How do you talk to a customer about oxidation

Hey guys, so I know to test for oxidation you do the finger swipe on the siding, and I know if you decide to wash it that it should only be washed with very low pressure. My question is if you get a job and you test for oxidation and it’s present, what do you do in this situation? Do you walk from the job or do you proceed with it useing caution and low pressure? If you proceed with the job what does your talk with the customer sound like? I would imagine a lot of houses have oxidation and I also would imagine a lot of you still proceed with the job I’m just curious as to what you say and how do you inform the customer.

Thanks
Brian

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If you are talking about oxidation on siding then I can help. Almost every home in my area has highly oxidized siding. If it is aluminum I will let the know what the situation is upfront. I say this siding is oxidized and there is no promise that this section will turn out 100% the way you want.

I have only had one house that I did not feel comfortable spaying bleach on it. So I told them that I could not wash that section.

For the rest, I just use an m-jet and deeply saturate the siding with water and get all that extra pigment to come off before I bleach it. Then I just rinse for a very long time. I have not had an issue yet with uneven drying or spots. I hope it never becomes an issue either.

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Just mention to them that house is heavily oxidized and that your cleaning is not going to remove that unless they want a restoration and that’s going to cost them $1 per square ft of siding. Most customers know. Just wash them like you would any other with low pressure.

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Racer, I am new to this, could you please help me understand the restoration process.

According to Bob at PressureTek, that process involves brushing on a diluted solution of their F13 at 5/1 to 10/1, but that every surface must be wiped or brushed, including the underside of the siding. I hope this is helpful.:grinning:

This is vinyl siding that I already washed. The customer is happy because the rest of the house looks amazing, but this is a lesson about the need to check for oxidation before I quote a house. It’s ashame that there isn’t an easy solution, isn’t it?

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So when you get a job and get there and do the finger test what do you say/tell the customer? What does that conversation sound like? And do you make them sign any kind of waiver?

Now after learning the hard way. I show homeowner how I determined it is oxidized and then explain I can still wash the home and will wash the dirt, mold and mildew off but that will not remove oxidation and could appear blotchy in some cases and no in some. Now I have a waiver that does not hold me liable and explains everything. If they still want me to do the job it must be signed before hand. That’s just me though.

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Already answered. It involves hand scrubbing or with a pole if high. Way too much manual labor. I make money running my equipment, not doing manual labor. I tell them they can probably get new siding cheaper than what I’d charge them to restore. That quells their desire. Just like cleaning gutters, if they want to pay me $150-200/hour to do I will. To give you an extreme example, a guy with a $100,000 front end loader that he charges $300 an hour to run shows up to clear a piece of land you have. And while he’s there, you ask him does he mind taking off the rest of the day to come next door and trim some bushes. He’s going to tell you to pound sand. Now if you tell him you’ll pay him maybe $250 per hour to trim them, then he might consider. But no one in their right mind would do that.

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You had me at “pound sand”

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Have the customer call a professional cleaning company.

Could you please email me the waiver. I would like to use this.

OK, over a few weeks the siding of the above finger test looked crappier and crappier because the oxidation held enough of the cleaning solution to drip down over time with each rain leaving a nasty finish. I took a sponge and wiped down what I could reach last week. There was a difference between what I had and hadn’t wiped that I just couldn’t live with, so I took my water fed pole (window cleaning WFP) and brushed the siding. No more residue. No chemicals. Impressive results.

Maybe, and I’ll confirm on my next oxidized siding job, to remove the oxidation requires wet brushing after the soft wash. I’ll keep you posted my friends.

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I show the customer the oxidation and let them know I won’t be held responsible if they want me to continue. Absolutely I put that in writing. On a side note I’m a painter as well so I try to sell them a paint job. There is also a couple of other pressure washers in my area that give me paint referrals from oxidation and I give them $100 if I get the job.
You could do the same in your area and make a little $$$ on referrals

I actually had oxidation on my own house, built in 2012. It appeared to primarily on the south side where the sun was hitting it all day long. As MrSparleVA mentioned, F13 from Bob at PressureTek did the trick. I brushed it on at 16:1 by adding 8 oz of F13 to 1 gallon of water… Brushed it on with Bob’s salt and pepper brush, let it dwell about 15 minutes while hitting it with water from a pump sprayer to keep it wet, then rinsed with a hose.

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You can literally watch the oxidation run off… F13 is fantastic for this

Anyone have any success with downstreaming f13 for this problem?

Can’t wait to see the concrete turn orange.

No orange concrete here… forgot to mention I pre-rinsed the surrounding area below the treated exterior before, during, and very well after to make sure there was no standing runoff. I would take a picture to show but being in Northeast PA, the sidewalk is currently under a couple inches of snow lol

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Not sure how you got so lucky. When I washed gutters I got the tiniest bit on the concrete and within seconds it made the concrete orange. My mixture was 10 to 1 at 70ish degrees

I mean I flooded the concrete because I had no idea how it was going to go. Since it was my own house, I also knew the stoop was sealed really well. The one picture shows a small portion of the patio which wasn’t sealed as well and still didn’t turn orange.

Maybe oxidation from the aluminum on the gutters is somewhat different from what was on the siding? Did you rinse the concrete before applying the mix? I was at 16:1 so maybe since mine was diluted just enough to not discolor the surface.