Cedar Shingle thoughts? Any advice appreciated. - Certified SoftWash Roof Cleaning

Doug G · Junior Member

Cedar Shingle thoughts? Any advice appreciated.

Eric Owen · SoftWash Systems Authorized Professional

Doug

Use Terra Wash with your mix are you able to inject? Too your mix for demo could have been old.

Ray Burke · Community Member

I'm thinking more like a .3 or .4 for that kind of nastiest .... And a couple of rain rinses

Michael Derose · SoftWash Systems Certified Applicator

3% mix with terra wash rinse then apply oxalic acid at 12oz to every one gallon. I do understand the difference from cedar shake and cedar shingle. In the end it is still wood.

Doug G · Junior Member

Ray Burke wrote:
I'm thinking more like a .3 or .4 for that kind of nastiest .... And a couple of rain rinses
Rain rinses???? So you would not rinse on site or do you mean rinse with a hose like rain?

Michael Derose wrote:
3% mix with terra wash rinse then apply oxalic acid at 12oz to every one gallon. I do understand the difference from cedar shake and cedar shingle. In the end it is still wood.

Yup.....still wood. Where do you get your oxalic acid?

Eric Owen wrote:
Doug

Use Terra Wash with your mix are you able to inject? Too your mix for demo could have been old.

Demo mix was only a day old and I'm not able to inject.

Terra mix is for concrete but good for this application as well?

-- Edited by Doug Trins on Saturday 5th of April 2014 10:07:48 PM

Tim Teed · SoftWash Systems 5-Star Professional

call zach maynard. he's done a lot of cedar. That is a tough one

Micheal Pumphrey · Junior Member

Looks like weak mix toe. Because when you sprayed more than once you seen an improvement.

2% isn't going to be strong enough. 3-4

What was in your mix

John Aloisio · SoftWash Systems 5-Star Professional

Make sure he shingle don't have a clear cot on them. That might be affecting the cleaning

Bill Booz · Junior Member

Just make your mix stronger. Why would you guys add Terrawash? I don't see how it would help.
Many people approach this differently, we offer both SW and PW on cedar. PW always looks better but cost 3x as much or more so most of our customers prefer SW.
They take longer than asphalt as they absorb the mix instead of laying on top.

People debate on rinsing or not so it's up to you.

It will be a bleached out yellowish when you get it right. It will oxidize back to grey in the sun in less than a year. The wood is food for moss and green algae so I would never offer a 5 year on cedar, that's just asking for trouble down the road. Give them a 2 year guarantee or up your pro-rate to 75% year 3 and up.

While i'm on that subject, we changed our warranty to state that it is a percentage of the CURRENT market cost when the new growth is noticed. I see no reason to lock ourselves into a percentage of cost from the day we did the work as costs can change greatly over the years.

Dan Dykstra · Senior Member

As we are on the subject of cedar roofs, who applies an oil to the shingles as the last step. Or does everyone stop after the final rinse?

Bill Booz · Junior Member

I have applied coatings to cedar. It would require a heavy rinse or PW on most of them. The reason is you can't seal in any contaminants and if you wait for the rain to bring down the moss the cedar will already be oxidizing. It can make big mess fast if your not ready to do this kind of work. Even PW on them makes a huge mess of stuff all over the property and requires a lot of cleanup or prep/ Here's a useful document to help ya'll sell either method and build your knowledge of cedar roofing. Under the Powerwashing method it talks about how some contractors do not powerwash and does not say that powerwashing is the only or preferred way. It does state that a coating needs to be applied if powerwashing and all that info can help sell a softwash.

Bill Booz · Junior Member

Here is another useful tidbit. Our email body for Cedar. In word so you can edit it.

AC Lockyer · Administrator

I agree mix looks weak. On the copper, keep it real wet. Completely rinse the roof above. Use Bleach Wash to halt the bleaching reaction on the wood once the desired color is reached. Use Terra Wash because we have found it works killer on wood bringing out the contrast much more than Green Wash. Maybe do a 50/50 mix of Green Wash and Terra Wash instead of straight Green Wash.

AC