Thank you. I know it’s a fixable issue because it can just be wiped off with my finger when I lick my finger. When I went back out I just rinsed it with a garden hose. Didn’t even bring my rig. I’ll go back out with my rig and resoap the whole thing, rinse really good, let it dry, and mist so that any drip out of the siding will fall away
Maybe it’s an optical illusion because of the color of the siding, but I’ve never seen water runoff or dirt leave a white residue.
One thought I had though, based on the water in the background of one of the pictures and being in Michigan (I think I read that somewhere)… is this a lake house? Do they have hard water? If they use a water softener the white residue could be from the salt and if that’s the case continuing to use their water will just repeat the cycle… just a thought.
He didn’t use surfactant the first time.
You’re like Sherlock Holmes with these photos 
haha yes it’s a Michigan lake house and the water around here is sooooo hard. The big white streaks underneath the window and on the siding went away with a rinse, my only problem now is these little lines
I bet Racer’s right.
It’s probably the hard water. You could try rinsing a section with purified water. Wouldn’t be that expensive to test. Just buy a gallon of distilled water from Walmart and use a pump-up to apply.
I’d do a section without wiping it down and a section with wiping it down. Let dry. See how it looks.
Let the rain care for it….like @Racer said. I’ve seen this so many times. We actually have it in our terms and conditions….just for the customer to wait for a good rain. I’ve never had an issue with it.
It’s been raining pretty good for a couple days and I went out there this morning and it still looks like this
Got me on that one….not sure what to say or do? Much success either way….
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Put your hw mix on there and take a soft brush to it and brush the whole side where you see this, then rinse the crap out of lightly. Should take care of it.
Since the last post I’ve learned that the problem I’m facing is 2 different problems. On part of the home it was just seepage from the weep holes that had to be wiped. Now only one problem remains and it’s this streaking in the photo. I’m pretty confident at this point that the cause is SH that dried onto the siding. It was super hot on the day I washed and I admittedly let it sit longer than I should have. I’ve tried straight purple power and scrubbing with brushes but it didn’t seem to do much other than maybe dull it a little. In some spots we used magic eraser with the purple power and it seemed to work pretty good if scrubbed well. I’m thinking about ordering some red raider or gutter grenade to help get it up. What do you guys think will get this up? It has to be done extremely well because it’s dark siding so EVERYTHING stands out like a sore thumb
Scrubbing supppeerrr intensively with brushes and straight purple power did work pretty well in some spots but it took absolutely forever and tons of force. Plus this side is on a hill so the stains are as high of a reach as like 15 feet at the lowest point of the hill, so it would be super nice to find a chemical that would help melt it off so that not as much abrasiveness is needed
If it’s just SH (you aren’t using a surfactant correct?) I would first try to rewash it… wet it all down, apply a light mist of SH with a surfactant, and rinse rinse rinse… If that doesn’t take care of it and you are sure it isn’t oxidized then you can try manually brushing (still recommend gently) with one restore or a similar chem. Gutter Grenade would be one my my last resorts right before replacing the siding.
I’ve applied SH and rinsed twice but it’s had no effect. This stuff is hard to get off. Like really hard. You can’t just wipe it off. And even brushing pretty good with a degreaser can leave it looking untouched. I haven’t tried surfactant yet but I don’t think it would make it budge. I’ll give some elemenator a try though it won’t hurt.
I don’t believe it’s oxidized. I get no powder on my finger and the siding is fairly new. There is a chance though that the spots where the SH dried flash oxidized the siding.
I’ve never used one restore, just out of curiosity what makes you think that could do the trick?
It can remove a lot of different types of stains from a lot of different types of surfaces… it’s a good product to have on hand since it covers the spectrum.
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- spray with the siding laps, and no weephole issues
- Not sure how straight a mix you’re using, but when we’ve had this issue, rewash, rinse, and mist to dry evenly has been the solution. Brushes are almost always a bad idea for getting any sort of even looking result IMO
@LoganWashesStuff - what surfactant were you using this time when you washed this home?
Thank you, the weepholes on this house are terrible they have crap fallout so easily. I’ve tried reapplying SH and rinsing twice. SH isn’t touching those streaks out of the downstream injector. Maybe a hotter mix would do it?
Haven’t tried any yet
What’s up with this trend of folks not using soap?
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@DisplacedTexan -totally agree with you. I have not seen a contractor on this forum suggest not using a surfactant, ie soap as part of a housewash mix. Bleach by itself is not a cleaner- it is an oxidizer.
