Pressure Washing Creativity on the Seacoast

Cleaning Upper Decks

Yesterday I spoke with a lovely woman on the NH seacoast, who has tried cleaning the green mold off her plexiglass deck walls (attached to horizontal deck railings). They let people enjoy the view while avoiding some of the sea breezes (which are becoming more frequent these last few years). It is difficult to reach all the nooks on the outside (you have to lean over the top rail) where the mold is growing, so she was looking for help to remove, clean and re-install the plexiglass.

We had fun talking through the job. She was quite surprised how accurately we captured the project scope, just by talking through each deck’s size, number of plexiglass panels, etc. Here’s what we put together by phone:

• By walking the decks, we were able to estimate the length and width (1 large step = 2 ft)
• We quantified the number of panels to clean … 9 panels total 4 short and 5 large)

Next we discussed the options - to clean the panels right on the decks, or take everything down to the parking lot. The trade-off involves the time to climb up and down 2 flights of stairs versus extra precautions and cleaning. It wasn’t until I explained how we would use the appropriate chemicals to deal with the mold, that we discovered a potential problem.

Challenge: Condo units below extend out further than her decks which meant the obvious solution to drape plastic down from her deck, simply wouldn’t work. Again she described everything accurately but by now it seemed a lot smarter to get some photos we could look at:

• First floor patio (nice stone) extends out roughly 16 ft beyond her decks
• Second floor deck extends roughly 6 to 8 ft beyond her deck

Staggered Deck Platforms

We discussed several options to get the job done and decided on the one which had the least impact to her neighbors. We’re going to carry the plexiglass panels down to the parking lot in back, where we can safely use the best chemicals for the job. We’ll use the power washer to clean the floors but water won’t hurt anything on the other decks which are open to the elements.

With a little more creativity, we decided we can carry up the 50 ft pressure washer hose to the top floor, and drop it down to the actual pressure washer … and avoid having to use any ladders at all.

A Picture Really is Worth a Thousand Words