Streaky windows after stucco cleaning

I have cleaned a couple of stucco homes and a lot of them were called back for streaky windows.
I even brushed some of them with purified water.
What I tell is that after the cleaning, soapy water from the stucco surfaces above the windows just fall onto the windows and cause the streaks.
How do you experienced guys prevent this please?

Describe your cleaning process

Rinse the area above the windows really well, rinse the window, move to the next window repeat, next window… Go back to the first window and rinse again after the water is done running down. Try not to hit the area above the window this time. Also when rinsing windows concentrate on the areas that can hide and leak soap. Like the tops of the windows. I try to through a lot of water at them to kick the soap out of the cracks. Pre-wet windows too!

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Watch how much surfactant you use too, take it easy.

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just regular low-pressure house washing.
ds about 0.8%, then rinse with 8gpm, #60 nozzle

the only thing I have been doing differently is I don’t pre-wet. Guess I will try that next time.
Thanks

I am even thinking about no soap on stucco next time.

There’s not much science or technique to it, Don’t let it dry, rinse the windows first and hit the windows again after that wall has been rinsed down. The duration of “rinse” varies to different people. Maybe start there.

that’s what I have been doing.
Never had any problem with vinyl homes coz it’s much easier to rinse vinyl clean. but with stucco, it’s just… u know that what I mean…

You could spit at a vinyl house and get it clean, stucco takes a bit more rinsing because of the nature of stucco. I just think you haven’t rinsed well enough, rinsing is easy, rinse it a bit longer and you shouldn’t have problems. Key thing being to keep the windows wet at all times. If it’s wet it won’t set.

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After I used Tucker wfp system to brush all the windows, I still got customer calling back saying there are streaks. Went back and did find streaks on windows. Those obviously came from the stucco above. So, what I am trying to say is: I get what you are saying, but in this case, it’s probably not because I did not keep the windows wet. It’s probably because I did not rinse the stucco above well enough, and I did not wait until all the stucco dries before I brush the windows with purified water

I just hope there’s an easier solution such “do not use soap on stucco” or “do not wash stucoo” :joy:

That’s what I’m telling you, rinse rinse rinse. You don’t always need soap either, when I’m doing large store fronts that have a lot of glass I don’t even use soap, never had a call back, after whatever was dirty and rinsed the glass remained spotless, go figure.

I use elemonator and they say an ounce per gallon and I think that’s to much. I pre-wet house especially on hot days. If the siding is in the sun on a hot day I will soak the siding. Work on smaller sections to when it gets hot out. I had soap dry on a hot wall and the wall still appeared wet. You could see crystalization on the siding from certain angles.

You should always pre wet it if you dont the soap will soak in then when rains the water will push it out. That’s exactly what’s happening. Also rinse it the rinse it again and when you think you have done enough do it one more time

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