LESLIE: John in Florida, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you?
JOHN: Hi. Have a home that’s about three years old. And I was wondering if I could use my high-pressure machine to clean the eaves. They’ve discolored a bit. Or if you have any other suggestions that might help me get – it’s not actually mold; it’s just dirt – from being underneath there; I guess with the rain and all.
TOM: What are they made out of? What are the eaves covered with?
JOHN: It’s vinyl.
TOM: It’s vinyl? OK, you …
LESLIE: You’ve got to be careful, right?
TOM: Yeah. You can use it but you’ve got to be careful.
LESLIE: Because you can blow a hole right through that vinyl so you really want to be careful with your setting and sort of step back from it and control your pressure.
TOM: And they have the fan setting on the pressure washer so it kind of has like a wide spray as opposed to a point spray.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. One of those like pointed, drilling sprays.
TOM: I would use a house cleaner on that, too. I would first spray it with like a Jomax, which is a house cleaner.
JOHN: Jomax?
TOM: Yeah, J-o-m-a-x. Yeah, you mix it up. You can put it in like a garden sprayer and sort of pump it up there. Or there are also cleaners. If you have a detergent tank that goes with your pressure washer, there are cleaners that can go like right into the pressure washer. But you need to clean it with a mildicide first because usually a lot of that growth is organic so it’s algae or moss or something like that and you need to spray it; sort of kill it first and then you can clean it off with a pressure spray. But Leslie’s absolutely right. If you overdo it, you’re going to be looking at Swiss cheese pretty soon.
JOHN: Outdoor Clorox? Is that a good thing to use?
TOM: Clorox is fine as well but make sure you protect your plants.
LESLIE: There’s also something from the folks at Flood and it’s called their DEKSWOOD Deck Cleaner and Brightener and it’s made to take the gray out of any sort of weathered wood material. But it also does an amazing job of brightening up anything that’s made out of vinyl or fiberglass or plastic. So you might want to give that a try as well or use that instead.
JOHN: OK, I appreciate your help. Thank you.
TOM: You’re welcome, John. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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