Practicing soft washing on our house using a 13hp honda 4 gallon per minute 3500 psi. We used typical solution of 12.5% and SC downstreaming meathod. Let dwell for 5 minutes and rinse. Worked really well but afterwards we were getting quite noticible light brown colored runs from weep holes…even weep holes at the bottom of the siding. Not sure if anyone has had this happen and if there is a technique that Im missing or should add to prevent this. I have a VERY large house to do soon and several others lined up. Just want to nip this in the bud so I dont have any ongoing issue or so I dont have to hand scrub all of these spots.
It is typical. Water getting behind the siding & mixing with dirt & rust from nails. Solution to it. Try standing further away from while rinsing, and stand at an angle following the seams of the siding while rinsing. They are a pita to get rid of. When it happens to me I let it dry & wipe it away with a damp rag . Hope this helps
WCR has a hand-out for “Common PW problems” and this covered in it. Phrased like, “After we leave, you might notice brown streaks - they’re from [^see above^]. It’s fine, you can hose it off at your convenience.”
Some may not like that. I do know that when I do gutters and if gutter slop is left to dry on the face of the gutter, the dirt is tough to remove. If they’re large customers, you can always promise a followup visit a week later to see how it turned out and show your face again.
Ok thanks for the replies! I believe we followed the correct overlap of seems, ect. Will try standing back l little more. Really was trying not to shoot water behind siding…lol. I knew that was the problem but wasnt understanding how in the world it was getting back there. Was almost thinking when I rinse the corners well that it was going in there and running back the siding to the weep holes. Let me know if there are any other suggestions. Seems like Im getting alot of soft wash quotes…and I thought windows were going to be my big thing
