@ShellcrackerMan I appreciate you calling yourself a soft wash person and distinguishing that from being a painting professional. I respect that.
When it comes to painting, you’re probably a great resource. 20+ years is impressive for sure.
My main point is that many of the guys that commented wash 5-20 houses a week easily, week after week. They’ve just about seen it all. So when washnstain had an issue, they had the expertise to know what advice to give. You didn’t.
My concern is that sometimes a person will make a new post asking for help and only one person will comment with advice, but the advice they give is bad advice. (All of us are busy running businesses so we can’t read every single post.) Out of their desire to help…they end up hurting the situation…and making it worse.
Imagine if washnstain had taken your advice and painted the vinyl siding. He’d be out hundreds of dollars, time spent (when he could be spending it making money), and he would’ve altered the exterior of someone’s house permanently, and likely had a very upset customer (I realize in this case it was his parents). And it would’ve been all for nothing.
so the same thing happened to my neighbors house but instead of just one area, it’s the whole house… i explained to them pretty much what i was told here, that it should clear up in about a week. i made sure to do a final mist before rolling my hose up, it did not seem to help at all in this situation… there must be something i’m doing wrong here, it seems i shouldn’t have to tell customers to wait a week for the house to look normal again.
What nozzle are you using to rinse? (Angle/orifice)
Did you make sure that the soap didn’t dry on the siding? If the siding is really hot, it helps to wet it first to cool it down.
im using a combination of the m5 twist on fan for the lows and a davis shooter tip for peaks. i made sure to rinse after soaping two sides at a time. also it was very cloudy today no sun at all while i was washing
Are you making sure to soap and rinse WITH the direction of the overlap between sections? If you’re shooting AGAINST that overlap you are pushing soap and water behind the siding which is no bueno.
I just zoomed in and it looks like you still have soap on a lot of that siding. You can see the color difference where the soap hasn’t been rinsed off well enough. At least that’s what it looks like. Also, you’re going to have these spots more on oxidized vinyl than non-oxidized. Is that siding oxidized?
there we go, that must be the problem. no i was not paying any attention to the direction of the overlap. kind of just stood in the middle of the side a split it in half. i’ve read a lot on here and watched a ton of videos but havent seen anyone mention that yet. thanks im sure thats what i was doing wrong.
how do i know if the siding is oxidized? i believe its been over 5 years since the house was wahsed, but there are no trees so it was barely dirty
Wipe the siding with your fingertip and there will be color on your fingertip. Do it in an inconspicuous area. It will be obvious.
Wash it again, standing as far back as possible, cut your surfactant in half, let it get almost dry and then do a final mist then wait a week and see how it looks.
i barely used the shooter tip on this side, just for the whites and the very top. i used the m5 on fan and adjusted it as i moved up (working side to side) until i couldn’t reach anymore, but that thing pretty much reached it all. i believe i just made a rookie mistake and shot water behind the siding
That’s exactly what you did. Stand further back if possible. You’re shooting water under. You can see the worst part in the middle, where you stopped and went back and forth. Couple of reasons, I think you’re over rinsing. When you rinse, widen your spray to about 3-4 boards at a time and think about you kind of want it to rain on the siding. You’re not trying to blast the soap off… Keep practicing, you’ll get it. Also, try to shoot at a little of an oblique angle most the time and like William said, try to shoot with the overlap when possible, but sometimes not always possible, just be aware of it, when soaping also.
Another way to tell is to look around any outlet boxes or water spigots on that side. Or the HVAC disconnect boxes. There’s usually a handprint or two on the siding right around those from where the homeowner is leaning on it when bending down. I like to take a photo of this before I begin washing that side for CYA purposes if I haven’t already pointed it out to the customer in the initial walk around.
okay that makes sense, so its a combination of over rinsing and going against the siding. i’m still getting used to 5.5gpm and the whole soap/rinse technique. i’ve been using 2.5gpm machines with 4000psi, green tips, no chemical, and ladders for 10 years smh. so this is a huge game changer for me. thanks for the advice
would you also suggest giving it another wash? it actually rained overnight and looks much better now, but it’s still a bit wet so i’m not sure if when it dries it will leave the spots again…
Don’t ever trust anything when it’s wet. Things can be better or worse when dry. Flagstone for example, when wet looks like crap you can see the deep stains from irrigation water. But after hitting it with hot mix and pressure you can literally watch it disappear as it drys. But other things are the opposite. They look great wet then when it dries look terrible.
