Hey guys, wondering if anybody has experience with house changing color. I p/w a house using 14.5% sh cut in half. I called my Landa dealer, he said he gets a couple calls a year on this. He said organic pigments in paint dissolved. The house is two tone, the one color changed and the other did not. One is dark green, the other is a tannish green. The lighter color changed. What was the out come to make the customer satisfied?
How strong was the SH when it was applied to the house? From what you posted it seems like you may have applied it to strong causing it to bleach out the color which would make it lighter. If that’s the case you can’t fix it as far as I know.
What John said…
14.5% cut in half is 7.25%.
Gives us your exact ratio of gallons of SH mixed with gallons of H2O.
Normal house wash should be hitting the siding between 0.5 % and 1% SH.
Hope you are just giving us the wrong ratio.
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Anything painted or stained, I always do a test spot first to make sure no color
change will indeed happen.What John_T and KMP said is spot on.If mix is too
hot, it can affect paint or stain permanently. Hope this is not what happened.
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Hi john t, SH was 14.5%, I cut it in half with water to get it to about 7% and applied with downstream injector. Applied it to two sides of house and 10 minutes later rinsed it off. Color changed on southern exposed but not on northern exposed.
I’ve heard of it happening before with a roof wash mix that ran down a Dryvit/stucco house. Turned the light brown to green. I’m thinking it was too strong of a mix. Is the downstream injector cutting it 10 to 1? Also, what kind of siding was it?
You posted this back in December so what was the outcome?
We’ve seen paint change color 3 times. Twice no biggie due to particulars.
The 1 time it was a big deal I had our system checked out many times. Each time the ratio of bleach coming out was less than 1%.
Called others who had done the same, they got luck and the paint company came out and said it was a paint issue. No such luck for me. We ended up paying to have the home painted.
However, slowly making that money back each year…
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I was a little aggressive with bleach, cold day and really dirty house. Southern exposers changed but north side did not change. Customers were not letting it go, even after consulting with Sherwin William dealer. For good customer relations I am going to paint their house. Lesson learned on any painted surface, do a test spot, and make sure %'s are correct. Going to use 4 gallons water to 1 gallon 14.5 % bleach. From now on.
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Sounds like you just washed off some oxidized paint? That would NOT be your fault!
It was a little more than just oxidized paint, paint broke down from sun on 3 sides, but not northern exposure.
I went back and used a dilution closer to 1% where I needed to be and paint did not change. As I said before, I will get more good referrals from taking care of one bad customer than 25 good customers. That’s my opinion. They hired me to do a job, it went wonky, now it’s up to me to make it right. Live and learn. This will never happen yor again. My Sherwin Williams dealer, could not help me on this one.
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With the situation where we ended up painting the house. I made several fb industry posts and got very few who had been through it.
Made some calls and was given numerous names of people who have gone through it and heard from a larger outfit owner “you have no idea how many homes we paint a year”. So take rest in knowing you’re not the first.
I found a few common themes though.
- Sherman Williams paint
- Darking color paint (blues mainly)
- Hardiboard siding.
What I will never know about our case is exactly what all we did. Our experienced tech called in sick so I sent out our backup. He claims he did a test spot, only let it dwell 5-10 mins and blah blah blah.
It was a warm sunny day. The result was hard to see but if you looked closely it had a wavy green hue on most of it. Primarily the west and east side (I think).
Cost us 3k to have the home painted. At the end the client was happy with the final result, refers us and still uses us for windows only.
Sidenote: My area is a bunch of tree and fish huggers. I can not tell you how many times a week we are requested to not use bleach but a product called "30 seconds’ which claims to be a “bleach free product” but the second chemical listed is SH.
SW said we used too strong of a mix or let it sit too long.
Also, this is when I jumped to Joe Walters after my insurance company denied the claim within 22 seconds after taking my money for 10 years without a claim.
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Well, you definitely have the right attitude! Lesson learned and the customer will HAVE to be happy with you making it right. Way to go!
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I agree Jesse, Allcleannc and Dave Yogi stepped up to the plate when things
went bad and they made things right. Contractors like these two are an asset
to this industry! All the best guys.
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I made several calls to a lot of people, painters, P/w, builders, G/C, and my pressure washer dealer. My P/w dealer Is the only one who said, I think the organic compounds broke down and the bleach washed it away.
Common theme, paint and hardy plank siding.
If you are A painter, no big deal, it doesn’t matter, your gonna paint. Sadly enough, your the only one who said, this happened to me.
I do live in a big Tree huggish area, they want green products. Green products do not get results. I sell them on, bleach breaks down in sunlight, and water dilutes it even faster .
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On any house wash, after a through explanation of our low pressure
process, less than 1 % bleach to the wall, plants pre-wet and never
any plant damage, if they still insist on no bleach wash? Thank You
for considering our service, but since we are not able to meet their
requirements, please contact another company. Thanks again!
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Thanks for the input Bill, i think that is very professional. In the past several years I have run into at least 4 people with chemical sensitivity and tell them I cannot guarantee no fumes. I will walk away from a job if they are not comfortable.
John
All Clean NC
Setting customer expectations through terms and conditions would be a good application here. In the future, state on your estimates that “on painted surfaces we cannot guarantee the integrity of the paint and therefore some fading or discoloration may occur” Have them sign off on it and at least you have some leverage if the unexpected happens.
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Why on earth would you not dilute it more. Have you ever pressure washed a house before?
Thanks for the comment. Very helpful !?!
