What to use?

We had the opportunity to bid on cleaning this building. It’s an aluminum processing plant. So they have furnaces melting aluminum which produces smoke. Hints the dark streak above doors and top of wall. We tried everything from a degreaser to our 2 step wash using our foamer. It would cut it some but not completely. Any ideas other than brushing the whole building.

I use Spartan Oven & Grill Cleaner, only because I can get it locally, but EBC should take care of that.

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I agree with the EBC, but sometimes you get that on metal buildings. You may have to brush it lightly, it falls right off, but someone explained it to me a long time ago, that it’s some kind of reaction with the metal. Can spray it all day long with everything you got and it won’t come off, but just lay a brush on it and it wipes right away. I ran into same thing a couple of years ago.
Put some EBC on it, let dwell for about 10 min and then hit with you long range high pressure nozzle and see what happens. Also Dragon Juice works wonders on metal.

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Any oxidation of paint ? You might have some streaking issues if entire wall is not treated.

Usually not a big deal on these kind of buildings, they just want the crud off. They’re usually all oxidized.

Here’s a paper recycling plant I have a bid in on now. Looks almost the same. 62000 sq ft.

I have done over 1,000,000 sq ft of metal buildings factories etc in the past 28 years & if acids or caustics are used on severely oxidized metal problems will arise. Just trying to save a newbie from ruin. Regards

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Agree with that, I was talking EBC though. Have you ever seen one that wasn’t oxidized though? By the time they usually call us to clean, they be well oxidized, lol.
but 100% agree with you on hitting it with the others. Would be just like cleaning big ass gutter.

EBC is isopropanol, basic alcohol. I use a lot of butylene glycol based degreaser & it will eat up oxidized paint. Never tried EBC, cant see paying for water.

Can you give an example of a degreaser you use?

Thanks for the advice guys! We just got our first 5 gal. Of EBC. Excited to try it and see if it does the trick!

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It’s good stuff. Enjoy!

What mix do you use for buildings like this ?

We ended up not bidding on this job. We hated to turn it down but didn’t feel we were ready for a job this size quite yet. We were going to have to brush the whole thing. EBC would cut a lot of it but you had to put a little muscle on it to get it all.