Soft Wash House - Formula

[Urshurak776]

Hi all,

I'm looking to use my pressure washer, but using the low flow option, to soft wash my house. One corner of my house gets the nasties.....

Any of you use a DIY formula in the collection tank for this? Curious what others use. There is stuff I can buy at Lowes/Home Depot, but expensive. I'm sure I can do something a little cheaper.

 

[The_Sheriff]

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Wet & Forget Outdoor formula. Spray it on, no scrubbing. Over a period of a week or two the mold, moss, and algae will be gone. It lasts for about a year.
.

 

[Delta]

Are you opposed to using a bleach solution? I use a product called Jomax that you mix with some bleach and the dirt/mold just melts off. Don't need much pressure to rinse it off.

 

[Urshurak776]

Thanks guys, I'll check out those products. I'm good with bleach. I saw a video of a guy that used 1 part bleach, 2 parts water and a few ounces of Dawn dish detergent. May just try that first.

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

If it is vinyl siding about 1/3 jug of bleach in a 2 gal sprayer will melt the biology right off. Rinse thoroughly afterwards. The bleach works on wood too, but you can never get the last 1 ppm of the bleach off and it rusts the nails. Wet and forget is awesome, just not instantaneous. W&F is the same active ingredient disinfectant as Lysol toilet bowl cleaner,401 cleanser, etc. but seems to have something that makes it stick to the surface better.

 

[The_Sheriff]

Thanks guys, I'll check out those products. I'm good with bleach. I saw a video of a guy that used 1 part bleach, 2 parts water and a few ounces of Dawn dish detergent. May just try that first.

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Nothing wrong with doing it that way, but the crud will come back much sooner than if you use the Wet & Forget.
.

 

[walterjay]

I power washed the lower section of the front house off this weekend. Tomorrow I am spraying the upper portion with Wet and Forget. I did the north side of my house last year with W&F and it still looks like new.

 

[opus1]

I've used the Wet & Forget with good results. It can be pricy, but the effects last a long time so that saves me time and money from not having to do do-overs.

 

[Donald]

You really don't want to pressure wash almost any part of a house. Only soft wash with a soft wash pump.

The formula is bleach, water and a surfactant. Some use strong bleach from a pool supply company.

Typically you use a big barrel like a 55 gal drum. Mix up the products and pump it out of the drum.

Carefully cover any outdoor outlets.

 

[mr_boring]

Hit up walmart and see if they still have pool chlorine in stock. My app shows Indian Land does have it in stock for 6 bucks - but who knows.

That Costco out there is going up quick - I went by it today.

The mix you are using is what I use.

 

[Urshurak776]

Hit up walmart and see if they still have pool chlorine in stock. My app shows Indian Land does have it in stock for 6 bucks - but who knows.

That Costco out there is going up quick - I went by it today.

The mix you are using is what I use.

View attachment 297484

Thanks! Yeah, my family is all excited about the Whataburger that just opened. Looking forward to the Costco and Target opening.

 

[Lubener]

I wash my siding every summer. I use car wash in my applicating sprayer on a garden hose with a little bleach added. On stubborn spots, a long handled floor brush does the trick. Works for me.

 

[Starving Electrician]

A garden sprayer with a 1/4 bleach 3/4 water mix. Spray it on let iy sit rinse it off. You dont even have to run your pressure washer unless you just want to which I totally get.

 

[Starving Electrician]

Hit up walmart and see if they still have pool chlorine in stock. My app shows Indian Land does have it in stock for 6 bucks - but who knows.

That Costco out there is going up quick - I went by it today.

The mix you are using is what I use.

View attachment 297484

This is exactly what I use bleach is just sodium hypochrlorite. Chlorinating liquid is just a more concentrated sodium hypochlorite solution. I dont even buy household bleach anymore I just dilute chlorinating liquid.

 

[vwmaniaman]

I have been using Mold Armor. It seems to work good for me. I did our house and garage it the time it took for my wife to do our grocery shopping. That was about 2.5 hours. I put it on and let it sit on the surface for about 10 minutes and I use a long poled brush on stubborn spots and rinse it off with their nozzle on the rinse setting. She was very surprised.

 

[alarmguy]

^^^ Mold Armor works great. Did my house with it in the spring. This is the first time I used the product exclusively because I got lazy. I used 5 or 6 bottles but was worth it. I saved the empty spray bottles and here is why.

I always used to reuse the spray bottle by simply filling it up with bleach and spraying the house. Works just as good. It's just this one time I decided to treat myself because all I see in my community is people pay companies to power wash. Since I do my own I spent the $50 or so on the bottles above and not bother refilling them with bleach.

I saved the bottles and next time I will buy a few gallons of off brand Clorox bleach, fill them up and spray. The bleach mixing with water does not kills the shrubs and plants when the water runs off the siding on the two homes I have used it.

By the way, I dont trust power washers maybe more so the commercial ones. Sometimes they can damage thermopane glass and break the seals if they flex the glass enough when being blasted. Something you will never notice until a cold day when moisture shows up in-between the glass. On top of that you can never prove the power washer did it. My fears might be overblown, however it does happen.

 

[kballowe]

Are you opposed to using a bleach solution? I use a product called Jomax that you mix with some bleach and the dirt/mold just melts off. Don't need much pressure to rinse it off.

This is the best ! Even the black mold on white gutters just disappears.
I just use a pump-up sprayer and a light rinse with a garden hose afterwards.

 

[Pablo]

This is some kind of polymer siding?

 

[Urshurak776]

Just Vinyl siding.

 

[mr_boring]

Thanks! Yeah, my family is all excited about the Whataburger that just opened. Looking forward to the Costco and Target opening.

I noticed today that there is a Lowes Foods going up next to Costco. There's Whataburger in Columbia, but I've never stopped at one - the one I ate at in El Paso was very disappointing. In Columbia if I want something quick and greasy it's usually Rally's, even though it lets me down most of the time. 20 years ago I would drive an extra 20 miles just for Rally's/Checkers for the fries alone.

They all let me down nowadays though to be honest.

Lowes has GREAT store brand in house made sausage. I make my own sausage and still give props to Lowes. It's a lot like Publix/HT, in that it's extra extra pricey unless it's on sale.