Aluminum siding marks

I have this job next week so I want to see what I can use to get this off if the normal house wash doesn’t do it. It is aluminum siding. I have some one restore or f13. Will either of these be safe/effective to use? Any tips?

I wouldn’t touch that with a 10’ pole. The problem with aluminum is the paint could be somewhat oxidized and if so some of it can come off durinhugour house wash. Sometimes aluminum can even leave drip lines because of the oxidized paint. As for those stains it may take some elbow grease to get them off and that can also cause problems to the paint.

As for us we don’t touch aluminum houses anymore. To many horror stories for us in the past while dealing with them. We’ll prep them to be painted but that’s as far as we go. Now if that house was vinyl we’d never refuse to clean it.

Best of luck.

[MENTION=350]John[/MENTION]T What about trying F-13 on that? Still a no go?

Jesse
Atlas Services
Exterior Cleaning Specialists
North Carolina

I’ve seen alot say that on the forums. So is there a chance to completely remove the paint? Have you seen oxidation that bad? Or will it just most likely create an uneven finish? I’m going to talk to the home owner about it and I want to be aware and let him know how much risk is involved. I’m thinking he will say anything is better than the way it looks now but if the paint is completely removed that’s a different story. Since the siding is white does that help me at all?

I would listen to John T…I was just wondering what he thought about using the F-13.

If you DID use it, I would imagine you’d have to do the whole job with it. That would mean lots of F-13 ($$$$$), lots of brush time, lots of rinsing, lots of risk (damaged, stripped paint, etc)

Jesse
Atlas Services
Exterior Cleaning Specialists
North Carolina
www.CallAtlas.com

I can’t really recommend anything to clean an Aluminum sided house because we no longer do them except to prep them to get repainted. Years ago we would use a house wash mixture and things along those lines but a few times when the house dried you could now see the unevenness in aluminum siding as far as the color went.

We also had most Aluminum houses come out OK but the risk for us wasn’t worth it. Nothing like a homeowner calling up and saying you ruined their Aluminum siding and they want it fixed and in most cases to do that you have to get it painted— So as they say in the show “Shark Tank” --I’m out!!

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If it’s oxidized…F13 will take the paint completely off…to bare metal in most cases. I totally agree with John, unless its for paint prep ok, anything else, no way we touch it.

Yeah, that’s what I figured…If you and John T. say not to touch it…don’t touch it!!

Jesse
Atlas Services
Exterior Cleaning Specialists
North Carolina

You might be able to get lucky and clean 5-8 aluminum houses but the next one after that you could run into a disaster and then it could cost you thousands and a nasty homeowner to deal with to boot.

Last year at the end of July when we got a little slow I did have my guys clean an aluminum house when 99x out of a 100 I’d say no to this. It was in the Hamptons NY(expensive area) and this was a small house on a compound that had a mansion on it(I really wanted that house). I charge high for this small aluminum house at $650. It took my guys about an hour to get there, an hour to clean and then an hour to get back. When the “Servant who lived there” got home he was livid. He called and said some paint looks like it’s uneven as in almost gone in some areas. He said he’s not going to pay at all.

Long story short since we only did his house for a favor of one my customers, his wife sent me a check of half pay if I agreed to take it…which I did. My original customer here was unhappy at what happened but I did tell him and this jerk off dude what may happen which it did…

Never again for us… Lesson learned.

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Same for us. If it’s the original color and oxidized or been repainted without proper prep, the paint will just about wash off with even a light mix. Doing a test area doesn’t really help on these. One area may test fine and a spot 6 inches away may go to bare aluminum! lol Educate the customer and have them sign a waiver if you try it.

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Old oxidized aluminum gutters will do the same thing. Happened this week to us. Thankfully the customer was super cool when I explained why it happened.

If it’s properly explained to the client and in writing… And they sign it… Why not?

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Headaches that aren’t worth it…to me at least.