Doing some searching and want to be 100% sure as my customer brought it up. This is a newer product and it says the capping is not a wood/plastic composite. From Timbertech’s site: " Note that composite deck cleaners such as Corte Clean®, Thompson’s® Water Seal®—Oxy Action, Olympic® Deck Cleaner, or other cleaners specified as composite deck cleaners, in powder or liquid form, should not be used with TimberTech AZEK Deck or Porch, TimberTech PRO, and TimberTech EDGE collections. The capping material on these products is not composed of a wood plastic composite."
Of course Timbertech sells their own deck cleaner but I can’t find information on the label with what it’s made of.
I have a call in to Timbertech and will relay what they say. Just curious if anyone has come across this?
Here’s the sds for their deck cleaner. Looks like it has quite a few different ingredients. You can usually find any sds by googling “Timbertech deck cleaner sds”. It works for just about any cleaner out there.
I have never cleaned it myself. If nobody else on here has any recommendations I think I would just use their cleaner. If you start doing quite a few of them then it might be worth looking into mixing your own. You could probably use sodium percarbonate because it’s so mild but will likely require scrubbing. No matter what you use be sure to test in an inconspicuous area.
3.1 Materials and Processes - Docksider, RiliaBoard, and TwinFinish Planks are composed of a solid, co-extruded, fully capped, wood-plastic composite (WPC) core with a WPC cap. Legacy, Terrain, and Tropical are composed of a solid, co-extruded, fully-capped, wood-plastic composite (WPC) core with a polymer cap. Edge Premier and Edge Prime deck boards are composed of solid, co-extruded, semi-capped, wood-plastic composite (WPC) core with a polymer cap.
6.7 All Products recognized by this report are manufactured by the AZEK Company LLC in accordance with the manufacturer’s approved quality control system with inspections by Intertek Testing Services NA, Inc.
Update: The owner had a couple of scrap pieces so I took them and did a little testing while on another job. House mix left on one to dry didn’t seem to faze it. On another board, I put about a 6-7% mix on it and left it. It also didn’t seem to faze it. So, it appears that SH is safe on this polymer cap. The owner was skeptical (and a friend), so I cleaned his deck with a little dawn (directions from his installer) and a brush with a little pressure. It cleaned up nicely although it took longer than spraying it down and rinsing. He paid more because of this.
Bringing this back up because I have a house wash coming up and he had this AZEK decking installed. They told him no cleaners other than their cleaner could be used on it, so I can’t do the back of his house. I was fine with that because I’m still going to charge you. Now he’s asking about adding cleaning the awning on the back of the house and just laying a tarp under it. I told him it’s either I do a test on a scrap piece and wash the back and awning as normal, or nothing at all near the deck.
I’m curious if there is any possible way a hw mix could do anything to this decking. I feel like it’s just them wanting to make more money selling their “special” cleaner as opposed to other cleaners actually negatively effecting it. Anyone else deal with this stuff?
My concern would be if there was an issue in the future, and the customer calls Azek. And Azek asks, “Was any cleaner ever used on it?” And he says, “Yes, by a power washing company.” And then they void the warranty, he gets upset, and comes after you.
So if you do anything, have it in writing. And take lots of before and after pics.
