormwater goes across the city, and it is not a flattering account. The stormwater support document behind its comprehensive plan, last amended in 2009, says surface runoff will pick up oils, fertilizers, soil and other pollutants and transport them to the City's lakes and drainage wells, or downstream to be added to other sources of pollution. Oil lifted off pavement is precisely the class of thing that comes off a truck. The same document counts about 94 acres of lake shoreline and about 231 acres of open ditches, canals and swales that the City maintains; which of those, if any, your low corner answers to is a question about your site that the document cannot answer. It also puts the City's drainage wells at roughly 150, sending stormwater into the upper Floridan aquifer directly, and reports that the City had completed a Drainage Well Monitoring Plan, developed in conjunction with FDEP and approved by FDEP. That programme is the City's and that approval is FDEP's, and neither is ours to borrow. What all of that changes is what is worth asking before the work starts, not what our equipment does. We are not going to imply that our equipment changes where the water ends up. Where your low corner drains is worth finding out when we walk the lot, and the answer belongs with the person whose lease and permit it actually is. We are flexible to what your contract needs, so which units, which nights and in what order is something to settle with us. Then the limit, said before you have to ask for it. We do not carry tanks to collect the water and take it away. We are not set up for that. If what you have just read is the reason your yard needs the water collected and hauled, then your yard needs a contractor equipped for it.

Orlando runs a second water system in parts of the city

The way we take water at your property is a spigot: we connect to it and fill a large onboard reserve, so a truck either arrives full or draws from your water on site. Inside Orlando city limits there is more than one system that water can come from. Alongside OUC's potable supply, drawn from the Lower Floridan aquifer, the City runs a reclaimed water system of its own, fed by three wastewater plants — Iron Bridge, Conserv I and Conserv II — and states that it is only available in limited service areas within the City of Orlando. The City describes that water as highly treated, clear wastewater, ideal for outdoor irrigation, and publishes restrictions alongside it: it cannot be connected to potable water or other additional water sources, it is not for human or animal consumption, and it is not for indoor use, for filling pools or hot tubs, or for cleaning playgrounds. Read the first of those restrictions with a tank in mind. A reserve that fills off one line on one night and a different line the next is a case the City material we have read does not mention, and none of it addresses vehicle washing in either direction. We are not going to fill that silence on the City's behalf. So which system a water point is on is worth knowing before anyone connects to it. If the only usable water point at the yard turns out to be on the reclaimed system, that is a question for you and the City, not one we should answer on your behalf, and the answer changes the plan rather than ending it — the same way a yard with no usable water point at all changes it.

If a building on the yard sits in an overlay district, the wall is a bystander

Working at your yard means working close to your building, and in Orlando that building may be inside one of the City's six historic preservation overlay districts, where the City's code sets cleaning standards for historic buildings: surface cleaning by the gentlest means possible, and, for wood siding and masonry, no abrasive, corrosive or damaging technique. Our Orlando page sets out those provisions. Those standards are written about the building, not about your trucks. So for a building like that, ask us how the unit will be positioned and where the spray will go before the night of the work; it is a fair question for any contractor. Whether any of this work needs a Certificate of Appropriateness is a question for the City, whose Historic Preservation Board rules on those applications, and not for us, and we will not tell you it does or that it does not. The schedule has its own reason, and it is the metal rather than the wall. We typically run nights and weekends, around your route schedule, and the night hours are also the right hours for the finish: the cleaning guide written for architectural aluminium says not to chemically clean hot, sun-heated metal. The fleet washing page sets out that guide and the wheel maker's temperature limit.

Common questions

Does our yard's drainage change what you can do here?: It changes what is worth asking before the work starts, not what we are equipped to do. The City's own stormwater support document, last amended in 2009, says where runoff goes across the city: to its lakes and to its drainage wells, roughly 150 of them, which put stormwater into the upper Floridan aquifer directly, or downstream. So where the low side of your lot drains is a question worth asking; tell us what you know when we walk the yard. We do not carry tanks to collect the water and take it away. If your lease or permit requires that, you need a contractor equipped for it.
Our outdoor bib is on the reclaimed line. Can you fill from it?: Which system a water point is on is worth knowing before anyone connects to it, and where the answer is the City's reclaimed system we do not assume past that point. The City publishes restrictions for that system, including that it cannot be connected to potable water or other additional water sources, and the City material we have read says nothing about vehicle washing in either direction. That makes it a question for you and the City, not one we should be answering on your behalf. If it turns out to be the only usable water point at the yard, that changes the plan rather than ending it.
Our shop is inside a historic preservation overlay. Does that affect washing trucks in the lot?: The code's cleaning standards are written about the building's surfaces, not about your trucks. If spray from a wash could reach that wall, where the unit is positioned and where the spray goes is a fair thing to ask us about before the night of the work. Whether anything you are planning needs a Certificate of Appropriateness is a question for the City, whose Historic Preservation Board rules on those applications, and not for us — we will not tell you it does, and we will not tell you it does not.

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