Im in Houston and its always hot as hell. Ive had zero issues so far with soaping the entire house before walking back to the starting point and beginning the rinse. Im using elemonator and not having any spotting issues on glass.
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Also, Sparkle is talking about having to make multiple passes. Pretty sure sparkle talked in one thread about using as little SH as less than a gallon on a house. Im using anywhere from 4-8 gallons per house depending on size and getting excellent results.
That has been my understanding as well but if you think about it, if it cleans what ever is running from the top down, shouldn’t it clean just the same as the wash solution is applied working from top down? Wouldn’t you just be rinsing the dirty solution right on down the side of the house?
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Thanks bluewave! Good to know. I will give it a try.
Conventional wisdom is that if you soap top to bottom, your solution will start to evaporate as it runs down the hot, dry siding. As the water evaporates, the concentration of SH goes higher and you wind up with streaks that are extra clean. Sounds plausible, but I never really wanted to experiment with it. I always soap from the bottom up, so the wet soap just runs down into more wet stuff and it’s not an issue.
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Bottom to top uses more wash solution (IMO) & possibly takes a little more time to apply since you are always applying to a dry surface.
Right, I could maybe see that being the case. Im still not sure though. Like I say, if it cleans, it cleans (in theory).
Im in the for 4 to 8 gallon range as well which equates to about a 1.5% SH solution. Using any less would seem to increase dwell time (time = $).
I soap vinyl from the top down and painted surfaces bottom up, but that’s because I put soap on a painted house in the dead of summer top down and it looked like what had run down left lighter spots and runs on the house.
It dried fine, but it still freaks me out. You save a marginal amount of soap going from top down if you can.
Bingo. If takes longer than 3 minutes to soap a side if your hoses are laid out right, realistically you’re crawling. 15 minutes max dwell time on the first and worst side, rinse it last if possible.
Was hooked up and did the north side only on this house with rinse and on my way in 20 minutes yesterday. Don’t normally do north sides only, but this HOA pays me every couple months to do a couple.
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I always wet the siding and especially windows before I apply my mix (SH & Elemonator). I was told that applying SH to a dry window could cause it to etch the glass or make a permanent mark on it. Also I am afraid on hot sunny days that applying my mix to siding, especially oxidized siding, could cause streaking. This could be an urban myth taught to me by guys who started way before I did. @bluewave18ft I had an issued this summer from my guy letting the mix dry on the siding. It caused streaking all over the siding. It wouldn’t come off with just water so I had to wash the whole house again with my mix. It came out great in the end but what a waste of time.
I’m pretty sure sh won’t etch glass. I know TSP can and tsp used to be used a lot from what I’ve gathered
If it’s really hot and sun is shining on it, I’ll prewet siding to cool it off. Same theory as soap from bottom to top. And it’s not just theory, especially on hot days. If you got a big machine and can get the whole side soaped inside a few minutes not sure it makes much difference, but why take the chance.
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Here you go George - Done today with 12v FB - about 3.5% mix with snotmenade - really bad with a lot lichen and some moss - with a Japanese maple hanging over the roof of the front bay. Took about 2.5 - 3 hours
And just for an extra soft washed drive with roof mix. took about 10min and used about $10 in materials
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Did you do the roof also @Racer?
I can’t even wrap my head around this question
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Well it looks green and dirty in the first two photos but the second two photos it looks a lot cleaner. Maybe it’s just the lighting. I don’t know. But I thought he was just discussing washing the house itself in the whole thread and his previous posts everyone has been discussing house washing. I honestly didn’t intend to come across so ignorantly.
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Good news! The thread is about house washing, but everything tends to take it’s own little turn. You can click on this if it’s a reply to another question if you’re trying to track it back.
Thanks. I didn’t realize you could click there and see what the response was linked to. My apologies.
No need to apologize to internet strangers. Unless you’re the guy with the creepy cartoon head as a logo and you lose your mind and start talking crazy. Most people will remember that guy.
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