House I washed yesterday had some dark stains under their gutters. I told the homeowner I doubt they would come up with just a normal HW mix and they werent worried. I tried 3 soap applications with brushing and it made a tiny difference but my guess would be a degreaser could get them up. I didnt want to try a stronger SH mix and torch the copper. Homeowner was so-so in having them removed with a separate process but I don’t really want to do it anyhow. Just curious what they are and how you would remove them. My guesses are fallout or ionization from the copper as I didnt notice any fallout under the eaves. pics below and thank you gentlemen.
I thought it might be copper oxidation stains as well but I’d never seen it on painted hardwood like that. For the fun of it I’ll add citric acid in the mix of things that might get it up but also might torch the copper. Like I said I have very little interest in doing this job but it pays to know things your competition doesnt
Standard atmospheric ‘tiger stripes’ where the rainwater picks up impurities and deposits them on the wood, etc.
Some of the other guys use LA Awesome or similar but haven’t personally tried it.
Go Auburn!
Man I feel dumb. I’d never seen it that bad before and thought it had something to do with the copper. Thank you
Dude, I’m going to revoke your duck hunting license for leaving that like that. Go back over there with your ladder, 4-5 different chems and some rags and figure it out. You may not be OCD enough to be a good washer, lol. When you do figure it out, give them a legit price for it and if they don’t want to do it, fine, but at least you’ll know.
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It was the first thing I noticed when I got there and I asked if she wanted me to try and get them up once I finished washing. She was not interested so I didn’t press it because I didn’t know if I could deliver decent results. I’d rather leave their gutters in good condition than try to remove the stain and make a more noticeable mess on the copper was my logic. Now I know its just gutter stripes I’m going back this weekend to see what difference I can make. I can’t charge them to be guinea pigs though so its my dime and my time but I’m happy to do it
Believe me I’m OCD to a fault. I added an extra 90 minutes to my schedule before I started this house just so I could take my time and do a stellar job. They were very pleased and gave me a healthy tip. When I’m super busy like I am this week it is a pain in the rear but I have to do a good job if I want to sleep at night though. I woke up at 3 am on Tuesday because I forgot to move a planter back after a driveway cleaning lol
Thats totally unfair. What else am I supposed to waste money and way too much time on during the off season?
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Been there done that!
Or trying to remember if I reconnected the customers hose back up to the spigot? Or if I closed the gate on the opposite side of the home?
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Atta boy, both of you.
Ben I’m curious what works best too. If you have, I’d start with some DJ . Won’t hurt gutters either.
I’m so bad about gates man. Its like every other house I do I forget. Then I go back and realize it shut all by itself 
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I’ll keep y’all updated. I have her down for Saturday morning. What do you mean by DJ?
Dragon Juice
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Sometimes, especially with white paint it seems, the runoff from behind the gutter will just slowly wear away the paint and it will look like a “stain” but when you actually get right up to it what you’re actually seeing is a “shadow” of the wood behind it peeking through.
I’m not saying that’s what this is, but I’ve hit spots with my entire arsenal before and only when I actually got a closer look at it did I realize that it wasn’t a “stain” that can be cleaned or removed but rather just thinning paint in need of a fresh coat.
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@racer is correct. Shooting birds is not very polite.
On the side note, 80% of the facia boards around here have aluminum covers over them & they oxidize worse than gutters. I never remove the oxidation, just point it out up front & everybody is happy at the end of the day. Not saying that is what is in your picture (I can’t tell by looking at it) but it’s definitely something I see a lot of.
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If God didn’t want us to shoot ducks he wouldn’t have made the Browning A5 Semi Automatic 12ga shotgun.
As far as the aluminum goes this house as painted hardwood fascia but that’s good to know anyhow so thank you
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I couldnt find any dragon juice in time so I went with whatever my Landa dealer sold which was Gutter Zap. I tried it at 4:1 water:GZ and that barely made a difference so I went to 2:1 and it cleaned as fast as I could move with the rag. I tried no dwell time, 2 minutes then 5 minutes at 2:1 and it made zero difference on the copper or how well the GZ cleaned. Its not a PERFECT clean but it turned out well. I have zero experience with gutter brightening but if I can make it worth my time I could see it being a nice ticket addition. Not sure if its worth the risk though.
Thanks for the help gentlemen
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Nicely done.
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