Soft washing in Las Vegas

Newbie Questions
1

What’s up everyone? I just recently did my first job and being 100% honest with myself, I am not pleased at all with the outcome. First and foremost, I did a little digging online and come to find out that soft washing stucco in Las Vegas isn’t THAT popular because of the climate we have out here. Algae isn’t very prevalent, so it’s not a common thing (from what I read). Second, I’m not too confident that the mix I was using was solid. I did 10 gallons of SH, 12 gallons of water and True Detergent as my surfactant. I’ll also admit that I did the math wrong and added way too much detergent, but I’m not too sure how much of a factor that played.

I guess the answers I’m looking for are:

  1. Is soft washing in the dessert “necessary?” Is there another process that could get me the results that I’m looking for?
  2. For those that have washed stucco houses, what mix did you find to work best for the job?

I do appreciate anyone that is able to provide a little bit of advice/insight. I know we’re all very busy in our respective lives, so even the smallest suggestion is met with a ton of gratitude.

2

If there isn’t organic growth present on the substrate then SH isn’t really needed. It does help dissolve SOME spider webs but otherwise it’s sole purpose is to kill off organics.

If you’re just cleaning dirt/dust/cobwebs/mud daubers then you could probably just wash it with water and surfactant and get a good result. If it’s real stucco then you can use some light pressure to help clean. If it’s EIFS/Dryvit/whatever it’s called in your area then you really should not use any more than a soap tip on it. That stuff is just a 1/16" thick skim coat over some thin styrofoam.

Best read up on here about stucco cleaning. There’s a lot more that goes into it than you’d think. Rinse, rinse, rinse.

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