Canvas / Canopy on home

M

maynianj

New member
I have a house wash I am starting next week, and the customer has a canvas awning on the rear of his house. I haven't cleaned one yet, and I am nervous about even trying a "test" in a hidden area, since it is directly where his pool meets his back patio - there is no "hidden" spot on it. My question is, in everyones history, have they ever had an awning get streaks or stained from using bleach / SH and surfactants?

There is a tag on the awning frame, and I called the number and it's from the local canvas shop. I asked them if they had any information they could give me, and hit a dead end. I have zero clue how to even take it down or to cover it. I wish I would have taken a picture of it to show you guys what it looks like, but it was raining pretty good when I went to the house to measure / quote. It seems to be the same material that is used at the front of retail stores at strip malls.

Thanks,
Ian
 
maynianj said:
I have a house wash I am starting next week, and the customer has a canvas awning on the rear of his house. I haven't cleaned one yet, and I am nervous about even trying a "test" in a hidden area, since it is directly where his pool meets his back patio - there is no "hidden" spot on it. My question is, in everyones history, have they ever had an awning get streaks or stained from using bleach / SH and surfactants?

There is a tag on the awning frame, and I called the number and it's from the local canvas shop. I asked them if they had any information they could give me, and hit a dead end. I have zero clue how to even take it down or to cover it. I wish I would have taken a picture of it to show you guys what it looks like, but it was raining pretty good when I went to the house to measure / quote. It seems to be the same material that is used at the front of retail stores at strip malls.

Thanks,
Ian
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Hi Ian, I'm no expert on this, but I would be fairly confident that it will be affected by bleach very easily. Fabrics will go white and it will be very obvious where they have been exposed to bleach. Hard surfaces are much more tolerant to bleaching than fabrics. I've splashed some on my shirt a while back, and it left white marks where the colour used to be.
I guess like everything it will come down to the concentration levels of the bleach mix you use, but I would try and buy a small piece of canvas from a shop and test it on that.
 
it all depends on the Fabric, but in my experience I have never had one that was affected by the bleach. That being said you do want to use a moderate concentration and not to heavy on the bleach. We normally clean fabric awnings with a laundry detergent soap first. Scrub, rinse , then a light application of our house wash mix downstream, and rinse again very well.
 
Expressed my concerns to the homeowner, and he said to go ahead and use chemical on it and lets see what happens. Said that if it works, great, if not - he was thinking about replacing it anyways since it is old. So I went ahead and mixed my normal house mix, washed the entire house, and then diluted my mix for the canopy. Let it dwell for about 10-15 minutes, hit it with a brush to get all of the loose items in the fibers, and rinsed with a large orifice tip - turned out amazing!!! Customer was impressed that he won't have to replace the canopy now. Thanks Doug for the help and the vote of confidence, and thanks Brett for your insight.
BTW, this was my first $2k house job.
 
maynianj said:
Expressed my concerns to the homeowner, and he said to go ahead and use chemical on it and lets see what happens. Said that if it works, great, if not - he was thinking about replacing it anyways since it is old. So I went ahead and mixed my normal house mix, washed the entire house, and then diluted my mix for the canopy. Let it dwell for about 10-15 minutes, hit it with a brush to get all of the loose items in the fibers, and rinsed with a large orifice tip - turned out amazing!!! Customer was impressed that he won't have to replace the canopy now. Thanks Doug for the help and the vote of confidence, and thanks Brett for your insight.
BTW, this was my first $2k house job.
Click to expand...

NIIIIICE. good for you.
 
maynianj said:
Expressed my concerns to the homeowner, and he said to go ahead and use chemical on it and lets see what happens. Said that if it works, great, if not - he was thinking about replacing it anyways since it is old. So I went ahead and mixed my normal house mix, washed the entire house, and then diluted my mix for the canopy. Let it dwell for about 10-15 minutes, hit it with a brush to get all of the loose items in the fibers, and rinsed with a large orifice tip - turned out amazing!!! Customer was impressed that he won't have to replace the canopy now. Thanks Doug for the help and the vote of confidence, and thanks Brett for your insight.
BTW, this was my first $2k house job.
Click to expand...
Nice work Ian! Always happy to see a good result alround! What sort of final dilution rate did you use on the canopy Ian?
 
Thanks guys. I went with half strength of my regular house wash. I don't use 12.5% SH, I use 8.5% SH usually 4 gals to 1 gal H2O plus surfactants in a 5'er and DS from there. On the canopy I used 1 gal 8.5% SH and 1/2 gal H2O + surf. and DS'd from there.
 
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