Ideas on Cleaning a building with a lot of copper on it.

J

Jeff Robison

New member
I have an opportunity to quote a city hall building. It is natural stone and brick and desperately needs some bleach to take care of the mold. it. My issue is this place has a copper roof, copper gutters, downspouts, handles on doors. As you know copper turns immediately when hit by the love. The stone is very soft and needs more of a softwash on it. Someone tried to take off graffiti and it just butchered the stone.

Are there any specialty cleaners that may work in this situation? EacoChem maybe?
 
Jeff Robison said:
I have an opportunity to quote a city hall building. It is natural stone and brick and desperately needs some bleach to take care of the mold. it. My issue is this place has a copper roof, copper gutters, downspouts, handles on doors. As you know copper turns immediately when hit by the love. The stone is very soft and needs more of a softwash on it. Someone tried to take off graffiti and it just butchered the stone.

Are there any specialty cleaners that may work in this situation? EacoChem maybe?
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The copper has a name for it, is it green

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Is the roof Black, because if it is that might be the way tyou want to leaver it
 
Trust me as a taxpayer for this city it makes you mad to even see the detail and expense that went into this city hall. I was just hoping to recoup some of my tax dollars with this project. I am just going to tell them the situation and hope they don't hire someone that is going to destroy this building. This is the type of project that a newer or overly ambitious contractor is going to get and start spraying just before the "oh s**T" comes out.
 
Without masking all the copper with plastic, tarps, tape, etc..... it will be hard to clean without getting the love on everything, especially if it is a windy day.

There are some spray soaps that you spray onto surfaces, let dry and then rinse with water and it turns to soap (used in the auto painting industry for covering areas you don't want to mask off) then the surface is clean of paint overspray. This might work if coated thick enough to combat the love being sprayed.

The other chemicals out there that say they will do this or that instead of using the love to clean mold and mildew need some pressure to clean (Sodium Percarbonate) type products.

Without taping and masking everything and using paint rollers to apply the love on the mold and mildew close to the copper, sounds like a challenging job.

Good luck.
 
All city buildings are always built with the best of everything. They typically build them to last for at least a couple of hundred years. It isn't like a stucco or Dryvit home that is designed to last 30 years. That is the reason for the expense. It is cheaper in the long run, hard as that seems to believe.
 
This was a Tile Roof that we Cleaned last summer and it has copper gutters. Our roof mix did not cause any damage or change to the gutters . We have cleaned plenty of roofs and houses with a bleach solution and never had a problem. If your not sure, do a test spot. I'm sure you will be surprised that it will be fine.

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Larry Millette said:
This was a Tile Roof that we Cleaned last summer and it has copper gutters. Our roof mix did not cause any damage or change to the gutters . We have cleaned plenty of roofs and houses with a bleach solution and never had a problem. If your not sure, do a test spot. I'm sure you will be surprised that it will be fine.

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Bingo--- Jeff that's the same thing I was thinking. We've done plenty of house washes and roof washes where the copper was not affected. The one time we had a problem it was costly as in lost potential income and it was bull.. This property manager lady had a ton of buildings she managed and she called us out of the blue and she asked us to first clean her house to see how it comes out. Of course we charged her at a decent price..for her.

So we clean the house and right after words I get a call from one of guys there that the lady is crying.. Long story short I show up later after the guys leave and her house looks great. Her front door handle the phony brass washed away and she was distraught.. And wanted to know what where going to do about it.. I told her forget it she doesn't have to pay... She loved the house and her face lit up like a x-mas tree.. Tried to give me $50 and I said keep it.. She said she was definitely going to call us to clean her buildings... She never did and we never got her to call us back...

Do a test sample if you can on that building... Your biggest problem I think is dealing with the overspray but bid hi enough where you can win it and it's worth doing it.
Good luck
 
I had a project with copper sidings along a building in Phoenix. I found a product made by Brody Chemical (which i cant remember the name) that I used to turn it from greenish/dark brown color back to copper like a penny. We tested a couple sections. We could not just pump spray it on or downstream it. Our customer could not afford the service since we would have had to rub the product on by hand equally to all sections in order to keep it from streaking. Don't know if I helped with anything here but that is my experience with copper! haha
 
AZ PowerWash Pros said:
I had a project with copper sidings along a building in Phoenix. I found a product made by Brody Chemical (which i cant remember the name) that I used to turn it from greenish/dark brown color back to copper like a penny. We tested a couple sections. We could not just pump spray it on or downstream it. Our customer could not afford the service since we would have had to rub the product on by hand equally to all sections in order to keep it from streaking. Don't know if I helped with anything here but that is my experience with copper! haha
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I'm not sure about. Bleach on copper, but I'd avoid caustic! We got a chem from Spartan that we mixed w/ sunbright's all purpose foaming agent. We foamed 3 old stils and 2 stoves decorated in copper. We foamed them chemical on at a 30% mixture, then brushed it w/ soft bristle truck wash brush and rinsed. The stoves took two applications, stils took one. Almost mirror like and very consistent!
Look for copper restorers if you wanna make the customer accept any bid you choose!
 
EcoClean said:
Acid based products like EaCo's OneRestore will strip the patina off the copper in a hurry. If you ever remove this patina on accident, you can speed up the process using some certain acids.

I'm with Larry though. I have not had a sodium hypochlorite solution harm copper. I'd do a test spot.
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Most of the jobs I do dont want the Pantina Off
 
If you do take the patina off the copper and it turns bright again...... Piss on it.......

Okay, maybe I shouldn't have said that, but you can actually use urine to help speed up the patina or aging process of copper. If collecting and saving your urine is a bit too gross for you, you can try Miracle Grow for a sort of blue color, or for green you can make up a mixture of 2 parts white vinegar/ 1 1/2 parts non sudsing ammonia/ 1/2 non iodized salt.

Those are some quick home grown solutions. The results may be a varied so be sure to test first. If you want a little more scientific method try some Liver of Sulfur. You can find that at Jewelry supply stores. You can get dark brown to almost black with that. You can also check out Modern Options. They make patina for all sorts of colors so they may be a good place to start.

You mentioned using EacoChem..... that is a great product, but I assure you it will most definitely take patina off of copper
 
Do a test spot in an out of way place. We have also used a constant water rinse on a surface to keep the soap mixes diluted on surfaces we don't want to effect. Just rinse the roof before, during and after while you spray the walls. I have seen other pw guys discolor copper roofs before. I think some have an oil coating or some other sealer to keep them from changing colors. Once that coating wears away all bets are off.
 
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