cedar soft wash · West Point, GA

cedar soft wash in West Point

In West Point, this comes up on lake houses, revived downtown brick, and the commercial buildings of a working town. River humidity and tree cover mark roofs, and drives pick up clay from the county roads. Shaded cedar goes black. Sun-bleached cedar goes gray. Only one of those is a mildew problem.

Lake houses empty out midweek. A property check and a lit porch matter more than another summer wash.

Mildew on cedar, pine, and stained decks is organic, so sodium hypochlorite can kill it. The limit is the wood. A strong mix, or a nozzle that is too close, raises the grain, stripes the stain, and leaves the board furry. We use a lighter hand, a longer dwell, and a rinse that is not a carving tool.

Gray, UV-bleached wood is not dirt. Cleaning it will not restore the color from the lumberyard. If you want color, that is a stain, on a dry day, after the wash has actually dried. We do not stain wet wood so the job can fit on one invoice.

Soft boards, popped nails, and a rail that moves get called out before a stain would hide them. We do not rebuild the deck. If the shakes on a roof are cupped and brittle, we will say replacement is the spend. Washing dead wood is a way to charge you for a photograph.

The full explanation, without the town attached, is the cedar and wood: kill the mildew, do not raise the grain article. The town does not change the chemistry. It changes the houses, the shade, and the clay.

Cedar and shake wash in West Point →