I’ve been noticing this lately, I feel so embarrassed afterwards. No one has said anything it’s like they don’t notice it but I notice it big time. I took pictures this time, any ideas? I’m thinking it must be poor rinsing? But it’s odd to me I really feel like I’m quite thurough with rinse. This isn’t permanent damage or anything is it?
What kinda house wash you using ?
How are you rinsing? What size machine? Looks like too much and too hard. It’s dirty water leaking out from the weep holes and around the jams. ie, called leakers. Stand back further. Everyone gets a few once in awhile, but never that bad.
I bet if you notice that most the time it’s down lower than higher on the wall. As you come down rinsing, back off or adjust your spray. Before you roll up walk around house and hit with just a strong mist spray.
5 Likes
Yes I did notice it’s on the lower half of the home. Thanks for the input I guess I always try to rinse heavy to make sure I get all the house wash off. I use a 4 gpm machine, and I have to use m-jet because my down stream won’t work with 150’ hose.
I use 12.5 SH, diluted, with a drip of dawn. At first I was thinking it was being caused by too much dawn. But that’s not the case cause I cut back on this job and it was still bad
Also I rinse starting from the bottom, then work my way up. I was told this is the correct way but I noticed in your reply you said “as you come down with your rinsing”. Do you recommend rinsing top to bottom?
8 Likes
Stop using Dawn. A lot of guys had similar problems with Dawn. Rewash with SH and Elemonator and it will look great.
Few things…
If you cant draw soap past 150ft of hose get a better downstream injector.
Always rinse top down otherwise your working double time. Rinsing from the bottom up just puts the dirty water on the clean surface. Eventually you have to go from top down to remove it all dont you? Why not just start there?
What @racer means by step back when rinsing is the water should never hit the vinyl straight on. When rinsing water should be hitting the siding as its falling down. Your standing to close and shooting into the weep holes which causes excess dirt.
Never use dawn… Play around in the search box about how many people have been steered away from using dawn due to it causing the same problem your having now. Get some Elemenator and your life will never be the same according to people who made the switch haha.
If you fix these few things your life will become alot easier I promise.
5 Likes
John,
Yes - soap from bottom up and rinse from top down. You can rinse with xjet, just put it on the widest spray that you can get by with and stand back and as Midwest commented, just let it kind of rain on it.
It’s probably not the Dawn, though I would strongly urge you to use a bleach friendly surfactant. Heck, if nothing else, pick up some Zep at Home Depot. A good surfactant helps the dirt release from whatever it’s on in addition to helping SH cling to surface longer. There are a million ones out there and most are relatively cheap, especially if you buy in 5 gal quantity.
What part of the country are you located in?
2 Likes
John I have been having the same issues with the “leakers.” This was especially the case when I washed a house that had a lot of yellow jacket nests behind and inside the vinyl. Often there is no need to rewash the house. I have found that a rag and some simple green will clean it right off (for higher spots I just put the rag over my brush with extendable pole). I am going to take the advice of using lower pressure to rinse and hopefully that will prevent this inconvenience
2 Likes
I’ve got a little vinyl house to do in the morning before I hit some apartments, will try to shoot a video for you. Going for new record. It’s a 2 story 1800’ vinyl.
5 Likes
This silly little nozzle is the only thing I found that will let me almost mist with my 5.5 GPM machine. We’ll use it for rinsing the lower half of houses sometimes, but also to sweep the mulch back into beds when we wash driveways, and it’ll spray soap in about a 4 foot fan pattern if you don’t feel pulling out the x-jet when pretreating concrete. I keep three of these under my truck seat because I like the silly little thing so much. They don’t last long but they’re worth the $10 once a quarter. If you show me your invoice for Elemonator (autocorrect got me) or some other surfactant and send me your address I’ll send you one.
1 Like
PWS actually has a misting nozzle, but I just turn my adjustable nozzle out to a wide fan spray.
2 Likes
I’m in Illinois. Thank you for the info
That would be really nice of you, now what did you mean by "invoice for eliminator + some other surfactant, I was under the impression the eliminator IS the other surfactant to try.?
I think there’s some others, but I love Elemonator so much I forget what they all are. Everyone has their preference, but I think most people’s is Elemonator
2 Likes
Oh you said OR I thought you said AND. But you got it im going to place my order right now. Best site to purchase from? I also wanted to get a down stream injector and just loose the dolly + x jet. It’s too cumbersome and I can’t stand having to stop make mix
Elemonator: Elemonator - Pressure Tek
Downstream Injector: Adams Injector - Pressure Tek
Softwash kit for downstreaming: Down Stream Nozzle Kit - Pressure Tek
4 Likes
