SolarCleaningBossPro Blog — Commercial Arrays

Carport Arrays: Cleaning Solar Over a Parking Lot Without Fighting the Cars

A solar carport is one of the nicer arrays to clean. No roof hatch, no shingles, often a good angle and easy reach from a lift or a ladder. The catch is underneath: cars. Parked cars, moving cars, customers walking to their cars, and drivers who do not appreciate dirty rinse water on a freshly washed windshield. Carport jobs are won or lost on timing and planning.

Set Up the Carport Like Any Other Site

The setup is close to what Warehouse and Flat-Roof Arrays: Setting Up Large Solar Cleaning Jobs in the Software describes, with a few changes. In SolarCleaningBossPro, the carport is an address under a client. If it sits at the same business as a roof array, you can keep it on its own address so it gets its own panel details, its own notes and, if you like, its own line on the statement.

In the panel details, set the mount to Carport and enter the panel count. Add extras like bird proofing if birds roost in the structure, which they often do. On the tech's phone that comes out as “144 panels · Carport · Bird proofing.”

Timing Is Everything

The best time to clean a carport is when the lot is empty. That depends on the business:

• Offices: early morning before staff arrive, evenings, or weekends.
• Clinics and retail: before opening. Customer cars come and go all day.
• Schools: weekends, holidays and summer break.
• Churches: any weekday, as long as you stay clear of service times and events.
• Apartments and condos: the hardest. Residents park overnight. Coordinate with the manager to clear a section at a time.

Put the best window in the access notes on the address: “Lot empty before 7am and after 6pm. Do not start before 5:30am, alarm on the gate.” Then use the dispatch board to put the carport first on the commercial truck's route that day. Auto-route is handy for most days, but on a carport day setting the order by hand usually wins. More on that in Scheduling Commercial Solar Cleaning Around Business Hours.

Cars You Cannot Move

Even an early start will find a few parked cars. Have a plan for them before the crew arrives:

• Ask the manager to send a note to staff or tenants a few days ahead asking them to park elsewhere on cleaning day.
• Text the manager the night before as a reminder. Two-way texting from the office makes that a quick back-and-forth.
• Skip the bays over parked cars and come back once they leave, or clean around them with care and a low-pressure rinse.
• Take a photo of any car under the work area before you start, so nobody can claim damage later.

Write the plan you agree on into the access notes so it happens the same way every quarter.

Water, Runoff and People Walking By

Rinse water off a carport lands in the parking lot. Most of it is just water, but it still lands on cars, on pavement people walk across, and sometimes in landscaping. Keep cones or a simple sign where people walk. If a storefront is right next to the carport, do not run water toward the doors. Note the spigot location and whether it needs to be turned on, or whether you bring your own tank and pure-water system.

Safety on carports is simpler than on roofs but still real. Use the right ladder or lift, keep people out from under the work area, never walk on the panels, and follow the panel maker's cleaning guidance.

Proof for the Property Manager

Carports are in plain sight, which is good for you. The manager can see clean glass from the lot. Before-and-after photos taken in the tech app still matter, because the person who pays the bill may be at a corporate office in another city. Saved with the job, those photos are proof the work was done and when.

Carports on a Plan

Carports tend to get dirty faster than rooftops, because dust from the lot and droppings from birds roosting in the frame both land on the glass. Many owners put them on a quarterly plan. Set 90 days between visits and the carport comes due on the Waiting List on its own. If the business also has a roof array on the same schedule, both addresses come due together and can go on the same day.

When the job is complete, the invoice is created, or for an account set to Monthly billing, the carport shows on that month's statement with its own address on the line. To see how carports fit with warehouses, schools, farms and property owners with many buildings, go back to the commercial solar cleaning software page.