Can Someone Tell Me What Happened?

[Aaron Sullivan 14]

i am getting pictures to post, but am so befuddled as to what has happened today at a housewash, that i must ask now.

it is a two to three story, painted hardi-plank home. three sides of the house went great. we get to the last side and pre-rinse, apply house wash, let sit for 10 minutes or so, and rinse. as we rinse, the paint rinses off as well. not flaking, peeling, or shipping. rinsing!

i checked all the chems to make sure a mistake wasn't made. all good. question my guys on what exactly they did. all is good. we have done 100's of houses and this has never happened.

i took a rag with the house wash on it (not even diluted as the xjet would) and applied it to another section of the house. let it sit for several minutes and rinsed it off. nothing.

the only think i can think is oxidation. i asked the customer and he said it was painted two years ago, and seven before that. it is the side that gets sun all day also.

could this be the issue? could the painter not have prepped the house right? what liability should i take?

i feel like it is kind of my fault, but it appears there is something else going on.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

[John Doherty 126]

Aaron I think you've already got the answer, sounds like the uv exposure caused the oxidation.

As far as fault goes, who are you going to blame, the sun?

We all hate to do jobs where we don't make money, or even lose money, but sometimes you have to take it in the shorts.

You really have to paint that side of the house for this guy.

The action you take here will define you and your company.

[Doug Dahlke 114]

Aaron I think you've already got the answer, sounds like the uv exposure caused the oxidation.

As far as fault goes, who are you going to blame, the sun?

We all hate to do jobs where we don't make money, or even lose money, but sometimes you have to take it in the shorts.

You really have to paint that side of the house for this guy.

The action you take here will define you and your company.

Sounds like good advice to me. Sorry things went wrong for you on that one.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Aaron I think you've already got the answer, sounds like the uv exposure caused the oxidation.

As far as fault goes, who are you going to blame, the sun?

We all hate to do jobs where we don't make money, or even lose money, but sometimes you have to take it in the shorts.

You really have to paint that side of the house for this guy.

The action you take here will define you and your company.

Agreed.

He may be willing to pay for materials, depends on how he feels and what he believes about how the past has played into this. I would be prepared to do the side.

Beth

[814jeffw 71]

This is when it's nice to have a friend in the painting business. This stuff happens here and there. I did a job last year where I was cleaning the fascia, and where two pieces came together, one held up great and the other, directly next to it went to silver aluminum. Never figured that out, as it has actually happened a handful times in 11 years. I guess it's where the roll of aluminum was changed, I don't know. But it is easier to just get it painted and move on. The only thing you can really do to prevent having to re-do paint is evaluate the work the best you can before hand and alert the customer as to what the possible outcome could be. Then it's acknowledged that paint may come off and you're not liable anymore. BUT there is always gonna be that situation here and there, just like I experienced with the example I put up. There's no shame in having to re-paint something, the shame would be to argue with the customer that it wasn't your fault.

Jeff

[Aaron Sullivan 14]

i certainly agree with what everyone has to say. sometimes i feel like a push over, and question whether i am taking to right road or the easy road.

thank you everyone.

the good news is that we wash houses for several painters. hopefully, i can get some help on this one.

thanks again,

[MudDuck 20]

I would concider myself lucky that it was only one side so you might break even $ redoing the one side. Also I would try to salvage it as a "publicity" deal where the guy will tell everyone what a stand up guy you are for just doing the "right" thing. (remember just one side, not too expensive) Could have been the first side forcing a "STOP" resulting in "no pay". Or the whole house which would be tuff to swallow.

[Rick2 42]

This might work out in your favor. Trur, you should have that side of the house painted but think about what the home owner is going to tell his friends about you. Sounds loke a good shot at advertising to me.

[MMI Enterprises 289]

Yes ya may want to repaint for pr sake and perhaps in case there was no fair warning on your part BUT.... Devils advocate in me says there is entirely too much sheep baaahing going on here.

This is not your fault that it happened but only yer fault that you didn't see it coming or gave disclaimer.

A properly done 2 year old paint job will not just rinse off from 10 minute of housewash whether sunny side or shady side. It isn't even a thing of prep neither since you say no chip or flake. It is straight up inferior product not meant for exterior or extremely thin coating causing this problem and you are but the victim in an ugly course of events.

There always has to be a common sense dialogue and understanding between parties and the customer in the act of letting you clean something with a known process.. needs to be allowance and willingness to take the understanding that stuff (coatings in this case) DOES NOT last forever. In the end it is their crappy product that they own that is either normal compared to everyone elses or it isn't..in this case it basically done and ready for new product.

My dislaimer straight up puts the ball in customers court by their taking the responsability that THEIR surface can handle the active cleaning described.

In your case it could have been that the customer paid you to apply a bleach/surfactant solution and to rinse their below average crappy surface and there is no issue....But back to reality.., if ya got no disclaimer, or didn't word job description correctly, or went into job without discussing possable outcomes yer gonna be painting a house to save face and rightly so and you own it. (the situation).. :)