# Cleaning Tropical Hardwood



## doctors11 (May 17, 2010)

Last year I reboarded an older deck with Tigerwood. The customer decided to not stain it and let it weather to a silver grey. They called me the other day and said it has a fair amount of mold/mildew on it and can I put them on my schedule for cleaning. They then asked if my cleaning will bring back the color to the wood or will it remain silver grey...they prefer the latter, if possible. 

I typically use the bleach, water and a squirt of Dawn to clean but I'm concerned about the possible color change. 

Any thoughts?


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## PressurePros (May 6, 2007)

If you take the mold off with pressure, you'll take the patina/gray with it. Option:

1. Brush on a weak bleach solution (about 2% sodium hypochlorite in the bucket which is two gallons of household bleach in a five gallon bucket with water and a little soap to fill) and wash it with very low pressure. (500 psi or less). That will probably clean off some of the gray, but the wood underneath will be slightly bleached out and will silver again by mid summer.

2. Clean it back to fresh wood by using same amount of bleach but also adding some stripper (sodium hydroxide) to darken the wood so it doesn't look bone white when dry. 1000 psi. 

3. Use a sodium percarbonate cleaner which is more labor intensive and will give similar results to number one or two.


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## doctors11 (May 17, 2010)

Thanks Ken. I'll probably do 1 and just explain that it will lose some of the patina but it will return before long.

When's that book coming out you're supposed to be writing?...:yes:


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## RaleighPainter (Jun 13, 2011)

They realize this is going to be every year unless the wood is treated right?


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