On a normal house wash would you all remove these inorganic stains?
If not, what would you tell the customer? Would you try to upsell it?
And would a degreaser remove these stains?
For me anything requiring cleaning with chemicals other than sh is an up sell. I have to buy the chemicals, I have to store the chemicals, I have to transport the chemicals, the least I could do is charge the customer.
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Up sell stain remover.
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If it’s something quick and doesn’t require more than about 10 minutes and $10 worth of chem I usually just do it for free. If it’s rust stain that requires multiple applications of f9 barc absolutely upsell, or just don’t claim you can clean it off.
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That’s not inorganic. See that EVERY day. May have to hit it a couple of times and give it a few more minutes dwell time. Hit it with your shooter tip if necessary, but rarely.
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I hit it three times. The last one with about 1.5%. Couldn’t get it to budge. Even tried a little pressure.
Felt bad not being able to get it off with SH.
I’ve had similar non organic stains on some older houses near the vented soffit and vents. I ended up having to use degreaser and a brush. I think it was dust and debris being vent out of the attic. You get quite a draw through the soffit and vents in the hot summer. I’ve only ever seen it on soffit or vents with larger holes. The stains pretty much streaked right where the holes were. It’s kind of somewhat similar to fallout.
You can up your SH strength just in case it is organic. It won’t hurt anything on vinyl.
If everyone knew what my SH % was before I found this forum, they’d probably ban me. Most of you could easily triple even quadruple your normal amount and I’d still easily have you beat.
Let’s just say the mold saw my pump-up sprayer and started melting off just at the site of it. lol
@marinegrunt What do you recommend for a good degreaser?
I’ve got a house wash coming up with attic vents like that. The vent its self has growth, I figure if I hit it at an angle it will reduce over spray getting into the attic. Client says he cannot access the attic to cover it and I cannot get to it with a ladder with where the peak of the roof below it is. What was your approach with this job? Thanks
Do you use terra wash with your green wash ever? I used to add it to every house wash mix but now I only do it when I find non-organic staining.
I run into houses like this a lot. You just don’t spray vents for long. It’s not practical to ask the homeowner to cover it. If you can have it fall down onto the vent so you’re not shooting up into it, that’s ideal.
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That’s what I do, spray from the side very lightly and quick, then I hit them with a soft brush. I use a brush for those stains like in the pic above too. I’ve never not had them come off with normal HW mix and a brush. I’m sure hitting it a couple times would work too, but a brush takes 10 seconds.
I actually went back to this house today–over 5 months later. lol. It was bothering me that I could’ve possibly gotten the stain off with a litter higher SH or a degreaser.
I emailed the customer beforehand and he was more than happy for me to try.
I hit it first with 3% SH. Nothing.
Then I tried a degreaser. It didn’t work. Then I tried Purple Power Aluminum Brightener. It worked with some brushing.
There is still a tiny shadow right next to the vent on the left-hand side. But overall it turned out great.
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Good for you, totally understand, been there done that. Glad you got it fixed!
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Looks great! BD-200?
I had a sip of Purple Power left that I wanted to get rid of. But it didn’t touch the stain. So I went with something I already had mixed and ready to go–Purple Power Aluminum Brightener…which is probably not the most orthodox thing to use. But it worked.
LOL, I use a case of aluminum brightener per week. Between cleaning off mud, fallout, polishing garage doors and about anything else you can imagine I average 1/2 gal per house.
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Which brand do you get? Dilution?
It’s just a local brand made by a chemical company here. Depends on what I’m using it for as far as dilution. Not much if on mud.
Isn’t that stuff toxic and you have to be really careful using it? Maybe I am not remembering correctly for some reason I thought it had hydrochloric acid in it? Is it safe for painted surfaces like hardiboard or stucco?
