@Hotshot, would you use PowerSolve straight, ds’d on a painted or hardieboard house?
1 Like
LOL
Never ever take washing advice from a vendor.
I have friends who learned that real quick.
One vendor out my way told a newbie to use cleansol bc on hardie board…I got the pics the next morning.
Next time your vendor suggests a solution, ask them how many washes they have personally done using it.
Long story short…Dont use that ■■■■
2 Likes
Hell no… SH works man ,Why reinvent the wheel.
Now if yall have a trouble spot I’d probably use a degreaser such as power solve over LA awesome but never straight. I’ve never personally used powersolve before,
Only HCS400…
Well good to know. Only reason I used it the few times I have is to use it as a soap where I thought sh would cause damage to the surroundings. Was told by who I thought was a reputable vendor (who supposedly created the product) that it would be a good way to go. The tech data sheet says it doesn’t have anything bad in it and that it is recommended for residential washing (as shown above). Lesson learned don’t trust the vendors or the data sheets that come with their products and to make sure to learn from the experienced ones here on the forums who can share their bad experience with something before I have a bad experience myself. I was searching on the forums some months ago about an alternative to SH and an alternative to a basic surfactant that could be used as an actual soap. When I called Hydrochem and explained exactly that, the recommendation was powersolve. If anybody else has a recommendation of an actual soap that can be downstreamed to clean with I would love to know what is safe to use. The reason it may work better for me than a lot of people is there’s not very much mold or organic growth that requires sh where I live.
Surfactant basically is soap. When I wash painted houses that I might be worried about that don’t have any organic growth I just use Elemonator or Slo Mo. You don’t have much organic growth out there so just use a surfactant to down stream.
Hydro Chem is a reputable vendor. They’re geared more towards fleet washing though and I would trust their knowledge on that. I don’t think they deal with residential house washing much.
2 Likes
If it ain’t organic it doesn’t need SH. SH kills organic matter, surfactant aids in keeping mix wet longer, helps hold your sh where you want it longer and lifts off what you’ve killed with sh to rinse off easier. General dirt/dust left to dwell in a surfactant will rinse right off.
4 Likes
The James Hardie website basically says easy does it. Mostly rinse, rinse, rinse. Brush lightly, use a garden hose to rinse. In some cases use a small amount of mild dishwashing soap. Hardie even talks about using a soft cloth to wipe the Hardie siding and trim. Web search on “James Hardie siding” and “how to clean”.
Resurrected thread from the dead…
Has anyone actually test spotted Hardie with Cleansol BC or similar? I’m going to get more details Monday morning, but my guy washed a house today that he swears is oxidized paint on Hardie plank, and the homeowner thinks was caused by another washer in the past. I’ll probably just have him stop by and try a test spot, but was wondering if anyone had already beaten that horse to death…
TBH, it looks more like it was washed with a zero tip than disturbed oxidation… 
Yes, I’ve done one house that had blue hardie board that was heavily
Oxidized. Used cleansol. The areas down low that I could hit with a low pressure 25degree or something to rinse cleaned well but anything out of reach needed to be done from a ladder. End of story, per my recommendation they just repainted it.
This stuff melts the oxidation off….
Just saw this advertised the other day. I’m guessing you’ve used it?
I haven’t yet but another company I know used it and loves it……said you need no brush to remove oxidation, just a little pressure. Stuff I’ve used in the past almost always needed to be brushed, so….gonna get some.
1 Like
Let me know how it goes. I saw a vid and it looked promising.
1 Like
We’ve used Cleansol BC without brushing successfully several times, so I’m not looking for a a new product. My question was had anyone tested that on painted Hardie Plank, or any painted surfaces…
That was done with a white tip from a ladder
5 Likes
In my experience, If the paint on the Hardie is in good shape then the chems will be fine used as directed. I always set expectations based on the condition of the board….and do a test area too. If customer is good with results then we proceed. I’ve ran into some where the paint was failing and recommended them to paint. I could do the prep for that but would recommend they talk to their painting contractor first, he may want to prep so he can provide a warranty for his work.
That’s probably because there is a ladder & a Ryobi behind that garage door.
4 Likes
Keep us posted on how this turns out, I would like to know too.
You think a Ryobi has enough power to do that? 
