# Pre Stain house wash



## tsunamicontract (May 3, 2008)

What are you using to wash cedar siding stained with semi trans prior to restaining? Wood brightener? Jomax and Bleach? TSP and Bleach? I would think something a little acidic would be good to help reduce future mold and mildew.


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## vermontpainter (Dec 24, 2007)

Tsu

Whats the condition? Weathered? Gray? Mildew? Water stained? How many years old? Oil or wb? Are you staying with semi trans or moving up to ss? wb oir oil on the new coat? Every situation is a little different. I have a couple of ideas once you fill in the details.


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## tsunamicontract (May 3, 2008)

Oil based Semi trans in poor, weathered shape. Mold/mildew. Staying oil semi trans. some is about 10 years old, some is younger, some is newer, most of it is in bad, neglected shape.

oh, i forgot about Dawn to wash it . . .


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## vermontpainter (Dec 24, 2007)

tsunamicontract said:


> Oil based Semi trans in poor, weathered shape. Mold/mildew. Staying oil semi trans. some is about 10 years old, some is younger, some is newer, most of it is in bad, neglected shape.
> 
> oh, i forgot about Dawn to wash it . . .


In those circumstances, especially with the old/new factor, I would strongly recommend upgrading to a semi solid. Is it rough out?


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

Did you already bid the project? If this were my project I would use a downstreamable stripper, coat the entire house being careful of windows (pre-wet). Using the dreaded extension wand or scaffolding I would then wash the house top to bottom with 800 psi. Follow that with an acid (which will not kill mold) to pH balance and brighten. That's the right way to do it but not the only way. You could also X-Jet a strong bleach and surfactant mix and just stain over whats there. No brightening necessary. it won't leave the same perfect, non blotchy finish but it would probably look good enough if the money isn't in the project for procedure A.


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## MNpainter (Jul 17, 2008)

I do these types of houses all summer , used to us bleach but am having great results with BM Restore and their Brightener. Really tough and ugly previous stain can be stripped with the Remove. 
Goes without saying, all in conjunction with a PW. Ready for Semi trans stain or whatever. good luck . steve


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## clammer (Feb 13, 2009)

MNpainter said:


> I BM Restore and their Brightener. Really tough and ugly previous stain can be stripped with the Remove.
> Goes without saying, all in conjunction with a PW. Ready for Semi trans stain or whatever. good luck . steve


 
Just finished a project like yours using these bm products.I found using a scrub brush with a light pressurewash worked best


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## tsunamicontract (May 3, 2008)

All great info here guys. Let me clarify: I do these types of projects not infrequently (a couple a summer), just wondering if there was a better or "righter" way. Ken, there is not money to strip and the siding is in too bad of shape for this method in many areas. It sounds like I should bleach/jomax first and wood brighten after. I found lots of odds and ends of stripper and brightener in the garage that I will bring along. I have from pressureTek the wild cherry, f13, and the wood brightener. Would wild cherry be a good housewash instead of bleach/jomax? Is it more for vinyl and alum. siding? I plan on downstreaming all house washing chems, pump sprayer for stripping the deck.


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## tsunamicontract (May 3, 2008)

Scott, most of it is rough out. Its T and G though and a bunch of it has shrunk so much the t has pulled out of the G's. Some of it is smooth out? Not sure on that one . . .
Siding replacement is in the future but they wanted to replace the windows this year with the tax credit. Not looking for a perfect surface. Like I said, from reading what was posted seems like wash followed by brighten sounds like a pretty good system.


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## tsunamicontract (May 3, 2008)

btw, this should probably be moved to PW thread. 
Have you ever come across mold and mildew so bad on rough cedar and PT deck that bleach wouldn't do it? I had to put straight bleach on the house to get this stuff off. I can't do that in a timely fashion. I am going to have to run in and get some straight chlorine tomorrow to finish the washing. It was a really frustrating day. I have never had this happen to me before.


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