Not sure if this belongs in this category
or not, but my customer wants me to clean this deck (trex board) which is no problem. The problem I am running into is the dark stained wood that is surrounding the trex. I know trex can take a pretty hot mix sometimes. Has anyone had any experience washing around wood like this? Also, I am going to downstream the house and wondering how it might affect these shutters? I felt them and they are pretty rough. You can run your finger over it and it’s like pieces are wanting to come in in my hand. Definitely don’t want to discolor anything. Thanks in advance!
Not sure if this would help or not -
Just yesterday, I cleaned 1200 sq ft deck of composite board using only dawn and about .5% SH solution. I am fairly certain is was 1st generation composite and many have said that can be problemsome so I went really weak on the SH. I had no problems but I also did not have real wood pillers and post throughout.
My concerns would be the contact of whatever solution you use to the wood and stain.
Just curious, go do a sample of just cleaning with a dawn soap solution. You would be surprised sometimes with just soap and water with light pressure will do. If it is Trex or any composite, then it should have a polymer type surface so any dirt, mold or algae is not actually in the material but laying on top. I used my rinsing nozzle to clean the deck and it came out great. Here is a before and after:
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I’ll have to do that. Most of the trex I’ve done always has required a pretty hot mix but I’ll give that a shot. If I could just downstream it then I don’t think I’ll have any issues. That turned out great btw!
I did not DS but used a direct apply method. I have a 2.2 gpm soft wash pump set-up to direct apply cleaning solutions to surfaces. I mixed up 15 gal of mix, sprayed on like a roof wash, let dwell 20 minutes and then rinse using a fan spray the width of 1 board down the length of the board (rinsing nozzle - maybe 1000 psi).
I also had a soft bristle brush that I used on part as a test to see what difference. Will report back in a day or two the results.
Depending on how old the stain is on the shutters and handrails, you may get some lightening in some areas even with just a HW mix. I’d prewet those shutters pretty good and then on deck just prewet wood part and be careful spraying the deck. It looks pretty dirty but a 1-1.5% mix should be plenty and then rinse as @CFH said. But I always warn clients that have stained wood they may get some lightening, especially if the stain has been there awhile.
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The lady told me it was around 2 years old or so. I think with the shutters, I may just wrap them with plastic being there are only 6 of them on the front of the house. I’ll just really focus on keeping the wood wet around the deck. Thanks for all the help!
I was surprised a couple of days ago and the 700+ linear feet of fence I just did. About 100 ft of that had been previously stained. I told the homeowner we will have to strip and for that section is will cost more. I went and did a test and low and behold it washed off with very little pressure. Had been on for less than 18 months. Literally, just washed right off with no chem…
I suspect one or more of the following:
- This was a new housing development where the fence builder was slapping up fence as fast as possible. Crap they set metal post only 11 inches deep on some. I made some extra bank resetting post to 24 inches deep ($200 per post - material cost was only $25 per post and take 45 minutes per post to reset).
- Used the cheapest stain they could find
- Applied before wood fully dried therefore the stain did not soak into the wood, but dried on the surface
- Only 1 this coat of stain used
- We live in an area where it can get very humid at times. Applied when relative humidity was above 50% (same as spraying wet wood essentially).
Makes me want to test any stained surface I am going to be working on or around going forward. Never had it happen before like this, but would not want to do a job assuming something was properly stained only to find out during the job it just washes right off. That could be an awkward conversation with homeowner. I would speculate that most homeowners would default to I screwed it up not that the original stain application was done wrong.
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I had basically the same thing happen to me a couple weeks ago. Had some stained wood columns on a rear patio that some of the stain came right off when prewetting. I had one last year that streaked a little, but was able to re-rinse and it was fine. This was the first time I’ve had some just come off like that. I’ve been meaning to ask everyone how they handle things like stained columns but havn’t had time. Would be very time consuming to try and wrap them all, but not sure what else to do. I did one yesterday that the stain was failing and discussed with the customer prior to the job. My HW mix definitely lightened it up but customer was aware it was failing and told me before that he was having them restained so he wasn’t worried about it. @Racer you just warn customers that some lightening may occur? And prewet stained surfaces??
I run into this frequently on doors. If it’s a natural wood tone there’s a 50/50 chance it will bleed. I try my best not to splash it with house wash. Save that area for last. Pre wet. Then spray with hw. Dwell 1min or less. Rinse. If the door trim still needs attention I do it by hand with hw and a rag.
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Yes and Yes. One other warning when you have a mixed wood and composite deck. 99% of the time the outer band and the actual risers on the steps are wood and just the composite on the flooring. So you put a relatively strong mix on the composite, get it all clean and then walk down steps and around deck and the wood band and the risers looks like a zebra where the mix has run down when applying and rinsing.
Moral of the story is you have to educate your customers
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Absolutely! Thank you all for the responses! I am thankful for this forum!
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I have stopped spraying front doors period. Almost all of them are nice wood or have fancy hardware. That coupled with hw mix or water getting through is a recipe for problems. I’ve been using my water fed pole lately with the di water to gently clean those types of doors. Works great!
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