Got a call from a HOA president about removing this Lichen that is covering about 500 LF of rubber coated chain link fence around the community tennis courts.
I’ve read. Read a bunch of the topics here about lichen removal and a lot of the suggestions were hit it with a hot mix and give it time to die. But that’s not really an option here. I need to try to get it removed on the spot. One side of the fence is a tennis court and the other side is just grass and shrubs.
I was wondering if a house wash mix and turbo nozzle at low pressure would do the trick. See a lot of suggestions about brushing lichen off of roofs and other tough areas. Do you guys think a 1% to 3% SH mix then hitting it with a brush followed by a rinse would do the trick?
I’ve just never been asked or seen any topics about removing lichen from such a a substrate before.
I wouldn’t turbo that, too many spots to miss… lichen takes closer to 5-6% in my experience… apply, dwell, light-medium pressure (1,000-1,500psi)… stand on the grass and spray towards the courts. I would assume it will fall off just like it’s on vinyl… but I have no experience with cleaning that coating so maybe I’m missing something?
Ya, me neither. I’ve never seen it maybe just never noticed lichen growing like that on a plastic/rubber coated fence! I’m in Georgia though so nothing surprises me.
I’d bet a 2% mix hit from two angles, a 10 minute dwell, then walk along with a brush will knock that off, then low pressure rinse is all it will take. That lichen won’t be too embedded onto rubber coated steel
I plan on going back later this week to do just that before giving a price. The facility manager tried using their little box store pressure washer to remove it and gave up.
I have a hot water machine so maybe that will help pursuade it as well.
Just be sure to set expectations about the cleaner on the court itself… if the fence looks like that I’m sure the court has some sort of organic build up on it that will likely be affected by a 2% mix. And, although it didn’t look like it in the posted photo, you stated there’s grass on the one side of the fence and 2% can certainly cause that to burn.
As far as cleaning the fence, I’d say a strong HW mix, 10 dwell for it to be absorbed by the lichens, then a good ole white tip on a wand, similar pressure to what you’d use on wood, but likely not having to be as close.
Shockingly the court is in pretty good condition. They’ve managed to keep it pretty clean. I am going to add in a complete court rinse which is going to be needed after all this lichen is knocked off.
I’ll report back to this thread after doing some testing in case anyone else runs into this.
