I don’t wet too many houses, I wood (get it) rather do decks, but this one was a request from my mom’s church friend. Anywho, this was a half aluminum (oxidized on one side) half vinyl house. Of course I used a fan spread and stayed as far off the oxidized side that I could. On the vinyl side which is about 10 years newer, I soaped and rinsed, then rinsed again, then rinsed again, then came back one more time and rinsed again. The j channel was loaded with pine needles and debris around every window and door. I would fan spray it at an angle, trying to lightly rinse, walk to other other side when it looked good. I would come back and it was dirty again. I know I watched that j channel for debris, didn’t see any and moved on. After the second time rinsing I hosed that mother down. I use a m5ds, I like it, I have a jrod and nozzles but I really like the M5 (yes it doesn’t shoot as far or as clean a stream at height).
Dear pros how do you handle this. I keep getting houses to clean that no one cleaned in like 25-30 years. They all tend to be senior citizens and they like to talk a lot to you while your working. Of course they all had pine trees around them, but they all tell me how they cut most down due to pollen, sap, pinecones etc.
TO be clear, not talking about weep holes, that is a whole other animal. The channel around windows and doors. Owners were ecstatic when I was done, I just think I need to improve some skills here for time purposes. Maybe this is just how it is when the houses are loaded with dirt after 2 decades or more.
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I’ve let the water trickle out as I move to another side or two then come back and very lightly mist/rinse just the trailings trying not to get any more water in the channel. You could also try a wet rag if you’ll feel confident that the oxidation disturbance won’t show.
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Thanks, the side that had all the dirt coming out was the non oxidized vinyl side. I tried the wide fan pattern using the very edge to lay down a delicate misty sheet of water, embracing the surface like a caring lover. Didn’t work, stuff still came out. That is when I lite it up and got it done j/k. I know we rinse way more than soap in this biz, but I don’t think I should be rinsing that much. Once again, maybe it is just these houses in the pines. Every last time I hit a j channel, window ledge, it is like a black river of gunk. I continue extra soaping those areas, then it seems like I am quadruple rinsing. I could be wrong, but I think if the siding was removed we would find brown bats behind it that have been crapping for a couple of years.
On a side note, I was concerned that the neighbors cars might have caught some HW mix, went to look at them and they had a green sheet of dirt on them from the pine trees.
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If the siding appears sound (not full of cracks and likely to leak), I hit those areas with my 5° soap nozzle, and just chase the gunk back and forth until I’ve worked at least 90% of it out. Then I rinse the rest of the wall. Give the tracks another chase in the process.
Then do a final light mist rinse after it’s had a chance to weep out for awhile.
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