What are the best chemicals to use for cleaning gray wood?

[andyryan.ac]

I am looking to buy a fat boy bandit set up and am going to mostly focus on cleaning and staining fences, decks, docks and so on.

Ive cleaned and stained for a living befor. But back then it was a hard wash, not soft wash with chemicals.

My main question is what is the best chemicals to use.

On pressure tek website i was looking at the chemicals. There seems to be only three diffrent ones used for wood. The f8 f18 and f10.

F 18 i understand is used on wood that had a previous sealer.

But f 8 and f 10 can i mix those together and use them or is that bad ?

Do i need to use these chemicals on at a time.

Thank you
Andrew


Andy

[Ralph Quaglia]

f8 is oxalic acid. it is used to brighten and neutralize sodium hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite. F 10 is oygenated bleach. You clean with it. It is probably not a good idea to mix chemicals if you have no idea what they are. You can end up in the hospital or worse. Mixing acid and bleach creates chlorine gas and can put you on the ground, fast.

[Raystown Roof Cleaning]

Get a PW for this work,.(4 GPM minimum), and 8 GPM is way better. A few of the products in your chosen venture require application with a dedicated pump and you will still need a dedicated pump of some sort,.and a 12V fills that need nicely. But a Fat Boy is too much flow for chemical application on wood,..especially just starting out. I use a 2 GPM for application of "Na₂CO₃·1.5H₂O_2" ,..or I DS NAOH for grayed wood. Washing wood requires more PSI than a Fat Boy can even begin to muster. Not to mention a PW is way more versatile. You need to do much reading and understand what "soft" washing actually is and what the limits actually are. Soft washing is way more than garden hose pressure,..it's a matter of nozzle selection and who's behind the trigger. But many take it too far on lessing PSI and think using a PW is unprofessional,..they couldn't be more wrong.

Jeff

[coastal1]

Andy,

Ralph and Jeff nailed it on several points... As for mixing chemicals, don't do it unless you are sure they are compatible! Ask Bob for advice on this if using their products.

With the soft wash versus pressure wash, You will in many cases want the flexibility of both. With the soft wash, you can customize your mix ratios really easy. however, You will want the variable pressure that only a pressure washer can deliver. At least a 4gpm machine and a belt drive or gear drive is best. After acquiring the pressure washer, You will need an assortment of tips(nozzles) to go with the machine. Use the tips to adjust your output pressure rather than playing with the unloader!!!

With the correct tips, you can handicap a pressure wash machine down to a soft wash machine if need be...

All the best,
Mike

[UltimateRoofCleaning]

We use house wash mix, let it dwell for 10min, then hit it with some light pressure. 40 degree tip. Cleans up nice. "Never mix SH with any ACID!" That would be similar to "Mustard Gas" used in the world wars.

[banjofiddle]

f8 is oxalic acid. it is used to brighten and neutralize sodium hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite. F 10 is oygenated bleach. You clean with it. It is probably not a good idea to mix chemicals if you have no idea what they are. You can end up in the hospital or worse. Mixing acid and bleach creates chlorine gas and can put you on the ground, fast.

When using F-10 should I mix it into a standard house wash or use it by itself on lightly graying shingles with some little bit green growing on them in the land of Cedar and Doug Fir. Thankyou.