I have a good friend that installs Hardie Plank and he wants me to clean the fingerprints and dust off his newly installed projects. Win win, I get a quick job and freshen up in a year Or two. The job he had for me was much more than finger prints and I need some advice-other than walk away. For this to work out for both of us I really need a wash on wash off solution for normal finger prints and this. See pics. So I tested a few spots with 3 % sh since it was dark blue. No issues. So I cleaned a small hidden area with 1%sh+ eliminator and another with just water and some roof snot and I did separate areas with same but wiped off with microfiber. So, wiping it down had far better results and roof snot alone appeared cleaner than sh +elim. None of it was perfect in result. He said the guys wiped off the boards after cleaning soffits and metal trim with f-9. Is there any way around wiping entire house or repainting?
Remember, SH will remove organics like algae, mildew, tannins, etc but it won’t do anything for dirt, grease, etc. It’s not an all purpose cleaner. Just like a degreaser won’t do much good on algae.
What F9 product did your buddy use? You might be able to down stream a degreaser to take care of the oily fingerprint stains.
Marinegrunt it’s noted but I was more curious if the elemonator in my house wash would out clean the roof snot. I should’ve just mixed some up but had it in my pump sprayer for test spot. Looks like the spray 9 is a degreaser that pulled some paint off when they wiped down roof trim. They never cleaned rag and wiped it all over
Looks like Sodium Metasilicate is the main ingredient in that Spray 9. I’d probably get some EBC and try and down stream it. It’s pretty safe stuff but you do have to watch it around bare aluminum sometimes. If the Hardie Board can handle a caustic degreaser there are much stronger degreasers out there that you could down stream. Caustic degreasers have sodium hydroxide which can also be used as a stripper so be sure you know how to use it. That’s why I mentioned the EBC first. It costs quite a bit more tho. Just try and get a leftover piece of siding so you can test anything you try. If you can’t charge more than a regular house wash I’d probably forget about them. Not worth the hassle.
I have some ebc and I have extra blue board. I’d be a little afraid of spraying a caustic degreaser on that brand new painted hardie with all the woes guys have. Wouldn’t the sodium hydroxide strip that paint? That’s probably where I draw the line on this one. How long would you let an ebc dwell? Would you use the ebc or a degreaser for finger prints and smudges on a new install that didn’t have that spray 9 residue?
If I assume the leftover residue is sodium from the spray 9 , which I think it is now, using a sodium based product like hydroxide doesn’t make sense to me? Also, in the ads it mentions sodium hydroxide as another ingredient in the spray 9 I’m damn new at this so I appreciate the explanation on why using a sodium hydroxide would possibly work. Thanks.
Sodium hydroxide is almost in every soap/ cleaning product and it’s even in your bleach to help stabilize it. Yes sodium hydroxide is a paint stripper when mixed strong but if you dilute it enough it could fit your needs. And the leftover spray isnt sodium, if they didnt rinse the spray 9 off after spraying, it couldve reacted with the paint.
Thank you for the explanation. Some of the wipe down marks came off pretty easily and some stayed. I assume that after two weeks without a rinse it reacted with paint like you said. Tough lesson for them to learn. If I get back there to help him out I’ll test and reveal the outcome. Thanks again for the advice and explanations
I went back today to clean remaining residue. I tested a few areas with sodium hydroxide and ebc ebc but the house was drying from the heat too fast and was uncomfortable with applying it. The test spots were better with the ebc but just the snotmenade made the most difference. I gave it a 15 minute dwell repeatedly soaking the entire time. Rinsed it lightly and rubbed entire house by hand with microfiber. Rinsed heavy. I’d say 90% of the smear marks were gone. I had to look from the side to catch light right from 6” away to really see any left over residue. My friends customer still didn’t feel it was good enough and is going to pursue a hardie rep. I was pretty happy with the job and thought it was acceptable. Take a magnifying glass out and you can find something wrong with everything I guess
