how should i deal with oxidation on houses?

[dave 14]

we dont have many vinyl houses where i am but a lot of painted timber weatherboards i assume the oxidation of the paint is similar. on a job recently which was painted boards light grey type paint. The boards appeared darker in most areas, as i began to wash what i thought was just ingrained dirt, some areas came back to the light grey others did not. After showing the customer a completed area she said that she thought that all the darker areas would be removed. I explained that i performed a low pressure wash and that to remove the darker areas i would either have to increase the pressure and risk some possiple paint damage, or brush the whole house. (not an option as some areas were over 20 ft high) She told me to increase the pressure and try to even out the siding. anyway i ended up doing as the cuustomer wanted most of the house came out good except one wall very patchy. Bad news is the job took twice as long as i estimated. do you charge extra for oxidation removal? if so how much more campared to your standard wash? how do you explain this to home owners that dont know what oxidation even is? sorry for the long post.

[Jarrod 22]

brush the whole thing. That's the only way.

[john@AEC 37]

G'day Dave (if you thought you post was long, you should read this reply!)

I live in the sub-tropics and all nearly all my houses are painted (acrylic) weatherboard or champherboard (sp?) which has some (or a lot of) oxidation. Comparing it to leaving a car in sun for years and seeing the faded paint which needs polishing helps.

I've got into the habit of telling people the worst - lots of oxidation and it will need to be brushed/hand washed. If it's an over the phone quote I ask the home owner to check if there is any white powder on their fingers if they rub them over the paint, or if I'm there I check in several places around the house and show the owner the white powder amongst the other dirt and mould. The exception is the house that is so covered in mould that the paint hasn't had any sun/oxygen to break it down.

But how to get it off.... as Jarrod says - you need a brush, a soft long bristle brush and a long pole (I have a painters extendable pole - about 4m) and a large ladder. It can be a long, slow, back breaking job but it's the only way to get it off (of course now that I've said that there will be lots who have an easier way.... ). Brushing the paint is like polishing the car, only a physical rubbing will do it. This is the same for a colorbond steel roof, high pressure water will get some of the oxidation of but not all.

I'm not game to use high pressure as I'm too worried about damaging the paint and shooting water up between the boards which usually have gaps between them because of warping over the years (many of my houses are over 30 years old and not very well kept, some are 80 to 100 years old).

Use the same house wash mixture you would normally use and rinse as you normally would.

I've lost more than a few jobs explaining that it will take a full day to hand wash - to remove the oxidation - but as always, some people care about their home and others don't.

Now, what was your question...?

Should you charge more? of course! how much more? if it takes twice as long, then twice as much is a good start. May be a bit less as there's less driving around, only one quote etc.

Cheers

John

[dave 14]

hi john, thanks for the reply i thought there may have been a quicker way than brushing lol. most customers nearly faint when i give them a price for hand washing. nice to hear from another aussie cheers.

[plainpainter 217]

I'm a painter - so I typically scrub every sq. inch of house when I pressure wash. That's just how I was taught to do things. But 90% of the time I am getting a house ready to paint - so I need to degloss the old paint with lots of scrubbing + TSP + bleach + high pressure to knock as much paint as possible so as to reduce scraping. I am new to maintenance cleanings - whole new ball game. I am charging about $500 - $600 to do a 2000 sq. ft. home. And yes we get up on ladders, climb around roofs - the whole nine yards.

-Dan