Did a house a couple weeks ago and they sent me this picture. I am assuming that I didn’t rinse well enough from reading through the posts. Used 3% mix with Elemonator and learned my lesson on it. I must rinse throughly going forward and use a different surfactant. All the post tell me what it is but not how to fix it. Would rinsing again really well take it off?
Re applying the mix, shorter dwell time, then heavy rinsing is what I’ve read on here to fix this issue.
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When you’re washing brick cut way down on the surfactant or don’t use any at all. Brick is porous enough SH isn’t going to run right down like it does on vinyl. Using too much surfactant on brick takes way too much rinsing.
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Yeah that’s what I meant by I learned my lesson. I know what I did wrong. But I need to fix it now. Any suggestions? So far I’ve gotten to reapply and then rinse well.
@DJPWS nailed it. Anytime you have residue leftover from not rinsing well enough reapplying and rinsing takes care of it. If you don’t rinse well enough it’s usually most noticeable on windows.
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Alright so I went back and reapplied, even scrubbed with a stiff brush and rinsed extra thoroughly, still came back after a couple days. I’m at a loss. Could it be calcium build up? I just don’t understand why it only happened here and won’t go away! Customer is growing more impatient.
Efflorescence
When you first posted you kind of made it sound like you caused it but is there any chance it was there before you even started?
Now that I look closer at the before pictures, I do notice some on there. Not near as much as there is now but definitely there. I guess I’ll try some F9.
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You probably washed the dirt off of it and made it more noticeable. If it won’t rinse off there’s no way you caused it. Let us know how the F9 Efflo works for you.
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NMD80 will work too and you can usually buy it local from any brick distributor for like $25/gal if you don’t have any F9 efflo handy or close by.
Sorry, didn’t see post earlier or would have told you that from the start. You don’t get that from not rinsing enough. Sheesh, it’s at the bottom, everything you rinsed down the whole wall would have rinsed it enough.
Yeah. Luckily that one before picture is saving me now. I showed it to the customer and they actually never noticed it until now. I’m going to attempt to remove it even though I didn’t cause it just for the added security and going above and beyond.
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Prosoco 600 or Muriatic. Dilute to 5:1- 10:1, wet wall, brush on and scrub, let dwell for 15-30 minutes, don’t let dry, rinse off, done.
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No gutter in that pic, and tree cover, straight face, water follows gravity. They could add a real nice gutter system that would compliment their brick, maybe a copper that already has a patina. It won’t be cheap. Maybe refer them to a gutter guy and get a commission?
For the pros here, aren’t you just treating the symptom of an underlying problem? With the problem being the inadequate water drainage. Don’t get me wrong, that is probably the majority of work in all construction, as homeowners tend to pick the cheaper options available. Most people don’t have money trees in their yards.
