I’m more on the hobby level when it comes to the house washing game I do way more residential window cleaning. But, I am looking to expand my services more and I have I deck job coming up. The customer wants the deck cleaned and stained which is no issue with me other than the fact they have wooden balusters with medal powder coated spindles. What can I use to clean the wood and not damage the painted/powder coated spindles? I know a house wash mix would not mess them up but I know a lot of guys stay away from bleach on wood. Thanks in advance.
It depends on what, if anything is on the deck now. Old faded oil based stain? Bleach mix should work just fine. Use a shield to keep it off the base of the spindles if they are cracked or corroded. You can always use cheap painter’s plastic and tape to keep the cleaner off them. Always rinse afterwards. If they are powder coated and in good shape the SH won’t do anything to them anyway. If you want to strip to bare wood I have had good results with DSR-50 from Powerwash.com. You will have to neutralize it when you are done. Then re-stain it. If it has a water based product on it, none of this applies.
Okay cool. Thanks for responding. The deck is only about 6 months old. Has mostly dirt and a little algae build up on it. Never been stained nor sealed before.
If it’s that new. Use bleach and water in the lowest concentration that will kill the mold and do a good pressure rinse to get the dirt off and stain it. I don’t know where you live but I use Wood Defender’s Universal Fence and Deck with excellent results. Just make sure you don’t get the fence only stain. It does not film at all.
