I thought I would upload a few before and after pics of some wood cleaning I did around my parent’s property. Hopefully these photos and chemical mixes can help any other new guys like myself, and maybe some of you veterans will chime in and tell me how I did (Or what I did wrong haha). Fortunately for me, my parent’s haven’t maintained the different wood surfaces around the property, so I had a lot of good practice!
I used a sodium percarbonate mix (6 ounces to 2 gallons of water) for cleaning with a dwell time of 5-10 minutes, and then an oxalic acid mix (4 ounces to 1 gallon of water) for brightening the wood. I pre-rinsed and post-rinsed everything. Both chemicals were applied with pump up sprayers, and all cleaning was done with green tip that dropped the psi down to 500-700 psi. (I don’t have my good pressure washer yet, I am currently working with a cheap burrowed one to practice chemical mixes).
Next section try 8 oz per gallon on Sod Perc and 8oz per gal of the Ox. For kicks, try another section except don’t use the oxalic. Not really necessary with Sod Perc. See what they all look like in a week Post pics. But what you did not bad at all.
While you’re at it, hit another section with about a 2% (since fence not very bad) bleach mix. You’ll want to use the ox on it after you rinse good.
The fence I posted originally is newer, this one is around 16 years old and has never been touched. This pic was taken after rinsing sodium perc and prior to the oxalic application. I am assuming the 8 oz per gallon mix you mentioned would work even better!
I don’t think you technically have to rinse oxalic acid, but I do just to be safe. So I didn’t worry so much about dwell time, I just made sure to rinse it after it had time to do its job. Some times 5-10 minutes, sometimes 10-20 minutes. I could be wrong about this though, so maybe someone else can chime in.
If you’re going to be staining it I would rinse it. You want it pretty close to neutral. Don’t have to let dwell mucha t all, spray it on and can rinse almost immediately.
