I ds'ed my first moldy house today

[Jarrod 22]

Today I downstreamed my first moldy house. Usually I X-Jet but I wanna switch to ds’ing. My mix was 4 gal. Of 14% bleach, and 1 gallon of soap. It was 68 degrees today.

I was a bit disappointed with the killing power of the mix. It didn’t seem to kill the mold nearly as easily as X-Jetting. The mold stayed green and was harder to rinse off. I think I waited 5 minutes b4 I rinsed. I never really timed the dwell time. For a 1700 sq. ft. house, I used about 2.5 gallons of mix.

The house turned out fine, but I was expecting the mold to die a horrible death much faster & easier.

How can I fix this? Is this normal?

Thanks for the help.

[Don M. 14]

Scott, its other issues besides the chlorine. Besides, 99.9 PWashers use chlorine to clean on the outside. Very few of us do any mold remidation on the inside.

[GymRat 14]

John, thats much more likely to happen using an X-Jet. If you you use a good soap (with the right surfactants) it rarely will dry.

I think part of Jarrod's problem is his soap. E-plus is not a great product. It dries very quickly and I found it to be an inferior housewash. The guys that swear by it always are X-Jetters. Downstreaming will let you know if you have the right mix and product.

I use citracleen, which I believe to be a higher end house cleaner. I will only soap 2 sides if the house has only a few windows on those sides and the sun is not directly hitting either side. I'm scared to make a mess of the customers windows and have to spend twice the time coming back and correcting my mistake. Of course this all depends on the temperature also.

[plainpainter 217]

Jarrod - if you don't mind mixing your own housewash - go to the The Chemistry Store.com - Serving The Hobbyist, Student, School and Industry. And purchase TSP and Nonylphenol - with those two ingredients along with bleach - you can make a fine housewash. Or buy Bob's cherry soap. I have been doing ok with my 0.6% bleach hitting the side of a house - although I need to upgrade from 6% to 12% bleach through my downstreamer - I think it goes to show that with good surfactants and detergent builders - very little bleach will get the job done. I just want a little more bleach, so I don' have to scrub as much - as well - I have a low volume machine, so my rinsing ability sucks as well.

[douseahouse 21]

hey gym,

are you getting the citracleen from steve? i'd love to try it but from i can tell on his site it only comes in liquid form. is this correct? liquid anything costs extra to ship.

rando

[GymRat 14]

I have bought citracleen from Steve and from Sunbrite, and really can't tell the difference in products. It comes in a 55 gallon drum kit from both suppliers, and you add water to the mix to make the 55 gallons, which minimizes the shipping.

[PressurePros 248]

Dan, you want to really make your housewash work? Add sodium metasilicate. If you look at it on a molecular level you wil understand why it has a "scrubbing" type of effect. Its excellent for lifting away the pollen that the mold is bonding to on siding. Rinsing is much easier.

[Don M. 14]

I always rinse the windows, soap up everything, then rinse just the windows again and move on to the other side of the house. I do the same there then come back to the first side and rinse everything again.

Jarrod, I know this doesnt fit into your business model, but picture 2 guys washing with 2 5.6 machines. Each guy soaps up their two sides, then they change sides on the rinse. I bet that would be fast.

[PressurePros 248]

Don, that's exactly what I'm working on.

Edit: Starting new thread.

[mas3372 14]

I tried E plus at first because of the great price and etched the heck out of all my house windows no the front and my truck and wife's car. The sun was hot and the soap dried in about 3 minutes, before I even finished soaping up. Never again.

I then tried the citrus cleaner from sunbrite and was very happy but got fed up with filling pails after mixing a batch in a drum which took forever.

I know use Bob's simple cherry which is great because it is just the powder and it works great. I think the citrus cleaner has a slight edge on aluminum fascia and trim but not enough to go through the hassel of mixing drum and filling jugs.

But one thing I am certain about, E plus is not worth the headaches. A little overspray on a car and not reallizing it, will result in ethcing the windows and clear coat. Trust me.

[PressurePros 248]

I have had the same experience, Mike and was told I mixed too strong. I diluted it further and it became equivalent to dish soap in cleaning power. At that point I used up the rest of it cleaning concrete at full strength.

[douseahouse 21]

crap! i just ordered 5lbs of e-plus. i was wanting to try it out so i didn't stick my neck out too far. i'm still awaiting some feedback on the limonene if anyone has tried it. i also order the 5lbs of ripper to give it a shot. i'll keep you posted on that one too. (ripper cleans the streaks off gutters)and one more thing...i just cleaned a sidewalk at the local and best seafood place in town. there was alot of rust on his freezer pad so i hit it with the oxalic. holy cow! that stuff works and works fast! i came home and ordered another 7 lb bucket for about 13 bucks from the chemistry store. unfortunately i had to pay $9 shipping and another $2.5 for handling. anyone using a generic at a more reasonable cost?

rando

for sale: 5lb bag of e-plus

[PressurePros 248]

Randy, give it an honest shot. For every Ken and Mike I am sure there are ten guys that swear by it.

[Jarrod 22]

E Plus rocks! You have to remember to pre-wet the windows, apply soap, rinse windows, then rinse siding and windows.

[plainpainter 217]

Ken, so you think sodium metasilicate will help the tsp/bleach mix? I feel more experimentation along the way - I thought sodium metasilicate and tsp did similar things - although the meta buffered against metal oxidising. I wonder what amounts I should play with at first. You have any literature I can read that talks about the molecular level? I know when I add it to lye - it really heats up the mixture and makes it rock for stripping.