LM FlUORESCENTS REMOVAL

[Waterboy#1]

HI Everyone,


I might have a job removing white scale off a building if I can show the customer that I can remove most of the (scale) LM Fluorescents off the building. The last couple of days we have been trying new chems. Lacquer, Acetone, MEH, Xyolene, and just plain ol hot water. we seem to be getting the best results with the xyolene, and MEH, but we still seem to get a lite flim when the brick drys.


What happend was this building was coated with a anti graffiti sealer but the contractor who did it forgot to give the brick a moisture test and so when they sealed the brick building they sealed in the mositure and over time the mositure pushed out of the brick onto the surface, which created the (Lm Fluorescents) a white caulky residue that is sealed in between the sealer and brick.

So my question is, is there anything out there that would remove both sealer and Lm flourescents, or has anybody ran into this same problem. I will try to post some pics in the next day. Thanks

Dale W.
Waterboy Services

 

[ERADiblaster]

How's the battle going against that stuff?
I've seen it before, but never had to "deal with it." I'm sure I'll run into it some day in the course of my new business, so I did a little Googling for it.
The top two results I got were Wikipedia, explaining all the science behind it, and Aldon Chemical, with some ideas on how to fight it.

Disclaimer: I do not work for Aldon Chemical or represent them in any way, nor have I used their products. The link above is only a suggestion. I am not a chemist, nor do I portray one on TV. Given the choice between Wikipedia's "A 5 micrometre aqueous droplet of NaCl will spontaneously crystallize at 45% relative humidity (298 K) to form a NaCl cube by the mechanism of homogeneous nucleation. The original water is released to the gas phase." and Aldon's "'Powdery' efflorescence only requires a simple application of Aldon 'Efflorescence Treatment'," I'll go with Aldon. Your mileage may vary.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mark]

I believe Dale was referring to efflorescence.

Efflorescence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[ERADiblaster]

Right, that was one of the links I gave him. I'm viewing this on my laptop, and the text in posts looks kinda light blue. To my old eyes, it sometimes makes it hard to see that a word or phrase has an inserted link on it.

I had been spelling it with a 'u', too, like in fluorescent lights, but Google did its "Do you mean efflorescence?" trick. It's annoying when I don't know what I'm looking for, but the computer does know. Then too, I hate it when I know what I'm looking for, and the computer thinks it knows better. :smad:

 

[Henry Bockman]

When it's wet, does it dissapear? If so it's effloresence. If not, it's probably a lime buildup. Use an acid based chem like prosoco's light duty concrete cleaner or heavy duty restoration cleaner. One of those should take it off very easily.

 

[TOP]

Just use Hydrocloric Acid. 20% Wet brick and scrub on a dilution around 10/1. It will foam until desolved if its heavy or go away after 1 app. if light. Most all spealialty cleaners for brick (effloressence) is a HCL base. Dont pay a fortune for an easy fix.