Thoughts on house washing...oxidation removal

What's your expereince with oxidation removal?

  • all oxidation should come off 10-15 year old siding even if never cared for

    Votes: 8 17.0%
  • most oxidation will remain on the home

    Votes: 4 8.5%
  • some oxidation will come off but not all of it will

    Votes: 29 61.7%
  • other - see notes added to thread.

    Votes: 6 12.8%

  • Total voters
    47

Beth & Rod

SR Wood Geek / Moderator
Please share your thoughts on how effective a house wash would be given the following scenario...

10-15 year old vinyl siding
NEVER washed
Oxidized (yes, it rubs off to the touch)
consumer mindset is it should all come off

I have found a variety of informatio nonline, but it is all based upon manufacturer care specs. None of it is based upon what you encounter if you don't care for the siding on a periodic basis.

Thoughts and votes appreciated.

Beth & Rod
 
By the way, we're talking LOW pressure washing not high, and this is not a paint prep job.
 
How low are we talking? I still feel that it should all come off, now if it was aluminum siding, that is whole new ball game, but for vinyl siding, this stuff can go forever, besides sun fading and being brittle in the winter, this wears like Iron...

Matt
 
I think most of it will come off, but nothing will be perfect. I would use about 2000 psi and a 40° tip.
 
I agree with Mike I should have said that, nothing will be brand new, I use the scenario, If you had a brand new car,and you did not wash it for 10 years, would you still think it will look brand new after you washed it...


Matt
 
I run into this here in Delaware. Seems the good brands of siding clean much better and most of the oxidization comes off with the house wash. Sometimes with the cheaper stuff on mobile homes and manufactured housing it doesn't seem to oxidize evenly. You can see it from the street, you see patches of light and dark, before you go and give an estimate. Seems where the sun hits all day oxidizes much more I have had the wall came out splotchy looking on the sunny side when cleaned. In 2 weeks the wall regained an even tone. I tried brushing with high alkaline detergents but nothing helped. The homeowners were happy and I have since washed the same house again but with the same results but not as bad. My comment is yes all the oxidation will come off but some of the siding isn't oxidized or oxidized as bad and the finish is still in good shape giving this appearance.
 
This is an expensive neighborhood where the builder seems to have cut corners. The siding is brittle, and in our opinions was probably inexpensive. It's not in very good shape, and the oxidation is very uneven. It's blue, so the uneven coloring shows up all toooooo well.

Was washed with low pressure (under 1000 PSI, soft hot house wash) with specific instructions by the prime (we were subs) to remove mold, mildew and algae and construction dirt from when they put a new roof on. The prime said don't worry about oxidation.

Now the prime is complaining because he can no longer see the HAIL DAMAGE on the siding... and wants the house washed by hand, to take off ALL oxidation. He's trying to keep us from the homeowner too. The more we think about it, the more inclined we are to go to the homeowner direcly to resolve this since we believe the prime spoke on our behalf and promised something we didn't agree to.

If we use high pressure, it will look uneven. It's cornflower blue. They are not paining. But, me thinks....they are lookng for a new siding skapegoat.

Beth

p.s. help....
 
We do not do very many buildings or residential type work. However when we do clean buildings, for the most part we do them just like we do fleets, we brush. We have used the same product for all of the years that we have been in business. It is a sodium metasilicate based material. Using a hose-end sprayer we can apply up to a 1-3 solution. We have done many buildings over the years that looked like we painted them because we removed all of the oxidation and got down to good paint. We seldom run hot, we maintain a high standoff distance with the tip from the surface and run high volume.

Sure there are always exceptions. In the case of poor quality substrate cleaning seldom will help much. When aluminum siding paint is failing (12-15 years old) there is a good chance that cleaning it will remove more of the color than wanted. In this case I tell the building owner they may need to plan on repainting the building so they can maintain uniform color. Another exception is that in a few cases we have had to use an aluminum brightener to achieve an acceptable result.

Dave Olson
 
Though I don't have anything to contribute to this thread, I feel it will be very informative to myself and anyone else out here who has not run into this problem much in the past.
 
The Prime is paying the bill but the homeowner is unsatisfied? I think this is what you are saying. I would go to the homeowner and explain why he can't expect 100% new look on the siding. I know what you are talking about, that blue is terrible. Some of it always looks darker. Just explain the situation and let them know what to expect and also talk to the prime and tell him not to sell these jobs in a way that is unrealistic. Old, oxidized siding will only ever look so good and thats it. It will never look completely new again due to neglect.
 
I would go rent a back hoe, then dig a hole in the Prime's front yard and then push his car into it. (inside joke)
 
Yeah really. I prefer coffee with my donuts.

Mailed a letter to the homeowner today - cutting the prime out of the loop. Hope he gets it before his new siding arrives.

The prime FILED against our insurance company today. Claims the siding was damaed by chemicals. It wasn't. We subed this out to a friend who has been at this (pressure washing) for 12 years. He drove in with a 500 gallon tank and washed with hot water (customer on well water, refused to let us use it). It was a nice job!

So, WE never even washed it. :rolleyes:

We went out to meet the homeowner, the prime kept us from him, and even though we offered to come back and wash or have the other company do it, he turned us down because he wanted it done by hand, or with high pressure - VERY high pressure. We said no, we refuse to do it by hand, we will not use PSI high enough to damage it, we will rewash it but the way it is safe for the property. He said no. THEN he threatened us...and said "I'll get new siding for my customer one way or the other and I don't care whose insurance pays for it." He complained that he can't "see the hail damage" anymore. He said he "didn't care" about pre-existing conditions of the siding.

That night, someone made DONUTS on our FRONT LAWN.

Beth

p.s. ANYONE who want to send a letter of support as an expert, is welcomed and encouraged to do so.
 
Beth, I hope you let your insurance company know that the claim was coming, actually I don't think you even had time to now that I think about it.
 
You BET I did! I called the insurance company first thing. He called them aboout 10 minutes after I got off of the phone with them.

He has no idea what he's getting himself into.

Beth
 
Unless we have a great photo opportunity, we don't get house wash photos. The house hardly needed washing at all.

We got after photos...

From now on, everything gets snapped.
Everything.

Beth
:(
 
I use to take before and after photo's of every job I did. I had so many pictures to add to my photo album and then some.

I now only take pictures of the most interesting things that I clean that I may add to my photo album.

When I hear stories like this I start thinking that I should snap before and after pictures of everything once again. There seems to always be a schemer no matter where one does there business.

Good luck with this.
 
Dont sweat it, because the pictures would probably be useless anyway, unless you take close up shots...........sometimes the lighting makes it impossible to get a good shot anyway..........so, I don't think picture taking is going to solve all of your problems.

Best of luck with this.
 
As you all know this is not my field of expertise but there is one thing I have not read here, Beth I assume that you have keep detailed written notes on this whole thing, every word you could that the contractor has said, even that remark " I will get new siding one way or another and I do't care whose insurance company pays for it, that remark along will sway your inusrance company to say he was out to get something anyway he can so take a hike.

Could the homeowner and contractor be working together on this to get that new siding and that is why he does not want you to talk to the homeowner, or he is out to screw everyone.

For sure I would not work for this contractor again, friend or not.

Jon

PS: Might want to pay and talk to a lawyer just to find out all you can and to CYA. No that does not mean See You Later silly.

PSS: I would still go talk to the homeowner and explain things to them and make it clear that the contractor said things that he was not sure of when he claimed you could make it look like new.
 
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