Streaking on Vinyl - HELP!

oneness

oneness

Member
These are pics of a house I washed for a friend a couple months back. I just re-washed the heck out of it today to see if I could get rid of the streaking...I had assumed the streaks were un-rinsed soap (it is chalky, and comes off if you wipe your thumb across it), but it doesn't appear to be. What it looks like is oxidizing vinyl...I'm not even sure if vinyl does this. If I take a wet white rag and wipe the streaked areas, it comes off on the rag, and is the same greyish color as the siding.

The strange thing is that the streaks are in regular intervals, about 16=24" apart..I didn't think to measure while I was there. They're also not lined up with any particular part of the wall (seams, etc).

This wall is on the south side of the house, which gets sun most of the day, most of the year. That, in my mind, might explain the oxidation, but not why it shows up in streaks like this. The rest of the house is vinyl/brick, and the vinyl didn't do this on the other three sides.

I've never had vinyl siding do this, and I washed this house with the same soap/bleach mix that I always use. I tried a pretty strong wax mix (1/4 gallon in 5 gallons of water) and applied that with the XJet, to no avail.

It appears to come off, or at least look better, if I scrub with with soap and a brush (and I mean REALLY scrub). I'm hoping to avoid having to do this.

Is there a cleaner that will work in this situation, and can anyone give me some insight into why it looked like this AFTER cleaning, and not before?
 

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Mike,most of the time when i encounter this it is either because the siding is heavily oxidized,and the soap gets behind the siding and runs out the weep holes in the bottom side of the siding.

i had to replace an entire section of sidind before,because i touched up some soap streaks on oxidized siding and the areas i cleaned gave it an uneven appearance when it dried.

maybe a strong application of gutter zap will work.
 
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but...Those are not streaks, they are caused by the nails used to apply the sheathing being super-heated, concentrating heat in one spot and "cooking" the siding. (Sometimes the nail gun isn't adjusted properly and the nails are not driven below the surface of the sheathing.)

There is no amount of washing that will fix this.
 
Mike,
From your pics it looks like it is the framing showing up.

The framing studs on most constuction is on 16" centers.

I wonder if the didn't use gavenized screws and they are causing some residual steaking.

Did the house originaly have the siding or was it added?
 
John is exactly right.
 
Out of curiousity............did the customer notice these streaks, or say anything about it? Or, is this something that is bothering you personally?

Sounds like John nailed it down (pun intended). It has to be something like that, based on the fact they they are evenly spaced.

Good luck.
 
No, this is something the owner noticed initially, since it was wet when I left. It is something I'd like to at least nail down as far as what caused it, and then go from there...If is something I caused, I'll do what I can to fix it...If it is something caused by construction, etc, I'll let her know and give her suggestions for getting it taken care of.
 
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