Success Cleaning Vinyl Siding and Aluminum Trim

chim

Well-known member

Equipment
L4240HSTC with FEL, Ford 1210
Jan 19, 2013
2,120
1,242
113
Near Lancaster, PA, USA
We have two sheds that needed cleaned for at least two years. Lots of more important things kept pushing them farther down the list. I ended up with a couple gallons of ZEP Deck and Fence Concentrate that nobody wanted, and figured I'd try it out. There were mix instructions that I almost followed, but used 10 ounces of concentrate to a gallon of water in a garden sprayer.

There were two different types of unpleasantness on the sheds. One was that green algae-looking stuff and the other was like black mold. The process was to wet the surfaces in segments I could work on without having them dry. First sprayed them liberally, then after a minute or two brush with the soft scrub brush on a pole. Rinse and move on.

Years ago I used a detergent called Soilax, but haven't seen that for years. Recently I've been using Purple Power and it works well, but it doesn't clean aluminum trim like the ZEP did.
 

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Steve67

Active member

Equipment
B2601-fel, 60"mmm, 5' rear blade, balast box
Jan 20, 2017
344
128
43
St. Louis, mo.
Cleaned up really nice, job well done. Wondering why you didn’t use a power washer?
 

chim

Well-known member

Equipment
L4240HSTC with FEL, Ford 1210
Jan 19, 2013
2,120
1,242
113
Near Lancaster, PA, USA
Even though the Honda-powered washer could probably blow holes in the vinyl, it doesn't work as well as elbow grease. I've used the power washer as recently as last week on the concrete walks, brick walls and the bridge. It does really well on them and does OK with the green deposits on siding, but not so much the black stuff on the aluminum.
 

lynnmor

Well-known member

Equipment
B2601-1
May 3, 2021
1,444
1,159
113
Red Lion
I bought Mold Armor some years ago and it did fine, especially when brushed. The bottle has a built in sprayer that can reach rather high. I would refill the bottle with about half bleach and half water then add in a healthy squirt of Dawn dish washing detergent. My mix worked just as well as the Mold Armor stuff and cost a fraction of the price. The sprayer only lasted a year or two, so I bought a different brand of house wash so I had a sprayer.
 

WFM

Well-known member
Premium Member

Equipment
L3800
Apr 5, 2013
1,342
671
113
Porter Maine
My weekend consisted of renting the Rug Dr...did the carpets inside.
Then today I used the presser washer on the cement block north wall of my shop. Green moss up about a foot from the asphalt on that side and some vegetation growing up between the cement and asphalt. Dandelion in a few spots. The presser washer cut theses right off and took all that moss off the cement.
My end deck on the house that the bears like is plastic wood. Took the presser washer and went after that also. Owning property there is always something that needs to be done. Hanging flat feeder is one i made and has quite a few .22 holes for squrriels. The long stainless one was a rain gutter i had made but took down last year.
Now it's a bird feeder.
20230529_112743.jpg
 
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