I just got my new machine (4GPM/4300, belt drive) and cleaned my siding last week and all went smoothly.
Now I want to clean my side porch but don’t know what kind of wood it is and obviously don’t want to mess it up.
I read on here that the White tip is good to use on wood, is that the best tip in your opinions? I won’t use any mix for now, as I think it will clean up nicely with just some pressure.
I attached two pics (and moved the mat in one to show how nicely it should look if I can clean it all properly).
I just did a post on this on deck cleaning. Use sodium percarbonate start with 8 oz per gal (must use warm to hot water to mix, so mix in a 5 gal bucket and then ad to pump up) in a pump up add a surfactant, if it concentrated use about 1-2 oz per gal. Get a Quickie brush at HD or Lowe’s for about 8.00, it’s my favorite for scrubbing). Pre-wet the wood and apply percarb liberally. Do a section at a time and scrub, let it sit until it starts to dry and rinse. If you get the finish you want, spray with Oxalic, if you don’t get the look you want, repeat the cleaning portion. You can also heat up your mixture with more chems if need be,
If your chem’s are doing their job you won’t be using much pressure. In fact when I am training new guys I don’t even give them the 40 degree tip, they use the rinse tip from my JROD. It stops them from cutting the wood. also always make complete passes on each board. The deck in the other post I walked the want from one end of the board to the other on every pass to ensure I kept lines out of it. The biggest rookie mistake is to stop to hit a stubborn spot and go over it a few times. You will leave lines in the wood. Always make a full pass even for stubborn spots. You’ll learn to feather it over time but for now do full passes.
I have used sodium percarbonatee many of times but I always needed around 1000 psi on the 40 tip. I’ll try next time with a stronger mix. Right now I’m using dsr-40 at 6oz per gallon
DSR 49 should be fine, I add DSR 50 to the mix sometimes to bump it up, particularly if there is grease present on the deck. I also scrub by hand a good bit to keep from using too much pressure since we do a lot of cedar here. If you have experience using the chems and pressure you should be GTG.
So you’re saying don’t really use any pressure on the wood to clean, only to rinse after chemicals? Is this the norm for wood, i.e. use chemicals, not pressure?
No, I do use pressure but very judiciously, a lot depends on what type of wood it is. Cedar is about the softest wood I work with, next would be white wood and then the exotics like ipe but it is very dense. I can describe a lot of things but the amount of pressure you use on wood is really developed by doing it, generally less is more as long as you are removing the compromised wood. Starting out I replaced or flipped more than one board at my expense
Thanks for the info. Just curious, is that cedar in my picture, or is it hard to tell? If you are able to tell, are both the shingles and flooring cedar?
It’s hard to tell between dirt on the deck and paint on the wall. Where are you located? Most areas of the country have a wood species or two that are their primary building types.
For those that don’t know, Use larger orifice tips to cut back pressure. Figure out what tip/pressure takes off mildew/dirt without furring the wood. Don’t worry about a few splinters but if there are a lot, cut back on pressure. One size larger orifice hole, for example. You can pull your Lance and just use the gun with a tip in it for vertical railings etc.
