Hi guys. I need some help. I am an absolute newbie. I’ve washed about 10 houses so far. Mostly friends and family. Just trying to get some experience and knowledge. This was a friends house. She had some grease stains on the back near the grill. House was otherwise very clean. I sprayed some Zep Purple liberally and wiped with a microfleece rag. the rag picked up brown. aAs soon as I saw that I knew I was in trouble. I then rinsed profusely with garden hose. This is what it looked like when it dried. Went back today and hit the side of the house with house wash mix. Didn’t change a thing. I can hear IBS now. Should’ve walked away. But I didn’t Not a paying customer but I’m going to do whatever I have to to make it right. Am I buying her some new siding or is there something else I can try?
I’m assuming you wiped where it is dark. If so you took the oxidation off and the siding underneath is darker. You could forget it and hope customer doesn’t notice or you could continue doing what you did before to the whole siding on that side/portion so it all looks the same.
There is no place for a degreaser like zep on vinyl siding .
The brown color that cames off was the oxidation.
The only fix is wait a few years for the oxidation to come back.
You can take the rest of the oxidation off. It can be simple or a process depending on the siding. I’ve downstreamed f13 with great results. However some have had to scrub the siding with a soft bristle brush.
However, this is a case where if you ignore it long enough it will just go away.
You decide.
Thanks for the replies guys. Fortunately and unfortunately she is a friend. I just want to make it right.
The safest thing to do is just wet it and lightly scrub the siding with soapy water. Hopefully it’s just a small part of the house and not the whole side.
It will go away over time though.
Thanks. I think I’ll try that.
Any suggestions on what kind of soap?
You already know the answer on what works…use the same crap you did for those marks, make The Whole side look like that
Do the exact method and dilution and everything but to the entire side,
I would use a light degreaser like dawn.
Well actually I would DS f13 because I’ve had good experiences with it in the past but it’s probably not the safest way, it’s just the fastest.
Try not to worry about it too much. Fix it and move on. Quite a few people have made the same mistake. Now you know. Don’t use degreaser and never touch/scrub oxidized siding.
If you take a look around at the hack job pressure washers. They leave streaks all over oxidized siding because they are using too much pressure. Lots of things disrupt the oxidation.
Thanks again for all the responses. I will fix it and move on. You’re right. A valuable learning experience.
