Deck Cleaning

Wood Restoration
1

If you have a customer that only wants their deck washed, no restoration, what nozzle do you use to prevent damage to the wood?

2

We use either a 40 or 60 degree, hitting 2 planks at a time, let the detergent do the work.

Matthew Adkins
Adkins Cleaning Solutions
336-338-8705
Greensboro, Nc

3

When just cleaning do you not even need to hit it with sodium percarbonate?

4

Me personally I never use sh on wood, I know some guys do, but we always use F10 & F8. I know sh if not properly used can dry the wood out, Just my own 2 cent, but I’m not a wood expert.

Matthew Adkins
Adkins Cleaning Solutions
336-338-8705
Greensboro, Nc

5

I think you might be confused. SH and sodium percarbonate are not the same thing.

6

I know what both are, we only use a sodium per carbonate on wood, that’s the f10 and f8 for brightening. We never use sodium hypochlorite on wood

Matthew Adkins
Adkins Cleaning Solutions
336-338-8705
Greensboro, Nc

7

We use a 10 orifice size for ptp and 20 for cedar (this is with a 5.5 gpm pump). In other words…whatever it takes to drop our psi to 500-1000 and a wide nozzle of course.

8

Deck cleaners are either sodium percarbonate/oxygenated bleach or a solution with sodium hypochlorite/chlorine bleach, a detergent, and water. Deck strippers usually are sodium hydroxide based though solvent based strippers are used and at times methylene chloride. Brighteners are usually oxalic acid based but there are blends using citric acid and/or phosphoric acid. To the OP, pressurized water does not clean or restore and learning the basics regarding chemicals and products is the difference between being a professional and staying in this business or just hacking away in which case at some point trouble will find you on a job and it could be costly. Becoming an amateur scientist helps immensely in this business. Use the right chems and products, rely on dwell time, use the pressure washer mainly for rinsing and you will be fine. We only use a variety of 40 degree tips for wood restoration.

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9

Thanks Everett,

I know you do complete restoration. Your advice is valuable to those who may not want to get into full restoration and only satisfy the customers request to clean it up and make it look nicer but do not want to invest in the whole full restoration.

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