House wash chems

This is a before shot of the type of housewashing that we do. We see alot of weathered and mildewed cedar siding here in Vermont. I would like to get some opinions on the chem combinations (cleaners and brighteners) that you guys have had the most success with on verticals like this. Thanks.

Washed and stained

Here it is washed and stained with Cabot Semi Solid "New Cedar." The results were good but on the chem side we used Jomax/bleach with Cabot brightener. I am confident there must be some better chem combos for this. The customer on this one is a retired chemist from Rutgers. After analyzing the Jomax ingredients he informed me that I am paying alot of money for what is 99% a jug of water (inert ingredients). Also, for the record, the machine shown in the picture is the 2.8 gpm that we retired in favor of the 4.0 Pressure Pro from Bob (on Kens referral...thanks guys) and I dont know how we ever lived without it.

Though I am not a fan of bleach on wood, on vertical surfaces with heavy mold you are almost forced to use it. During the other 90% its mostly downstreamed stripper in varying dilutions.

Jomax is nothing more than a surfactant package. You can get yourself some polyoxyethylene nonylphenol (np-9) from the chemistry store to mix with your bleach for more cling and effectiveness. Be wary of putting in too much as you will be rinsing forever.

For cedar like that - I use like an ounce-once & a half of NP-9 surfactant per gallon and 1/8-1/4 cup of TSP along with about 1% bleach hitting the wall.

Thanks Ken. You say "the other 90%"...I am finding in my washing endeavors that mildew stained cedar and failing Sikkens on cedar are going to be the 90% in my sales. I am very happy with the Powersolve DSI on the strip side of things, do you think I would be equally pleased with Bob's F-10 and F-8 as upgrades to the combinations I have been using for mildew removal and brightening? And, I know, I will be having several conversations with Bob over the winter to get ramped up for spring. Please bear with my enthusiasm in pursuit of the right stuff! This started as and still is an integrated service to our exterior painting, but I want to build toward a future of a potential stand alone division for wood washing and restoration.

plainpainter said:

For cedar like that - I use like an ounce-once & a half of NP-9 surfactant per gallon and 1/8-1/4 cup of TSP along with about 1% bleach hitting the wall.

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Hey Daniel

Nice to see you over here. I'm not familiar with NP-9 (at least not by that name), can you tell me more?

look up nonylphenol on thechemistrystore.com. IT's a non-ionic surfactant that is bleach compatible.

Scott,

In my opinion there is nothing as effective and cost efficient as Powersolve. The F series stripper (F18) will work as well when mixed strong enough to downstream but it is not cost effective at all. You can do the same with HD80, I've used it in a pinch before but I used almost a full 10 lb bucket to get it strong enough to downstream. The Powersolve is made for downstreaming so it is much more cost effective.

As far as the F8, I do use that to neutralize wood after stripping. I mix it strong enough to downstream and it seems to work well.

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Pressure Washing Company Providing Deck Cleaning, Concrete Cleaning, Roof Cleaning and Other Power Washing Services

Barry - I am surprised you were able to dissolve that much HD-80. The one time I tried dissolving HD-80 to get it to downstream - I was shocked at how hard it was to dissolve, I couldn't get much more than 10 ozs/gallon dissolve rate!

Just by way of update on this topic, I called Bob W last week and he spent a good chunk of time on the phone educating me about the equipment and products to help us build a better program for '09. I placed an initial order to correct a few issues on the equipment side and will be stocking the chems through the winter. Can't say enough good about Bob and his willingness to help.