Hello community!
Just trying to educate myself. Customer wants the exterior of their property washed.
It has white aluminum siding and upon doing a walk through for estimate, I noticed the siding is heavily oxidized.
I pointed this out to the customer and they don’t want oxidation removal. My question for you guys is this - Obviously the siding is already a problem, but would it be further affected if I rinsed, applied SH, rinse again and no oxidation removal?
Almost impossible to say, there’s various stages of oxidation. As long as you explained to them like you would to a 5 year old. “Your house is dull and oxidised, and will NOT be shiny after a wash” you should be ok with a light mix. Keep your pressure down while rinsing, very easy to make a meal of it.
I’ve had white aluminum that was so thoroughly oxidized, that you could see bare metal afterwards. White water all around the house when I was done. This was with all low pressure tips.
I tell customers what to expect, and that they should consider my washing their aluminum siding as “paint prep”.
Guys I really appreciate the guidance. Along with proper communication with the customer, I’m thinking I’ll do a small test section first to see what it does.
Just go as light as you can with the SH and don’t let it dwell very long if there is mildew present. If there isn’t any mildew or algae don’t use any SH.
You can test a spot and it be fine, walk around the house to another area and wash down to bare metal. Ask me how I know… Alex is right, metal siding for me is paint prep only, if they are not planning to paint I don’t wash it. And also keep in mind if you rinse the oxidation off it will stain a lot of what it touches. Most of the times these jobs for me are not worth it.
Joe
