12% Bleach

[Jhignutt 14]

Is 12% Bleach what most people refer to as Chlorine, will it burn or melt vinyl siding or vinyl windows if left on for to long, who is the best distributor.

Thanks

[Larry B 55]

I have never had a problem with vinyl siding but I would be careful with windows as they are softer plastic. Most people purchase it form a pool supplier, although Iget mine form my chem supplier.

[Jeff 232]

Vinyl film windows be real careful, when doing house wash with vinyl windows, wet the windows avoid as much as possible getting mix on the windows , it will get on them but rinse fast and keep rinsing, do not let bleach sit on them or you'll own them. Ive done thousands and never had a problem, but I am ALWAYS very careful with them

JL

[steve r 14]

Is 12% Bleach what most people refer to as Chlorine, will it burn or melt vinyl siding or vinyl windows if left on for to long, who is the best distributor.

Thanks

The main word is rinse and rinse as fast as possible .and make sure you keep that glass rinsed at all times .if you dont rinse glass asap it will leave a haze on the glass .so again rinse .it wont melt vinyl .just pre wet everything before you apply 12% and everything around what your washing.RINSE RINSE. it aint these best distibuter its convience and price you get it for by the gallon .i buy 55 gallons once a month .

[Jarrod 22]

I have never washed a house with bleach yet. I guess I'll try it this spring. What soap do you mix with it?

[CCPC 26]

I have never washed a house with bleach yet. I guess I'll try it this spring. What soap do you mix with it?

My question is (because I've never been North of Virginia), do you really need to use bleach for exterior washing as far north as Michigan?

[Mike Williamson 198]

Is 12% Bleach what most people refer to as Chlorine, will it burn or melt vinyl siding or vinyl windows if left on for to long, who is the best distributor.

Thanks

I would think chlorine would be bad for anything, if left on too long. I don't know that it would harm vinyl, but why take a chance. I have heard it will etch windows, but I've never experienced that. Then again, I don't leave it on too long!

Best distributors here are pool supply stores. Another source can be agricultural supply, hardware stores, or cleaning supply companies.

[Mike Williamson 198]

I have never washed a house with bleach yet. I guess I'll try it this spring. What soap do you mix with it?

If you're not trying to remove any form of algae, mildew, moss, or anything else that's living, it won't do a dang thing for housewashing. If you're only removing non-organic dirt, soap and water will work best.

[Jarrod 22]

I've washed some pretty moldy houses up here. They always clean up nice, but, I'm wondering if using bleach would speed things up or not.

[Mike Williamson 198]

I've washed some pretty moldy houses up here. They always clean up nice, but, I'm wondering if using bleach would speed things up or not.

Oh yeah, if you have mold, you'll be absolutely amazed at how easy housewashing just got.

[steve r 14]

I have never washed a house with bleach yet. I guess I'll try it this spring. What soap do you mix with it?

i put dawn with the bleach so it will stick and a little power house and at last a citrus for the smell

[Barry M 73]

Is 12% Bleach what most people refer to as Chlorine, will it burn or melt vinyl siding or vinyl windows if left on for to long, who is the best distributor.

Thanks

We are always glad to help you with any questions, but if you want to speed up your research time you can use the search button to find some of your answers, I use it all the time.

Lance, I live an hour south of Michigan and I run into mold and mildew on houses and roofs all the time. It gets pretty hot and humid here in the spring and summer months. I love those mornings when I walk outside and I can already feel the stickiness in the air............not.

Jarrod, do you use a lot of pressure when cleaning mold and mildew without chlorine? I use 12% in my house wash and the green just melts off, rinse and go baby.

[Adrian 155]

I usu. mix cascade in with my 12.5% mix as it helps reduce film on the glass, and promotes a shine on it as well. .5 cup to each gal of 12.5%. It makes a nice foam that the customer likes to see ( IMHO ) and you can get it with a lemon or citrus scent which reduces the odor of the 12.5%. Plus it does cut the time in half for a house wash if you are dealing with mold and algae buildup. Usually do one side of house at a time. Soak with chems and then rinse alot.

[Xstream Clean 14]

This is a very informative post. We are getting ready to do our first house wash and I was wondering if you guys could give us some different housewash mix recipes. I have done a search already and found a few things that were helpful, but I could not find a specific recipe with amounts and what specific products to use. We were thinking about using some type of car wash due to the rinse agent and wax that is already built in. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks again.

[Larry B 55]

For a rinse aid some put in Jet dry dishwasher rinsing aid to helpwith window streaks. Doesn't take too much and works form what I understand. Car wash soap w/wax works but is pretty costly to add enough to make it work very well.

[CCPC 26]

Car wash soap w/wax works but is pretty costly to add enough to make it work very well.

My thoughts exactly.

When is this housewash? If you have a week before it is scheduled, you can find a lot of good detergents from suppliers on the internet. Forgive me because I'm not trying to be rude, but why would you schedule a housewash before knowing what you plan to use to clean it with?

Most standard housewash mixes will contain some dillution of Bleach, a quality detergent. The mix and ratios can vary greatly depending on what kind of exterior your cleaning, how dirty it is, how you plan to apply your mix, and what your trying to remove.

I use chlorine and Emulifer Plus as my basic house wash and adjust my ratios depending on the factors mentioned above.

[Xstream Clean 14]

Not being rude at all, valid point. We have not scheduled it yet, we have been working with a real estate agent who has a house she wants us to do, but the homeowners have not commited to it yet, so it may not happen. We have a product from EaCo Chem that we can use in a pinch called Cleansol BC. This is not what we want to use long term however, so we are trying to see what actually works and how to mix / apply it. We have two hot water units 3500 psi @ 5.2 GPM. We also have a Corress wand and the M5. We have not had the opportunity to use the extention wand or the x-jet yet, so we're still gathering info and trying to do this the right way to produce a quality job. Our concern is that it sounds like soap, chlorine, a rinse aid, and possibly some wax are the key ingredients to remove dirt, black mold and green algae from siding and even gutters. We just aren't sure how to mix the products. What ratios do you recommend for each for a standard siding job with dirt, mold, and algae? Also, if we are going to x-jet it, what tip do we use on the x-jet? It came with many different ones depending on how much you want to cut the mix. Also, when you are talking about the 12.5% chloring, do you just pull it straight from it's original container as is, or do we dilute it even more? Sorry for all the questions, but thanks again for everyones help.

[Jeff 232]

Not being rude at all, valid point. We have not scheduled it yet, we have been working with a real estate agent who has a house she wants us to do, but the homeowners have not commited to it yet, so it may not happen. We have a product from EaCo Chem that we can use in a pinch called Cleansol BC. This is not what we want to use long term however, so we are trying to see what actually works and how to mix / apply it. We have two hot water units 3500 psi @ 5.2 GPM. We also have a Corress wand and the M5. We have not had the opportunity to use the extention wand or the x-jet yet, so we're still gathering info and trying to do this the right way to produce a quality job. Our concern is that it sounds like soap, chlorine, a rinse aid, and possibly some wax are the key ingredients to remove dirt, black mold and green algae from siding and even gutters. We just aren't sure how to mix the products. What ratios do you recommend for each for a standard siding job with dirt, mold, and algae? Also, if we are going to x-jet it, what tip do we use on the x-jet? It came with many different ones depending on how much you want to cut the mix. Also, when you are talking about the 12.5% chloring, do you just pull it straight from it's original container as is, or do we dilute it even more? Sorry for all the questions, but thanks again for everyones help.

Hey Xstream, house wash mixes can be very basic. Some use 12.5% and a soap. rinse aid & wax other use just 12.5% and soap. Many use inexpensive soaps, Dawn, Tide etc. and other use Soap /surfacterants like Citra clean Barlox or others. They all work

On vinyl houses I use 12^ & Dawn its simple & cheap and the dawn is a rinse aid windowss come out spot free. In a 5 gallon bucket for a machine your size you can mix 2 gallons 12% and sevearl oz's of dawn and the rest of bucket fill with water, you dont have to be exact measurements, this is useing Xjet. If your cleaning mold & mildew and some dirt and maybe some webs , bleach/12% & soap. You can check out RPC product they have soaps, waxes & rinse aids.

The Xjet is how I do all my washing. Those arent tips they are porpotioners for getting different ratios must PWers never use them. You do your ratios as you mix. You dont need the porpotioners(sp). Black streak on gutters use RPC Gutter Shock or other simular product and brush it on.

House wash mixes are easy and to get some experience with your Xjet & machine do your house your families homes. Im telling you your 1st few homes you'll take longer and may be nervous, but really theres nothing to it.

3 steps

Prewet surface area to be cleaned

Xjet house wash mix

Rinse well

Good luck

JL

[Richard Ivy 14]

You're up late, Jeff! I'm about to get dressed...

I am becoming increasingly concerned about throwing up chemicals into the air.

Citic based cleaners, the sort in any kitchen, I can understand, but bleach or oxalic acid? Must be a dangerous thing to do.

[Richard Ivy 14]

You're up late, Jeff! I'm about to get dressed...

I am becoming increasingly concerned about throwing up chemicals into the air.

Citic based cleaners, the sort found in any kitchen, I can understand, but bleach or oxalic acid? Must be a dangerous thing to do.

[Jeff 232]

You're up late, Jeff! I'm about to get dressed...

I am becoming increasingly concerned about throwing up chemicals into the air.

Citic based cleaners, the sort in any kitchen, I can understand, but bleach or oxalic acid? Must be a dangerous thing to do.

Richard Im always up weird hours, its when I do alot of my office work.

As for throwing up chems. You dont need to throw Oxalic, this is something you very rarely need except when doing rusty concrete or wood deck restoration

As for bleach The MAIN thing you have to remember especially as it gets warmer out is that you wet down surrounding areas. WET EVERYTHING, plants shrubs etc. Believe me if you keep things wet and apply chems, then rinse EVERYTHING again you'll be just fine. You dont have to drown everyting just keep it wet then rinse and move to the next area.

If you should spill some of you mix with bleach, just soak the area and you'll be fine

Good luck

JL

[Richard Ivy 14]

Thanks Jeff,

Sleep well (when you get there)

:)

[Xstream Clean 14]

When you are rinsing, how close are you having to get with the gun? With the Cleansol, we were still having to get within three inches of the siding for it to effectively clean / rinse. I'm afraid that using the hot water that close could cause damage.

[Grihm 14]

Hello,

I'm new to pressure washing but have been doing a lot of researching on the subjuct. Regarding bleach most of my research say stay away from bleach period. I went to a chemical store and these folks said that they know quite a few pressure washer using industrial strength bleach. So I bought a 5 gal container. The research states that it will adversely affect the nozzle and pump so I'm planning on using it externally of the pressure washer.

Regarding the closeness of the wand to the surface, namely concrete, I found that with my 3000 psi 2.7 gpm ryobi pressure washer, I need to be at least two inches from the surface to get the desired results. I invested in a rotary nozzle and a wand extension and I'll try these once the weather improves. My next task is my deck and tennis court. You see, I'm testing on my home first before I start soliciting to enhance my business.:lgmoneyey

[Jeff 232]

When you are rinsing, how close are you having to get with the gun? With the Cleansol, we were still having to get within three inches of the siding for it to effectively clean / rinse. I'm afraid that using the hot water that close could cause damage.

Xstream what kinds of home surfaces are you cleaning and what are you cleaning off those surfaces

Your from Alabama so I would think its just mold, mildew and some dirt. You shouldnt have to get closee to any of the house surfaces really that much.

If you use 12.5% or any type of bleach with soap you should just be able to apply chem thru Xjet or Chem injector let chems sit on surface for a couple/few minutes and then sttand back and rinse surfaces flood it from a short distance and you should have a clean surface. In southern states its bascally 1)prewet area 2) apply chems with bleach 3) Rinse well

You dont have to use high pressure and you shouldnt have to be real close to surface to get it clean. If you get close with pressure theres a chance of damaging surface if you arent experienced

If that product your useing isnt working change products

Try 12.5% & some dawn in a 5 gallon bucket If you have a 4 GPM machine or less if Xjetting put 1 to 1 1/2 gallons 12% several oz's of dawn and apply IT WILL CLEAN most home sidings TRY IT

Good luck

JL

[Jeff 232]

Hello,

I'm new to pressure washing but have been doing a lot of researching on the subjuct. Regarding bleach most of my research say stay away from bleach period. I went to a chemical store and these folks said that they know quite a few pressure washer using industrial strength bleach. So I bought a 5 gal container. The research states that it will adversely affect the nozzle and pump so I'm planning on using it externally of the pressure washer.

Regarding the closeness of the wand to the surface, namely concrete, I found that with my 3000 psi 2.7 gpm ryobi pressure washer, I need to be at least two inches from the surface to get the desired results. I invested in a rotary nozzle and a wand extension and I'll try these once the weather improves. My next task is my deck and tennis court. You see, I'm testing on my home first before I start soliciting to enhance my business.:lgmoneyey

If you live in GA. you should be useing bleach type product. It KILLS mold & mildew

Purchase an Xjet and it goes through no parts of your machine or gun & wand. Make sure you tell them what size machine you have so they put the right orifice in it. Its a great tool. Watercannon in Orlando has them at the best prices about $119 to $129 its money well spent

You have a rather small machine but the rotary nozzle will speed things up for you quite abit