Hose Flushing
There is a difference of opinion as to the efficiency of flushing by hose. In Philadelphia all alleys and streets whose width between curbs is too narrow to permit the use of street brooms are cleaned once each week with hose. When additional cleaning is necessary it is done with hand brooms.
Very says that hose flushing is ineffective and uneconomical, and that water does not reach the pavement in such manner as to give full effect and usually is doing no work at all.
One city report makes this comment: “Four or five sweepers hold a hose and play it in some sections as though the object were to wash away the asphalt block pavement and car tracks. Target shooting, with a stream of water, so-called flushing, will never supplant wetting and scrubbing.”
Very also claims that water to be effective must reach the pavement surface in a chisel shape and at a proper angle to remove and carry off the filth. He says that no man is properly constructed to hold the hose at a proper angle with the pavement to obtain the best results for any length of time. Commissioner Fetherston says New York’s experience shows that a hose gang consisting of two men is able to clean well from 23,000 to 25,000 square yards of the dirtiest Belgian block pavement in eight hours, and will clean upward of 30,000 square yards of smooth pavement of modern granite block in the same time, using 2-inch hose, which is that city’s standard size for use with its new hose reels. The amount of water required to clean 1,000 square yards is approximately 1,000 gallons.