Fence washing

Nice work sir

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Iā€™d like to know how you did it too. My fence is the ā€˜otherā€™ side with all the cross beams, so much harder than a flat side. Tried using various nozzles but takes forever.

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I stopped doing wood fences. Only vinyl now

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Interested in your mix too :slight_smile:

Oxalic?

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I didnt have a 12 volt setup at the time and it was 38 degrees outside so i put a smaller DS injector on my 4gpm machine and down stream straight SH with alittle surfactant. Then a rinsed with medium pressure to knock off that grayish dead wood. The customer was thrilled. They had their nieghbors and all out there looking. Wish i knew what percentage i hit it with because it was spot on. There wasnā€™t much feathering or anything.

No i didnt use oxalic. I didnt know about it then but i plan on trying some next time.

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@Grizz oxalic is good to have for sure. Iā€™ve had great luck with it !

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Reallyā€¦SH did that? Wow. Iā€™ll have to Xjet my fence and see what happens.

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Good job Grizzā€¦Looks great!

Iā€™ve had better luck with sh rather than percarb. Either way, neutralizing and brightening with oxalic afterwards makes a huge difference.

Iā€™d like to order some ReNewAll from sometime and give it a try.

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Just make sure to rinse the hell out of it. SH will literally eat the nails if not washed off.

SH also destroys the lignin in the wood which binds the actual wood together. Itā€™s impossible to use SH on wood without causing some degree of damage.

It will also eat away at knots in wood too.

Honestly whoever owns it determines the cleaning.

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Yikes. Maybe Iā€™ll just turbo and call it a day.

Lol there is a guy in texas that knows alot about wood. It think his name is mike.

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Trying to link the video but cant.

Not sure if you are referring to me or not, but I would not say I am a wizard with wood.

I have done a lot of wood as well as a lot of trail and error using my own fence, random pallets I find laying around or fencing that is being replaced as I drive by and you would be amazed at how happy guys are when you ask to take some of the old fence away for them:joy:

Overall, here is what I have learned. Not single solution exists for all situations. Yes, some tried and proven practices should be in your wheelhouse but nothing beats experience which I why I am always looking for scrap fence and trying different chems and processes. What we know today is because someone before us experimented or stumbled on a chem or process that produced results. I keep a small 2.5 gpm machine hooked up in the backyard for quick test.

The same chem and process that turned out beautiful on one fence may lead to hours of sanding on another. What I have learned more than anything is the value of a test application to see how the wood in front of you will react to your process. I have come to the conclusion that age, wood moisture, level of dead wood on surface or biological growth, stains/sealers, did you have Starbucks or Dunkin coffee that morning all come into play in how the wood reacts.

A lot of good points made about SH on this thread. In the end, it is another chem in the toolbox. I will say, that with SH, just a few % points stronger or a few minutes longer dwell can dramatically affect wood. I observed this on my own fence. Did a 30 ft section with various strengths and dwell times. Amazing the difference between each section when you adjust strength or dwell time in final color and amount of furring.

Some basics that I follow no matter what process or chem I am using:

  1. Fully saturate the wood with water before applying any chem. You want the chem to work on the surface or just below but not get soaked into the middle of the wood.
  2. After, rinse, rinse and rinse again. The better I rinse, the better staining applies. I am convinced based on my own experiments, that when a surface is not rinsed well leaving behind residual chem, it has an effect on the stain application.
  3. Neutralize, especially if using SH. This will stop the effects of the SH on both the wood structure and color. I did a test section that I only passed over it with light water and the next day it was almost brilliant white. The section next to it, I rinsed much better. Did a staining of both sections and after staining, you could see color variation between the two sections.

On this note - I have looked at various ā€œPressure Washingā€ classes or ā€œschoolsā€ and found most severely lacking in one way or another. Is their a market for a truly comprehensive hands-on experience that is not product selling based (you know the vendors who do this) but rather knowledge based with no ties to trying to sell a product in the end? Just brainstorming - could be a weekend thing, jam packed from 7 am to 7 pm with all kinds of learning modules. Would any of you ever consider going to something like this?

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I am very interested seems noone in my area cleans decks or at the least does it well I have been cleaning at least 3 a week since I started this year and love it.

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Did you still use a deep cycle battery?

Yes one on my wagon that i use for staining, one in my shop i use for transferring bleach and 2 on my trailer that i daisy chained together that i use for my roof pump.

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Coolā€¦Iā€™m thinking of using a 1 gpm (possibly 2.2 gpm) pump on a 15 gallon tank to use in the back of my truck for SH treatments on driveways. Iā€™m offering packages that include 6-month treatments, so I didnā€™t want to take the trailer out just for those, so Iā€™m going to keep a small tank for post treatment mix and wasnā€™t sure what size battery to have for that small of a pump.

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Get @marinegrunt to show you his sweet little rig. I like the idea he has

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