Lucabond panels

I can’t ask questions on the lucabond thread because of the messed up search function.

Who has cleaned lucabond panels on commercial buildings? What process did you use? I would rather not post pictures as it would be easy for a lingering competitor to find this building. just general dust and stains. Some runs wipe off with a medium touch.

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Because you’re spelling it wrong. :slight_smile: alucobond.

It’s easy to clean, but easy to damage. Look up the manufacturers specs. 2 years ago the chemical required was mirachem, a new window cleaning mop, and low pressure rinse down.

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So they do require hand wiping?

Basically. The stuff beads water like crazy and you can’t let anything dry on it. It kinda sucks. It’s the aluminum siding of commercial exteriors, but wayyyyy more expensive to fix. Are you looking at a car dealership?

I did two, overnight, dodging new cars with a lift. #neverforget

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What type of stains do you have? We did a car dealership and for the most part we just used straight water to rinse everything down, used a WFP with soft bristles to scrub away some bird crap, did a soap rinse, and then deionized water to give it a final rinse. Came out really good. They called us back a month later but I turned it down, didn’t want to do it again. Accident waiting to happen, and I would rather make 500$ a different way.

I wouldn’t touch this for $500. It hasn’t been cleaned since install 10-15 years ago.

Normal stains and water runs. Dust is pretty set in.

For us it was a brand new dealership, and they were building one right beside it so everything was just super dusty. Price it out accordingly, if you do window cleaning just use some really soft bristle brushes. Will make your job much quicker. How tall is the building? Is there any curves to it? Might need to bring a lift to get to the hard to reach spots as yes, it does bead up like crazy.I used a WFP with mist nozzles on it to avoid beading.

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I can reach all of it by hand with the forklift and man basket. I’ll have blaire drive while I clean.

There’s idea I hadn’t thought of though. And not a bad reason to buy a wfp. Not chems to worry about. Never get on a lift.

That’s what I’d do after reading Bears comment.

Do a test spot with pure water. You can buy it locally. The stuff cleans pretty easily unless it’s eroded for some reason.

Man you would be surprised how useful WFP’s are in this business. Even just gutter brightening on some properties is much quicker. I will give the exteriors a quick rub down with gutter kleaner or gutter butter as I let my mix dwell. Rinse both at the same time.

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I’ve got a 30’ unger pole and super soft brushes that get used all the time. I don’t do gutter whitening/brightening, but i like the idea of it for alucobond. I just don’t do overnights either.

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So if I wanted to do it with just pure water I’d need to buy a system? Or can I buy it for a reasonable price in bulk?

If a wfp would clean it I would go that route! But this location has 1 inch deep by 2 inch grooves between each panel that are dirty. Would a wfp brush reach into the groove?

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What is the water like in your area? Do a test and see what the PPM is. Depending on when you need the job done by I can send you the info to build yourself a tank for under $200 - could be shipped with amazon prime next day tbh. I am more than sure you can get a brush that would be able to do it no problem. The pole itself would cost you 80$-1000$ depending on what you want to spend.

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You can get super soft boars hair I think. @Patriotspwashing had a good thread on building one for around $600. But you can get pure water by the gallon for a reasonable price. Here the place is literally called Pure Water KC. They’ll fill anything you want.

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If the PPM is decently low, just get a DI Vessel. You can sometimes get them from water purification companies, rent them pretty cheap. Or you can buy one for under 300.00. Just need a pole and brush, you’re set. Cheaper than the RO/DI carts.

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So I need to buy a hardness tester?

Yes its called a TDS meter. It tells you the PPM of how hard your water is. The closer to 0 that number is the softer the water is. The higher the number, the more resin you use (well go thru) to get clean water. In window cleaning there are lots of fancy shmancy machines that are ro / di, two stage filters, three stage filters - don’t worry about any of that. All you would need is a big blue container, 20" big and some clear filters. Grab some resin for that and voila, your all set. Connect your brush and hose to it and your good to clean.

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