Did a roof clean, house wash, and drive & walkways cleaning job today. Turned out great. Then the lady asked if I wanted to do her fence. 6' high treated wood, cleaned and sealed/stained on both sides, 425', both sides ==850'.
Told her it was going to be expensive, she said she already knew that. GREAT!
i would use a mild sh mix (very weak) and power wash with a 40degree tip. I use sherwin williams deck and fence scapes. I would invest in a sprayer for this project if you do not have one already. Materials are stain=$36-38a gallon and if spraying it will probrably take 15-17 gallons. If you dont have a sprayer=300 at home depot or lowes. hope this helps.
Fence has NOT had anything done to it in about 10 years. It really weathered gray. I hit a small area yesterday with the roof mix and then with my surface cleaner. Did not see a big differnce. Some but not a lot.
Gary, I'd apply a sodium percarbonate cleaner, allow it to dwell for several minutes and pressure wash off with 500-1000PSI. I just don't think you can get really good results using sodium hypochlorite and no pressure on wood, BUT I could be wrong!
__________________
Extreme Cleaning Solutions (410) 980-1053
Phil Rogers
Click Here to View Our Website
Click Here for an Instant Quote
Roof Cleaning and Pressure Washing in Anne Arundel County, and Howard County, Maryland
The sodium percarbonate would be the way to go. Let dwell for 15 min. and wash off with low pressure as Phil suggests. Follow up by downstreaming oxalic acid. The fence will look new when you're done. Let the wood dry for a few days and apply stain of choice. We use Ready Seal because of the easy application, and the fact that its not affected by rain an hour after it's applied. The Armstrong Clark is an excellent product as well. You're probably looking at 15-20 gal of stain as Mike said.
I would use sodium precarb ( 8oz to a gallon in pump up sprayer) add a drop of ammonx to give it some cling, let it stand , but dont let it dry , then rinse with low pressure say 500 psi apply 6 oz of oxlic acid to a gallon using pump up, once you start to see it brighting up , you can rinse , the longer the oxlic sit there the brighter it will get, you can apply oxlic while the fence is still wet , this will neutralize the precarb also , it will look new again
Dave
__________________
Elite Roof Cleaners Roof Cleaning Missouri & Kansas City
I would use sodium precarb ( 8oz to a gallon in pump up sprayer) add a drop of ammonx to give it some cling, let it stand , but dont let it dry , then rinse with low pressure say 500 psi apply 6 oz of oxlic acid to a gallon using pump up, once you start to see it brighting up , you can rinse , the longer the oxlic sit there the brighter it will get, you can apply oxlic while the fence is still wet , this will neutralize the precarb also , it will look new again
Dave
OK, thanks for the help. These mixtures that everyone gave, how bad is the reaction to landscape and grass? Is it as bas as roof mix? How about skin and lungs? Same precautions as SH?
Thanks
Gary
-- Edited by garyw on Saturday 17th of September 2011 10:23:45 AM
Gary, I'd apply a sodium percarbonate cleaner, allow it to dwell for several minutes and pressure wash off with 500-1000PSI. I just don't think you can get really good results using sodium hypochlorite and no pressure on wood, BUT I could be wrong!
Good Post!!
SH damages the top fibers of the wood, a no no. Just grayed wood use percarbonate, no more that 1000 psi and its soo easy!!!! Way diff than a chemical strip with hydroxide, you dont even have to go with the grain! With the wood still wet apply oxalic acid to brighten dwell and rinse. You must rinse if you are going to seal it.
The sodium percarbonate would be the way to go. Let dwell for 15 min. and wash off with low pressure as Phil suggests. Follow up by downstreaming oxalic acid. The fence will look new when you're done. Let the wood dry for a few days and apply stain of choice. We use Ready Seal because of the easy application, and the fact that its not affected by rain an hour after it's applied. The Armstrong Clark is an excellent product as well. You're probably looking at 15-20 gal of stain as Mike said.
you are right Chris! Did a 3k deck bout 2 months ago and it rained about an hour or less after we sprayed! We walked on it too taking the tape and plastic off! Came out perfect! Ready seal rocks! We pushed all the limits!
My suggestion with ready seal is treat it with the same respect you would a harder to apply seal first. Use common sense. Some of the things you read here, like this. dont try it till later. Wood cleaning is diff than everything else. same with sealing.
I been spraying ready seal 2 years now. It's amazing!
Gary, everything I've read shows sodium percarbonate to be safe for landscaping and the msds leads me to believe that inhalation can be irritable, but I've never used a respirator to apply.
__________________
Extreme Cleaning Solutions (410) 980-1053
Phil Rogers
Click Here to View Our Website
Click Here for an Instant Quote
Roof Cleaning and Pressure Washing in Anne Arundel County, and Howard County, Maryland
No wonder you won the job. That price is half of our lowest price to clean it!! Just to help I would price wood to be cleaned and brightened at a minimum of .45 per ft. up to .85 per foot if very grimey. Sealant should start at .95 a foot without buying the sealer up to 1.25 with sealer supplied by us. The funny thing is my prices are lower than most of the painters around me. They would have charged $2+ per ft for the project. So they would have been around 10k. My price would have been 7395 with us buying the sealant and some wiggle room. Now also we always hand apply sealer. Even if you spray it on you are supposed to back brush it, and many people do not. If you do not back brush it, it will fade spotty usually within one year.
If I read that right you are getting 1450 for the staining and cleaning?? That's going to be 2-3 trips. Or did you mean you are getting 4k total?? If so you will get at least 1k a day and that's pretty decent.