We did a house wash today that was a light grey vinyl siding, house is on a dirt road so the front of the house had years of dust from the road built up on it. The homeowner tried to power wash the siding last fall, not good. Siding is more than 15 years old. Thing will not come as clean as I want. Still can see dirt in the groves on some areas. I informed the homeowner at time of quote about the issues with this color of siding. Anyone have ideas on what's could use to break the bond on the dirt that seems to be in the vinyl.
Dan, I've run into a couple of problems with dirt road properties. Give me a shout tomorrow to discuss options...too tired to type/talk anymore today. Basically its a static issue, may need some manual brushing
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Spray Wash Exterior Cleaning, LLC.
Cleaning North Florida, South Georgia, and Tallahassee!!!
Soft washing, pressure cleaning, and Safe roof cleaning!
I've never used Terra Wash specifically, but from what I understand it is a low Butyl degreaser. When I have encountered this before I have hand brushed with a degreaser solution. Lots of work on a big house, but it should work. Be careful if the siding is very oxidized (powered out) as you can leave brush marks. Also, if you encounter this on aluminum be extra extra careful of brush marks. Paul from Power Was Store's "loaf brush" works great, but maybe also bring something a little stiffer, but not real stiff.
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Chad A. Eneix, President, Water Dragon Inc. chad@waterdragoncleaning.com
Dan, if we don't get a chance to talk by phone, you may have to brush the house with a SOFT brush. I've seen dirt road houses ( crush and run limestone is the worst) develop a "static cling" and the only thing that would dislodge the dirt was a brushing. I've literally held a 4000 PSI nono blaster up to siding, it gets wet and loots like it disappears, then BAM, as soon as it dries, the dirt "haze" returns. I've taken the same house and lightly brushed after soap and before rinse, then dirt belts away.
Sometimes a static charge takes a manual brushing to break the charge and release the crud. Save your time & $$$ on additional chemicals. at 30 second test will let you know if this is the problem or not. Good luck!
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Spray Wash Exterior Cleaning, LLC.
Cleaning North Florida, South Georgia, and Tallahassee!!!
Soft washing, pressure cleaning, and Safe roof cleaning!
I ran into similar residual dirt staining in the upper part of the house under the eaves. Light brush, stiff brush, terra wash - nothing. It is lighter than when it started, but did not clean like the rest of the house.
Ray if it's a static charge than I would think 2 stepping as is done for fleets would break that charge. 2 stepping on vehicles breaks the static charge of road dirt so that it will clean off. You will need some truck wash acid for the first step and an alkali for the second step. Both must be properly made so as not to cause damage and get the desired effect. The reaction of the two chemicals breaks the static bond.