Guys, just wanted to share something with all of you. It is very seldom you come across something so easy and you just have to share it. We just cleaned siding on a doublewide trailer and our house. I have a commercial Hotsy pressure washer and tried with just cold water. It was very slow and was still leaving an embedded film. I started wondering about bleach and went to Google to see what the concensus was.
After searching, I found that vinyl siding will not fade with bleach as the color is made into the material. I found a recipe of mixing 1 gallon of bleach with 4 gallons of water and adding a couple tablespoons of dishwashing liquid. Being cautious of this, I mixed up a small mixture in a 1 quart spray bottle. I sprayed this on the siding in a few small areas and waited about 5 minutes and rinsed with a water hose. I was truly amazed. After about 1 minute of spraying it on, the mold/stain disappeared before even rinsing. I didn't even have to try to rinse the siding before spraying.
My next question was how to apply this to large areas without having to use a trigger spray bottle. I got my 12 volt sprayer out that we use to kill weeds around the farm. This sprayer has a 12 volt (car battery) pump motor and uses a 16 gallon plastic reservoir along with an adjustable wand you can change from a pinpoint spray to a fine mist. I put 2) 1.5 gallon jugs of Walmart brand bleach ($3 each) and about 4 ounces of off brand dishwashing liquid into reservoir and then filled the rest with water. I adjusted sprayer to a mist and started applying to the bottom of the siding and worked my way up. Make sure to spray from the bottom upwards at about a 45 degree angle. This will get under the bottom of the siding where it overlaps. I had the sprayer on my tractor and would do about a 15' section and move the tractor up to the next section. Within a minute or so, the mold would disappear and it looked remarkable. I applied the bleach solution and then my daughter simply came along about 5 minutes behind me and rinsed the siding with a regular garden hose/spray nozzle. We occasionally found a spot that was missed and could be spot sprayed over with the spray bottle.
The doublewide is a 28x64 and was done in about 2-3 hours. I ended up refilling tank once to finish. I figure I had around $13 in the bleach and detergent. Wife nearly cussed me out as she last cleaned it 2 years ago by using a long handled scrub brush, water hose, and bucket with detergent. She spent all day doing it and complained the next day over how sore her muscles were. She couldn't believe the trick that I came up with. The next day, wife and daughter did our 3500 square foot, 2 story house in about 4-5 hours. I think I got them motivated. Even a neighbor came up and asked what we were using since it was cleaning so well and going so fast. I will caution about painted surfaces. The doublewide has painted shutters and the paint did seem to appear somewhat faded. Of course, they haven't been painted in over 10 years so that could have been part of the problem. I think the solution could have been cut back to 2 gallons of bleach in the 16 gallon sprayer and still been effective. Good luck and happy cleaning.
If you don't have a sprayer as I mentioned above, it would probably be worth your time and money to buy one. If you are like me, you could easily justify (wife's approval) spending less than $150 and have it for other projects. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200347989_200347989
After searching, I found that vinyl siding will not fade with bleach as the color is made into the material. I found a recipe of mixing 1 gallon of bleach with 4 gallons of water and adding a couple tablespoons of dishwashing liquid. Being cautious of this, I mixed up a small mixture in a 1 quart spray bottle. I sprayed this on the siding in a few small areas and waited about 5 minutes and rinsed with a water hose. I was truly amazed. After about 1 minute of spraying it on, the mold/stain disappeared before even rinsing. I didn't even have to try to rinse the siding before spraying.
My next question was how to apply this to large areas without having to use a trigger spray bottle. I got my 12 volt sprayer out that we use to kill weeds around the farm. This sprayer has a 12 volt (car battery) pump motor and uses a 16 gallon plastic reservoir along with an adjustable wand you can change from a pinpoint spray to a fine mist. I put 2) 1.5 gallon jugs of Walmart brand bleach ($3 each) and about 4 ounces of off brand dishwashing liquid into reservoir and then filled the rest with water. I adjusted sprayer to a mist and started applying to the bottom of the siding and worked my way up. Make sure to spray from the bottom upwards at about a 45 degree angle. This will get under the bottom of the siding where it overlaps. I had the sprayer on my tractor and would do about a 15' section and move the tractor up to the next section. Within a minute or so, the mold would disappear and it looked remarkable. I applied the bleach solution and then my daughter simply came along about 5 minutes behind me and rinsed the siding with a regular garden hose/spray nozzle. We occasionally found a spot that was missed and could be spot sprayed over with the spray bottle.
The doublewide is a 28x64 and was done in about 2-3 hours. I ended up refilling tank once to finish. I figure I had around $13 in the bleach and detergent. Wife nearly cussed me out as she last cleaned it 2 years ago by using a long handled scrub brush, water hose, and bucket with detergent. She spent all day doing it and complained the next day over how sore her muscles were. She couldn't believe the trick that I came up with. The next day, wife and daughter did our 3500 square foot, 2 story house in about 4-5 hours. I think I got them motivated. Even a neighbor came up and asked what we were using since it was cleaning so well and going so fast. I will caution about painted surfaces. The doublewide has painted shutters and the paint did seem to appear somewhat faded. Of course, they haven't been painted in over 10 years so that could have been part of the problem. I think the solution could have been cut back to 2 gallons of bleach in the 16 gallon sprayer and still been effective. Good luck and happy cleaning.
If you don't have a sprayer as I mentioned above, it would probably be worth your time and money to buy one. If you are like me, you could easily justify (wife's approval) spending less than $150 and have it for other projects. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200347989_200347989
