Exterior home cleaning(brick and siding) for back of house (washer, pool)
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I was going to use a power washer for this, but not sure if it will slowly remove the brick pieces and siding. Should i use a cleaner or some chemical mix? If so, which ones do you recommend i buy? I will use the power washer for the concrete. Thanks.
It should clean up nicely with some bleach and power washer. Just be careful with he power washer (especially if you have a gas power one) around the Windows on the sidings. Start with the green nozzle. On the concrete pad, a yellow nozzle should do it's job.
You've got some serious issues besides mildew. The windows are leaking and the trim has already gone to rot. The trim needs to be removed, the flashing, if any, needs attention and the trim replaced. The brick, unless you intend to point up the mortar you need to stay away from a power washer. The mortar is going to be a lot softer than the brick and I can assure you that it will be damaged. An acid wash brush on a stick with a detergent like Dawn and bleach will remove the crud from the brick. I would also suggest caution using a power washer on the concrete. You can take the top finish layer off of the concrete with one if you don't know what you're doing with a power washer. The same acid wash brush and solution will also clean the concrete up pretty quick.
I'm cheap, and I do use a pressure washer and sometimes bleach, but Olympic makes some deck and house washes that are much better, easy to use, and well worth the money. Different types of bleaches work a bit differently, and chlorine bleach is not the best for this type of work. I do the rinse off of the product with a pressure washer at about twice or three times the normal working distance.
You've got some serious issues besides mildew. The windows are leaking and the trim has already gone to rot. The trim needs to be removed, the flashing, if any, needs attention and the trim replaced. The brick, unless you intend to point up the mortar you need to stay away from a power washer. The mortar is going to be a lot softer than the brick and I can assure you that it will be damaged. An acid wash brush on a stick with a detergent like Dawn and bleach will remove the crud from the brick. I would also suggest caution using a power washer on the concrete. You can take the top finish layer off of the concrete with one if you don't know what you're doing with a power washer. The same acid wash brush and solution will also clean the concrete up pretty quick.
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Power washing properly isn't going to remove the mortar from the brick. Possibly if the mortar job was subpar in the first place, or if you have a very high pressure industrial PW cranked up to 4k psiand use a 0 degree tip maybe, but if you use it properly it will do no more harm than a brush. I've been washing my brick for 10 years this way and have never had poor results. I also wash my driveway twice per season with it. I turn my pressure regulator down to about 2000 psi and go at it. Should be fine.
1.5 gallons of sodium hypochlorite (liquid pool shock has 12.5% regular Clorox is 5%)
3.25 gallons of water
10 oz. of TSP (trisodium phosphate get it at the hardware store)
10 oz. of Borax
2 oz. Lemon Joy or Gain
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