Old Cedar Shake Roof

GumDestroyer

New Member
What is the standard practice for cleaning an old-weather cedar shake roof. I heard one pressure washing outfit uses a turbo-nozzle?
 

Gogreenwash

Member
Doug since you are the man for roof cleaning what would be best approach on something like that I would imagine more along the line of a low pressure and magic potion to clean that roof:)
 

archie_MN

Moderator
Turbo nozzle...he must love insurance claims. :)

Tell me more about the roof:
Mossy, dirty, or rotten?
Roof Pitch?
Existing Sealer?
 

archie_MN

Moderator
My bad, I read "standard price."

If it's mossy, kill that first (no bleach).
Once the moss is gone, it's Hydroxide, Oxalic, low pressure (1000-1200ish), and patience.

I'm not a cedar roof expert, but it does the trick.

I can solo a normal house in 1 long day. I always wear a harness on cedar.
 

Clean County

New Member
We Clean many asphalt roof shingles here but hardly ever a cedar roof. I almost fell to my death a few years back when I slipped almost off of a roof that was cedar because it can become very slippery when whet if there is the black and green mold mildew growing on it. Now add the stripper(Hydroxide) and then the brightner Oxalic acid and the roof will look new with very little pressure. Here is 2 houses we have done just this past week. It would be under the same principle as a roof. Take a look and tell me what you think. Both houses where done in a day with the smaller one we got paid $1200 with the Trex deck and the larger on $1800 and that to was also done in a day. Now there ready to be sealed or stained but both houses want to be stained and my staining prices are to high so there is a painter who follows my jobs and takes the brush jobs because I charge accordingly and he charges much cheaper... The owners sign off on my sheet and his....I dont think he even has a sheet. Well enjoy the pics and I hope it helps.
 

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GumDestroyer

New Member
We Clean many asphalt roof shingles here but hardly ever a cedar roof. I almost fell to my death a few years back when I slipped almost off of a roof that was cedar because it can become very slippery when whet if there is the black and green mold mildew growing on it. Now add the stripper(Hydroxide) and then the brightner Oxalic acid and the roof will look new with very little pressure. Here is 2 houses we have done just this past week. It would be under the same principle as a roof. Take a look and tell me what you think. Both houses where done in a day with the smaller one we got paid $1200 with the Trex deck and the larger on $1800 and that to was also done in a day. Now there ready to be sealed or stained but both houses want to be stained and my staining prices are to high so there is a painter who follows my jobs and takes the brush jobs because I charge accordingly and he charges much cheaper... The owners sign off on my sheet and his....I dont think he even has a sheet. Well enjoy the pics and I hope it helps.

Sweet John! What would you say about percarb cleaner instead of hydroxide stripper for this job? Stick with hydroxide? I have no photographs yet but they will be coming soon.
 

Clean County

New Member
Oops forgot to put pics of the other houses. We did 3 complete house strip jobs in a week. We or should I say I love those jobs but hate the staining of them. The last house I have to take it out of my camara still. I wish I had better before pics of this last house because it had sikkens on it and man did it come out nice if I do say so myself.... My guys did these...I think they have finally passed me up...NOT[whatup]
 

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Clean County

New Member
Wow...what a difference. John...I didn't know you did wood restoration????

I've been doing wood from the very begining. We seal and stain them to. This past week we did 3 house strip jobs I just haven't down loaded the pic of the third one yet. Me personally I havent Done a house in a few yrs. One of the last Houses I worked with my guys is this one here. It was Power washed and sealed and its right in the heart of the Hamptons in a town called Amagansett. Good paying job but a pain dealing with the summer time Traffic in "Richville"..
 

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archie_MN

Moderator
Oops forgot to put pics of the other houses. We did 3 complete house strip jobs in a week. We or should I say I love those jobs but hate the staining of them. The last house I have to take it out of my camara still. I wish I had better before pics of this last house because it had sikkens on it and man did it come out nice if I do say so myself.... My guys did these...I think they have finally passed me up...NOT[whatup]

Mind if I ask your hydroxide dilution for the sikkens. I just passed on a sikkens house because I couldn't strip a decent test area.
 

Clean County

New Member
Wow John that looks great. Excellent work. By the way what do you use for cleaning trex decks?

A few years ago The makers of Trex contacted the PWNA. They just lost a class action lawsuit. This is where I say at times you can really benefit from being in an org. But many will still resist because they just don't believe it. Anywho Trex wanted reputable Powerwashers(I guess they figured going thru and organization like the PWNA would show that TREX wasn't horsing around when it came to the courts, Judges etc) they were looking for guy in this org. to be there solution to the class action lawsuit they lost which went into the Millions. In there lawsuit they had to clean just one time anyone with a TREX deck at that time within a certain time frame.
Everett Abrams help TREX to come up with a good cleaning solution and oh yea we had to seal these decks to.

End result anyone who signed on got (Get ready) $1.50 a sq' and thats counting spindals,steps,rails etc in there to clean these decks and seal them. I couldn't sign on fast enough. I ended up getting around 17 TREX decks and made over $15,000. They only took a couple of days to do all of them. What we had to use was a soap and bleach mixture as per there standard and then wait an hour or two because these decks dry out so fast and then pump spray a milky white sealers on them that turned clear when it dried. I made at least $300/hr doing these decks. One of the guys and we all know him here made over a $100,000 because he jumped on board fast and had his guy travel thru 3 states to knock out trex decks in about a month. Do the math there. I didn't jump on fast enough and I only asked to do decks in close proximity to my house. STUPID!!!!!!!!!!

Who says an org. membership can't make you money.[whatup]

Today we still do some of those trex decks but there no longer involved in any lawsuits so we don't get much for them but we use a stronger solution today and they come out mint..... in that solution is a stronger solution then bleach.....hint hint----Chlorine.
 

Clean County

New Member
Mind if I ask your hydroxide dilution for the sikkens. I just passed on a sikkens house because I couldn't strip a decent test area.

about half strength and let it sit and kept it wet and we saturated the shakes with the solution. A dedicated pump can make this happen. another reason to have a special pump. Its the same as the roof pump where you can put the actual chemical mix right on the house in a flooding manner.

Stripping a Sikkens deck you need to go full tilt and probably a stronger stripper then we use. This house was a semi transparent so it was easy. Solids we never ever try to strip them anymore. We stain or clean solids but not strip them. Time is money and we don't have the time cause they won't pay the proper money for us to strip solids.
I keep forgetting but when I download this house pic onto my PC I'll try to remember to post it here.
 

Clean County

New Member
Here is the after pics of that house with sikkens on it. I don't think I have any befores of it because I only did the estimate and showed up way after my guys started it. I'll try to pick off the pic of it on Google before it was stripped.
 

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New Look

Registerd User
We Clean many asphalt roof shingles here but hardly ever a cedar roof. I almost fell to my death a few years back when I slipped almost off of a roof that was cedar because it can become very slippery when whet if there is the black and green mold mildew growing on it. Now add the stripper(Hydroxide) and then the brightner Oxalic acid and the roof will look new with very little pressure. Here is 2 houses we have done just this past week. It would be under the same principle as a roof. Take a look and tell me what you think. Both houses where done in a day with the smaller one we got paid $1200 with the Trex deck and the larger on $1800 and that to was also done in a day. Now there ready to be sealed or stained but both houses want to be stained and my staining prices are to high so there is a painter who follows my jobs and takes the brush jobs because I charge accordingly and he charges much cheaper... The owners sign off on my sheet and his....I dont think he even has a sheet. Well enjoy the pics and I hope it helps.

Nice looking work John....very nice.

I don't have the patience for wood restoration!!!!
 

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