# Fence Cleaning



## ReNt A PaInTeR (Dec 28, 2008)

Is there a single product that could clean this fence. Something that I can just spray and rinse by pressure washing?


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

Bleach.


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## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

Check here.

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/...-stain-prep-products#piSheen=316&advs=0&tab=3


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

Bleach.


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## PeintureLavergne.com (Dec 17, 2011)

How would you not kill the grass with the bleach?


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## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

PeintureLavergne.com said:


> How would you not kill the grass with the bleach?


Spray tons of water on the ground before using bleach.


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## Workaholic (Apr 17, 2007)

PeintureLavergne.com said:


> How would you not kill the grass with the bleach?


Looks like weeds to me. 

I am a bleach guy as well.

Is it just discolored or is there something on it? Hard to tell from the pics.


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## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

Workaholic said:


> Looks like weeds to me.
> 
> I am a bleach guy as well.
> 
> Is it just discolored or is there something on it? Hard to tell from the pics.


I like the idea of me not having any grass at my place, isn't grass a weed anyways?


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## ReNt A PaInTeR (Dec 28, 2008)

Workaholic said:


> Looks like weeds to me.
> 
> I am a bleach guy as well.
> 
> Is it just discolored or is there something on it? Hard to tell from the pics.


It's been stained twice


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## Workaholic (Apr 17, 2007)

ReNt A PaInTeR said:


> It's been stained twice


That is what it looks like. 

What are you putting on it?


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## ReNt A PaInTeR (Dec 28, 2008)

Workaholic said:


> That is what it looks like.
> 
> What are you putting on it?


They want a semi transparent in natural. I might go with ready seal.


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

PeintureLavergne.com said:


> How would you not kill the grass with the bleach?


experience.


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## Dave Mac (May 4, 2007)

I prefer to use a mixture of h2o and sodium hydrochlorite


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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

PeintureLavergne.com said:


> How would you not kill the grass with the bleach?


Use a weak mixture. Mostly water. IMO spraying straight bleach on anything is never a good idea. I think these guys are f$$$ing with ya


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## Ultimate (Mar 20, 2011)

Cleaning both sides of it? The neighbor might not want his side bleached.


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## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

My old next door neighbor asked me a few years ago to powerwash his fence, I said this wekend, I decided to measure my back yard and found out his fence was 10' on my property, I decided I didn't want a fence in my yard and took a chain saw and cut it down, stacked it for him on his property and when he got home he asked what happened, I told him how far on my property he had his fence, he then got really mad so I asked him if he still wanted me to powerwash it, I said I can use bleach or a deck cleaner just let me know. Long story short we have a fence commitee in the town I lived in and he called them, they came over and issued him a ticket for putting the fence on my property and not calling them to get approval for the fence. I didn't end up washing it. But damn was that fun.


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## ExcelPaintingCo (Apr 16, 2011)

I would use a weak mixture of sodium hydroxide, pressure wash, weak acid brightener, rinse.....it will look like new.


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## Ultimate (Mar 20, 2011)

cdpainting said:


> My old next door neighbor asked me a few years ago to powerwash his fence, I said this wekend, I decided to measure my back yard and found out his fence was 10' on my property, I decided I didn't want a fence in my yard and took a chain saw and cut it down, stacked it for him on his property and when he got home he asked what happened, I told him how far on my property he had his fence, he then got really mad so I asked him if he still wanted me to powerwash it, I said I can use bleach or a deck cleaner just let me know. Long story short we have a fence commitee in the town I lived in and he called them, they came over and issued him a ticket for putting the fence on my property and not calling them to get approval for the fence. I didn't end up washing it. But damn was that fun.


Thank you for that story.


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## Stonehampaintdept (Jan 10, 2013)

Storm Cleaners have an array of cleaners for different purposes.
http://www.stormsystem.com/products/prep-maintenance/


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## Paradigmzz (May 5, 2010)

In response to those who are concerned your going to kill the grass... your pressure washing directly after. Relax. Your not going to slop the bleach on. Unless you slop the bleach on.then your just an idiot.




+1 for bleach.


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## Paradigmzz (May 5, 2010)

cdpainting said:


> My old next door neighbor asked me a few years ago to powerwash his fence, I said this wekend, I decided to measure my back yard and found out his fence was 10' on my property, I decided I didn't want a fence in my yard and took a chain saw and cut it down, stacked it for him on his property and when he got home he asked what happened, I told him how far on my property he had his fence, he then got really mad so I asked him if he still wanted me to powerwash it, I said I can use bleach or a deck cleaner just let me know. Long story short we have a fence commitee in the town I lived in and he called them, they came over and issued him a ticket for putting the fence on my property and not calling them to get approval for the fence. I didn't end up washing it. But damn was that fun.


I would have done the work, gotten paid and then cut it down. ..


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## propainterJ (Jan 31, 2011)

Pressure washer,oaxolic acid in a hudson sprayer,stiff nylon brush pressure wash off

easy

I used a product from flood last week,fence looked way worse than that was all gray and black

Rinsed it,put the cleaner in a bucket of water 4 to 1

Dipped my scrub brush,scrubbed the wood,let sit,it was very small,wet it some more,scrubbed a lil more,after 20 mins rinsed it off,all the gray came out,fence looked like brand new wood

I got the crap at HD,cost 20 bucks for 1 gl


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

propainterJ said:


> Pressure washer,oaxolic acid in a hudson sprayer,stiff nylon brush pressure wash off
> 
> easy
> 
> ...


I don't knock anyone's technique as there are many ways to get a job accomplished with good results. I do want to comment on this technique though in terms of cost to customer or profit. Oxalic works but it does not do a good job of killing mold. Mold is the biggest finish killer. Manually brushing a fence is labor intensive. Finally, $20 a gallon for oxalic acid is a complete ripoff. Buying a good powder (with the necessary surfactants) such as this one: http://www.pressuretek.com/f8nubr.html for $40 shipped to your door will yield 20 gallons of a concentrate you can then dilute. 

While you are pumping up a sprayer, brushing and using up expensive chemicals, someone else has a downstreamer in a bucket of chemical applying cleaner at 5 gallons per minute coating as fast as they can walk, killing mold, and possibly stripping for re-stain if that is the desired outcome. Again not a knock to anyone, just sharing another of getting something like this done more efficiently and cost effectively.


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## propainterJ (Jan 31, 2011)

Excuse my ignorance,but what's a "downstreamer"?

Do you have chemicals that I could put in a PressureWasher that would strip,say,Penofin,off a Log Home?

I need a pressure washer injectable that will spray the chems on not stream it


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## Alltimate Painting (Mar 2, 2012)

PressurePros said:


> I don't knock anyone's technique as there are many ways to get a job accomplished with good results. I do want to comment on this technique though in terms of cost to customer or profit. Oxalic works but it does not do a good job of killing mold. Mold is the biggest finish killer. Manually brushing a fence is labor intensive. Finally, $20 a gallon for oxalic acid is a complete ripoff. Buying a good powder (with the necessary surfactants) such as this one: http://www.pressuretek.com/f8nubr.html for $40 shipped to your door will yield 20 gallons of a concentrate you can then dilute.
> 
> While you are pumping up a sprayer, brushing and using up expensive chemicals, someone else has a downstreamer in a bucket of chemical applying cleaner at 5 gallons per minute coating as fast as they can walk, killing mold, and possibly stripping for re-stain if that is the desired outcome. Again not a knock to anyone, just sharing another of getting something like this done more efficiently and cost effectively.


I'd say if you want to just apply one chem then mix bleach (12%), water and some tsp. 3 parts water to 2 parts bleach and a cup of tsp. I'd have to apply this mix which a shurflo pump...i'd be curious to know how you'd downstream a bleach mix ken? My thoughts were the 8-1 downstream would dilute the bleach mix too much.

Typically I would probably go with a two part system downstreaming a light SH mix followed with a oxalic/citric brightener. Downstreaming is much faster then any other method of application and like ken said scrubbing with a nylon brush wouldn't be efficient nor would it do a better job.


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

propainterJ said:


> Excuse my ignorance,but what's a "downstreamer"?
> 
> Do you have chemicals that I could put in a PressureWasher that would strip,say,Penofin,off a Log Home?
> 
> I need a pressure washer injectable that will spray the chems on not stream it


A downstreamer is a device that will draw chemicals into your washing line (after the pump). Chemicals will get diluted anywhere from 8:1-14:1 depending on the downstreamer and your machine's flow rate.


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

Alltimate Painting said:


> I'd say if you want to just apply one chem then mix bleach (12%), water and some tsp. 3 parts water to 2 parts bleach and a cup of tsp. I'd have to apply this mix which a shurflo pump...i'd be curious to know how you'd downstream a bleach mix ken? My thoughts were the 8-1 downstream would dilute the bleach mix too much.


It does depend on how much mold is present. With fresh 12% and a detergent builder such as sodium metasilicate along with using undersized injectors (2-3 gpm), you can get a strong enough mix to do most jobs.


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## ReNt A PaInTeR (Dec 28, 2008)

I finally got time to clean the fence even though it was raining all day until I finished.


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## Jmayspaint (Mar 26, 2013)

ReNt A PaInTeR said:


> I finally got time to clean the fence even though it was raining all day until I finished.


So what chem did you use? The oxygen stuff? Looks like it worked good.


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## 1camper (Feb 17, 2013)

Bleach won't remove that stain, I'd try to sell them on a solid color. Fences are a hard sell. They have a lot of surface and usually look like that before they get done. When you wait that long, they soak up a lot of material. If folks would do them when they were new they'd be cheaper.


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## ReNt A PaInTeR (Dec 28, 2008)

Yes, I'm happy with the results. I don't need a stripper. It removed the old stain


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

Sodium percarbonate will strip older stains, especially oil based ones.


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## KD PAINTING (Nov 8, 2012)

Agree, bleach would work well.
Good Luck!


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