The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum
"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"

Legacy1 · Guest

Cleaning Stucco

sweetwaterfish · Guest

If you use Apple Sauce on a Dryvit or foam EIFS type stucco, get ready to pay for a paint job!!!!

The love is WAAAAAAY to hot to spray on that type of material. It can bleach it out. When I do a roof/house combo, I'll usually take my leftover 10 gallons of love and dilute it to about a 8-12% SH mixture, and resoap for the house wash. I'm left then with 50-60 Gallons of housewash mix and I'm good to go!

The old fashioned block & stucco coating ( real stucco) can take the love, but its still not needed at that high of a concentration. There are very few houses I wash hotter than a 10-12% SH mixture (volume of SH in the mixture, as opposes to SH strength))

Jun 2, 2010

swee****erfish wrote:

If you use Apple Sauce on a Dryvit or foam EIFS type stucco, get ready to pay for a paint job!!!!

The love is WAAAAAAY to hot to spray on that type of material. It can bleach it out. When I do a roof/house combo, I'll usually take my leftover 10 gallons of love and dilute it to about a 8-12% SH mixture, and resoap for the house wash. I'm left then with 50-60 Gallons of housewash mix and I'm good to go!

The old fashioned block & stucco coating ( real stucco) can take the love, but its still not needed at that high of a concentration. There are very few houses I wash hotter than a 10-12% SH mixture (volume of SH in the mixture, as opposes to SH strength))

+1

Washed-up · guest

1 gal sh to 6-10 h2o here. Works great with no issues

Confident Roof Cleaning Houston TX · Guest

If your using a dedicated pump 1 gallon shc to 10 gl water with a little soap should do fine. If its real thick mold or algae, bump it to 2gl sh and it will knock it right out. The biggest thing to remember is that the solution will run into the grass so you want the weakest solution that will work.

Markus · Guest

Im a NYS Home Inspector by trade. Just be careful to cover your !@# when dealing with stucco. If there are any visible cracks, don't clean it or make sure you have your clients sign a waver stating that they are aware of cracking issues and still give you permission to clean. Mold and water damage behind cracked stucco is a huge problem. I am aware of multiple law suits in my region alone that deal with stucco.

Legacy1 · Guest

Good point Markus and scott I use a all-flow pump.

Roof Cleaning Katy Texas (281) 392-2304 · Jun 3, 2010

Would you clean a roof with a power washing setup and chemical blend? NO!

Then why are you cleaning a house with a roof cleaning technique & chemical formula? The 2 power washing techniques are either the X-Jet or direct injection using 20% injectors.

Washed-up · guest

Roof Cleaning Katy Texas (281) 392-2304 wrote:

Would you clean a roof with a power washing setup and chemical blend? NO!

Then why are you cleaning a house with a roof cleaning technique & chemical formula? The 2 power washing techniques are either the X-Jet or direct injection using 20% injectors.

I use my roof set-up to clean houses, lots of people do. We call it softwashing. I also use roof mix at a lower concentration for my chem.

Maybe I am a lil lost, but after I clean a roof, i dilute the remaining solution down and use my roof pump to "Softwash" the exterior. I do not use TSP on most roofs, therefore it's safe to use on a home as well.

Or did I read this entire posting wrong?

Legacy1 · Guest

So there is no right way to clean stucco?????? I wouldn't use a pressure washer on a roof cleaning job !!!!!!!! and one might think that using a pressure washer on stucco could damage it by knocking off loose stucco . A soft wash sounds more user friendly? Im new at this so please explain your theorys.

Matthew · Guest

I'll chime in with my 2 cents...

Here in my area we get a lot of people wanting exterior house Pressure Washed.
When I show up to bid the job and I see stucco I immediately look for cracks. If I start finding them there is no way in hell I'm PW anything.

Softwashing has less risk of water penetration as it uses no force but you should still either:
1. Repair the crack for a charge (this is what we do)
2. Get the homeowner to sign a waiver
3. Have the homeowner get the crack repaired and then return and clean by whatever means the homeowner wanted.

I've seen guys take turbo nozzles to stucco to get rid of sulphur and iron stains and make a heck of a lot of damage. As in all things a trained professional is one thing, an idiot with a gun and 4000 psi is another.

We offer Soft washing and PW on almost any "concrete" surface.

The "roof cleaning" chemicals discussed on these forums is a great multi-tasker at various concentrations. Hell I put 2 cups in the wash for my shop towels.

-- Edited by Matthew on Thursday 3rd of June 2010 12:40:49 PM

Confident Roof Cleaning Houston TX · Guest

Roof Cleaning Katy Texas (281) 392-2304 wrote:

Would you clean a roof with a power washing setup and chemical blend? NO!

Then why are you cleaning a house with a roof cleaning technique & chemical formula? The 2 power washing techniques are either the X-Jet or direct injection using 20% injectors.

Marcus, I have tried over and over again to Xjet and DS chems to clean a house and have never been succesful. I dont know why. Its alot easier for me to use a diluted SHC mix applied with the delevan and rinse with the xjet m5 that you sold us.

sweetwaterfish · Guest

Dwayne, I'm with you....99.2% of all the houses I wash are softwashed with my "roof setup". Its a rare case indeed when I even have to break out my pressure washer.

Baltimore MD Roof Cleaning 410-482-4367 · guest

Wow, we only use 2gal sh in a 40 gal house wash, anything more causes damage for us. Must be hot love??
We find if it eats thick algae real fast, it's way to strong. 2 gal sh 1/2 gallon limolene from envirospec and a sip of 31% loramine oxide +38gals of homeowner h20. We had to stop using the leftover roof mixes, as it made it way to hard to measure chems. So we wash the house with that rinse a lot, scrub the gutters with gutter cleaner, apply plexmaster wax, and rinse a lot more, then we may pressure wash the foundation line, and apply armor all to vinyl shudders. These services will have you back every year for gutters and shudder shine, every 2 yrs for house washes. I love the way it cleans metal fasci, that stuff was a real pain to do with a washer.

Roof Cleaning Katy Texas (281) 392-2304 · Jun 3, 2010

Washed-up wrote:
I use my roof set-up to clean houses, lots of people do. We call it softwashing. I also use roof mix at a lower concentration for my chem.

Maybe I am a lil lost, but after I clean a roof, i dilute the remaining solution down and use my roof pump to "Softwash" the exterior. I do not use TSP on most roofs, therefore it's safe to use on a home as well.

Or did I read this entire posting wrong?

What you do not understand is the terminology of the words "Power Washing". I have been a member of PWNA for many years and attended many power washing related work shops of theirs.

The term "Power Washing" means the application of chemicals with a pressure washer to a house at low pressure to clean it. This can be accomplished with x-jets or injectors. Low pressure being about the strength of a garden hose sprayer.

It does not mean the use of high pressure to clean a house. High pressure in a resiential setting is only used on concrete. Any time you use high pressure on any other part of the house it will damage it.

guest

here is a 3 story dryvit house I cleaned the other day in 3 hours

WeWashWindows · Guest

I use a solution of about a gallon of SH to 4 gallons of water in a 5 gallon bucket. I add a surfactant to add a little cling. I've even added a cap full of Lori's Apple scent to make it smell really good. Honestly, a cap full or two from the brown sample bottle is all that's needed for a 5 gallon mix.

This solution is then down streamed, so it get's cut even further. This cleans houses VERY nicely. Depending on the condition of the stucco, I may double the SH in the mix, 2 gallons to 3 gallons of water.

I can spray my hand with every nozzle I clean a house with using my pressure washer with Soft Washing. I reserve the pressure and/or hot water for the concrete.

A Rich Pressure Cleaning · Guest

Xjet-- I switched to xjet about a year ago for all my exterior washing and have never looked back. In my opnion its the best way to go for stucco cleaning. I do agree with the other post if the stucco has a lot of cracks and seems in rather poor shape I soft wash with my Roof cleaning set-up without the Love mixture of course b/c like stated b4 it is too hot.

RCIA Founder

Walk wrote:

here is a 3 story dryvit house I cleaned the other day in 3 hours

Looks like you put a "New Jersey Azz Whuppin" on it Clyde roof cleaning

Legacy1 · Guest

Thanks for all the reply's you guy's have helped out alot .If I get a stucco job for now I will use my all-Flow because that's all we have . It seems that the spray we get from it should work just fine.

The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum
"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"

Dwayne Miller
FLORIDAWASH

Lake Marion Citrus & Sumter Counties in Florida

Dwayne Miller
FLORIDAWASH

Lake Marion Citrus & Sumter Counties in Florida

The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum "Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"

Dwayne MillerFLORIDAWASH

Lake Marion Citrus & Sumter Counties in Florida

Dwayne MillerFLORIDAWASH

Lake Marion Citrus & Sumter Counties in Florida

The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum
"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"

Dwayne Miller
FLORIDAWASH

Dwayne Miller
FLORIDAWASH