Aplus

Huh? Oh I get it.....great sense of humor Van!!!

I agree 100% with Rod. Usually with havy mold, I'll apply the HD-80 and wash, and if any mold spores are left behind I either apply another coat of HD-80, or apply a mix of about 6% bleach to kill the remaining mold. Either way usually does the trick. The last step is the citric acid application. I too have not found bleach/chlorine alone to be 100% effective on a first pass cleaning up heavy mold.

Do you kiss your mom with that mouth????? LOL!!! Bleach is a tool, just like many others, that when used properly, has it's rightful place. Nothing to be ashamed of. Real problems arise when bleach is used by inexperienced people.

The problem with this plan is that if the bleach ratio is reduced too much, it's not going to do any good. If I can't see mold/mildew, there's no reason to use bleach.

Defy makes a water borne product, but from my experience removing it, the product is a pita to remove and doesn't seem to be friendly at all for maintanence coats.

Sounds to me like that mix is just for cleaning decks, not for stripping decks. Most deck cleaning recipes will not cause furring. Furring is typically caused from stripping chems being applied too strong, or being allowed to dwell too long. Of course high pressure is a culprit too, but it's mainly the stripper chems that cause the furring.

Bleach is only needed if the house has mildew growing on it.

Use the search function of this board and you will find answers to the questions you've asked. Welcome to the board, don't be afraid to dig around.

What you're experiencing is typical. Your approach in dealing with it is appropriate. Unfortunately there is no magic bullet to fix all problems. You're right on track !

I have one similar installed on my hot water skid, since due to it's location in my trailer, it's not as easy to change the oil. Works great.

That's cool that it worked out ok. The thing I was concerned was the stripper and chems would weaken the material (string-whatever) that holds the rattan pieces together.

Like Shane says about spraying with his sureflow, that's how I do it too. I like being able to apply exactly the mix I need, and not have to worry about variations or too much dilution using an xjet. Wood restoration requires accurate delivery of chems, and I would also think the results with composite would be better if the chems were accurately delivered. Nice work Shane!

I've never done that, and never heard of anyone stripping ratan. It may be appropriate to perform a test on a less conspicuous are and see how it turns out. My gut feeling is that it may not work well.

While at this past PWNA show, TWP had a booth set up and were promoting a product line called CPR for maintaining composite decks. I asked the rep was basic chems were in the cleaner, and he hemmed and hawed and finally said it was proprietary. I opened a jug and took a little sniff, and it sure smelled somewhat of chlorine, probably some buffered chlorine that has a longer shelf life, with some various detergents. Conveniantly, the rep did not have an MSDS available for me to peruse.

Here is a couple pics of a pressure treated pine fence we did recently. It had a horrible green tint to it, and the wood appeared to be of the lowest quality. We washed and brightened it, then sprayed TWP cedartone via an airless sprayer. The TWP did a fairly good job of hiding the green tint. I would have preferred something a little darker to better hide the green, but this is the color that the customer wanted. Actually this TWP color is the single most popular color for stains that I apply. The fence was only 242 feet, and we did both sides. Probably a chip shot compared to what Shane gets, but I was just happy to get the work this late in the season.

Russ, Yes we washed the fence. It was basically pretty clean, just a little dried mud on the bottom and a few bird droppings here and there. Now I don't normally use this product, but I got a great deal on a few gallons of Wolman deck & fence cleaner, which I xjetted on, then we washed with a #9 tip. Then I xjetted citric acid after it was washed. First thing.....I almost never xjet wood chems, but, this one was far away from anything that could be damaged, and it was so darn big I wasn't going to take all day with my cart sprayer setup. I normally never use retail products, but the fence was in good shape, and I got a great deal on the Wolman product, for around $5 per gallon, so it made economical sense and worked quite well. It took two of us about 2.5 hours to wash, and really, based on the condition, it should have been quicker, but we had to drag out soooo much hose and move the equipment a few times, and we had to walk 242 feet around that bugger several times. Also, I usually don't use the airless to apply oil stain, but I just couldn't resist because it puts enormous amounts of stain on really fast. I think I had a 517 or 515 tip, so the 10" spray pattern was sweet. Trent, On prominent jobs like that one, I always ask permission to leave a yard sign out for a week or so. Most folks are fine with it. These folks said they don't see the sign, leave it there as long as I want. I placed an older sign and will leave it there as long as it stays, or until it falls down.

The underground pipes can be cleaned out using a snake. Often the pipes are 3" pvc that carry the gutter flow out to the street. Snaking and then flushing with a garden hose usually does the trick

This happened just this summer. We showed up at a job site to wash a deck and a fence. While hooking up hoses, we notice several piles of doggy doo-doo right in the area we will be working. Well, I'm about fed up with people who don't clean up those land mines before workers show up. I take a stick, and flick a good size log up onto the narrow sidewalk behind the house leading to their pool, planning to leave it there. In the mean time, the homeowner comes walking outside barefoot to offer us something cold to drink, and yes, she steps right on the now-exposed landmine. She tried to not make a scene, and remain calm, but I knew she stepped in it, and I could see the look on her face that she knew what she stepped in. But she didn't know I had previously flicked the doggy Baby Ruth bar there minutes earlier. That moment it was extremely difficult to keep a straight face, but I think I pulled it off. I'll bet she cleans up the dog pooh more regularly next time.

The fence was approx 2904 s/f counting both sides. That is: 242' long, x 6' high, x 2 for both sides. I sprayed 17 gallons with an airless sprayer, soaked until it dripped off, by myself, in just over 2 hours. So that's about 170 s/f per gallon. That fence was about two months old, so it really was in good shape, not cracked and gnarly. The road you see in front of the fence is actually a road that is behind the homeowners house, and they built that fence because they got tired of the noise of the cars. It's not a well maintained road because it's not used very often, sort of a service road. On old gnarly fences, I expect a coverage rate of about 125 s/f per gallon with TWP.

I've come to think 6gpm would be a great compromise.....good volume without excessive intake requirements.

I'm thinking a draft diverter could be purchased from a supplier who carries the galvanized piping. Maybe even HD or Lowes. Thanks for pointing that out Russ, I'm going to add a diverter to my setup as well.

Thanks for the translation. That's probably a reasonable guestimation, although I've never actually measured it.

It's not an issue of being afraid to use a ladder. The issue is that I don't feel it's safe to operate a pressure washer while up on a ladder, regardless of the height.

2-3 good squirts will do.

Oh I know Steve carries good stuff, I use several of his chemicals. All I'm saying is that the rinse aid may not be necessary for all people, all applications, or maybe even not at all. It's not so much the few pennies it costs, it's just another jug I'd have to lug around in the trailer.