Taginator on silicone?

[John Orr 206]

I had a house wash the other day, solid stain on T-111, which looked pretty good. Decks around 2/3 of the house that were recently rebuilt and coated with Behr Semi w/silicone. (1 yr old, most of the decks look REALLY bad.) There is a second floor balcony that was abused instead of stained, with a large amount of overspray on the T-111 as well as about a gallon spilled on a plastic shed below. I applied a hot sodium hydroxide in one area of the shed and sprayed some Taginator on another area. The SH didn't touch it, but the Taginator removed almost all with the first application.

Questions: Could i try this on the T-111? Is Potassium Hydroxide (Taginator) a better silicon stripper? Any special precautions when using PH? If PH is the best choice, where to buy in larger quantities?

[RPetry 564]

John,

We used EacoChem's Stripper Cream for the first time last month. This is a combination of potassium hydroxide (KOH) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH).

The stripper cream is extremely caustic, almost dangerously so. It effectively removed 95% of an intact solid latex stain with a primer (presumably oil) in one pass, as well as a alkyd solid stain covered with Behr's semi trans natural w/silicone.

I think the KOH made the difference as a very hot "boosted" sodium hydoxide would not touch the latex-primer, and was only effective on the alkyd-silicone areas of the floor that were already failing.

I would be cautious as KOH may well remove the underlying solid stain on the T-111.

[MMI Enterprises 289]

Strength of caustic alone has much to do with either of these working. Has to be enough heat so to speak for whatever given quantity of solid it is to go through or rather kick over if you will. With taginator it is the glycol boost that helps it to get in synthetics and kick things over to an emulsified makeup. Potassium works a tad different on some things compared to the sodium. Wish I knew more...I just know it makes grease/glycerin runnier and is used extensively in acrylic floor strippers along with boosters for a reason. Some guys that have used sodium for cleaning up WVO find the potassium better. Should also translate well for KEC guys getting through multiple layers of grease and carbon.