I have a customer that in addition to some flatwork, wants just the eaves and entryway of their home cleaned due to bugs and spiderwebs. They don’t want or need a full house washing. The issue is they have copper gutters and stained wood doors. I know I could tape off the doors, but with the gutters too, I’m wondering if just surfactant will work on the bugs. Or, would these gutters be ok being pre-wetted, then use a very light 0.3-0.4% mix? I know my hw mix is great on spiderwebs, but is that due to the SH or soap breaking them down?
Don’t know what surfactant you using, but eliminator does a pretty good job by itself. I’d charge nearly as much as a hw, because if you’re doing the eves still going to need to rinse whole house because of splatter on windows etc. and that’s 70% of your time is rinsing.
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Thanks Racer. Yes, I use Elemonator. I know only doing the eaves and windows is most of the time anyways, so I did charge accordingly. I was only going to charge $75 more for a full house wash, but they said they didn’t need it.
I’ll plan on skipping the SH all together then, appreciate the response
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I tried the @DisplacedTexan oxyclean laundry soap with some water in a 5 gallon bucket and put my drop stick in it. It did a pretty good job of cleaning dirt and webs, and it smelled great. I thought you used that too. I’ve never tried just just eliminator before. The newer version is better than it was about 2 years ago when it was weak.
I tried some apple wash this week on some jobs, didn’t smell like apples, although it rinsed well. I don’t use a proportioner, so it might be the mixing. I use the standard glug glug method based on how much SH I put in my tank that day.
I found a little heat does a great job destroying webs, warm the water a bit if you have a hot water machine.
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So, this house was a failure. First time in 6 years I had to walk away. Under the eaves was really loaded with spiderwebs that have been there for a very long time, but also it was a white beadboard that had spots of black mold. I sprayed them down good with just surfactant and rinsed, and hardly any of it came off. I took a brush to them and got more off, but it didn’t look great, mostly due to age and mold. Since it wasn’t looking good, I finished the front of the house best I could, cleaned up their entryway, apologized that I couldn’t make it look any better without bleach in the mix and left. I’m going back to pressure wash their patio and some concrete, but the house needs a painter to get up there, clean by hand and paint.
The house just turned 100 years old and the gutters were the original copper. No way was I getting any percentage of SH near them. She tried to pay me for what I did clean, but I politely declined and went home.
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dragon juice, and Im thinking quite possibly limonen surfactant
Good job, sometimes we just can’t do everything. A Chuck in a Truck would have hosed that house down and ruined the patina on those gutters.
i did have a louisiana mud dobber mud vocoon or whatever is called that would not budge using elemonator, once. 3 story’s high.
I’ve always just kept the copper gutters wet and rinsed well and haven’t had any issues. It does take a little long for property protection but I just add into the price.
It’s easier to just pass and stick with vinyl houses 
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I was about to say “they think they don’t need a housewash”… then I read the rest of the thread. The copper gutters can be troublesome though.
