Cleaning Vinyl Siding
Cleaning vinyl siding may seem difficult but it's actually quite easy if you have the proper equipment. If you don't have the proper tools and experience though, it could take far more time than you expected.
Some of the most common mistakes to avoid made by homeowners and contractors when cleaning vinyl siding are:
Trying to remove the powdery coating called oxidation on vinyl siding when washing a house. Removing this coating can cause discoloration and in some cases cause the siding to look like a completely different color.
Using too much pressure when cleaning vinyl siding can also force water up behind the siding where it will cause mildew behind the siding or in some cases, blow the siding off the house!
Washing vinyl sided homes from the top down or letting chemicals dry on the house, which may leave streaks on the siding.
Using a ladder when cleaning vinyl siding can damage the aluminum siding or result in serious injuries and death from slipping off the ladder.
These are just some of the types of mishaps that many people have when cleaning vinyl siding on homes. If you decide to use a power washer on your vinyl siding, here are some general guidelines to use.
Make sure the power washer puts out a minimum of 4 gallons of water per minute and less than 1000 PSI. Most homeowners or new contractors will buy a machine from a hardware store that puts out 1,000 PSI but only uses 2 gallons per minute of water. While this machine may work, it will triple the amount of time to do the job properly. Be careful if you're making your own chemicals to clean vinyl siding, mixing bleach and ammonia can create a poisonous gas.
We suggest using chemicals that were designed to properly clean vinyl siding. Some contractors buy a house wash that's available in most hardware stores and are unable to achieve the results they were expecting. Most of the house washing agents contractors need for cleaning vinyl siding can be purchased from Sun Brite supply, these products are designed to clean vinyl siding more effectivly and give better results.
The best way to clean vinyl siding is by using an X-Jet, this tool can cut your cleaning time by 50% or more! if you don't have one then use a power washer that has a chemical injector built into the machine.
Using a chemical injector to clean vinyl siding will allow you to pull the soap from the container, mixing it in the machine with water and spray it onto the house using low pressure starting from the bottom up. Make sure when using a power washer that you don't shoot water or chemicals up under the vinyl siding, this can cause significant mold and mildew problems. Allow the chemical to dwell on the siding but not too long, it may damage the vinyl siding your cleaning. Then using low pressure, rinse the product from the siding. Make sure when your rinsing the product off the siding that you start at one end of the siding all the way to the end. Do not stop or vary your distance from the siding, or it will cause the surface to be cleaned un-evenly.
About the author:
Peter Marentay, Owner of Sun Brite Inc. Mr. Marentay joined Sun Brite Inc. in 1998 and immediately created a new division of the company - Sun Brite Supply.
Since that time, SBS has become one of the fastest growing suppliers of specialty products to the pressure washing industry.
Http://www.powerwashsupply.com Http://www.sunbritesupply.com
Find a Power Washing Contractor at http://www.pwna.org
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