cedar soft wash · LaGrange, GA

cedar soft wash in LaGrange

In LaGrange, this comes up on historic-district houses, college-side streets, and the larger lots toward Vernon Road and Callaway. LaGrange clay does not rinse off a driveway with a garden hose, and shaded brick grows a green film by late summer. Shaded cedar goes black. Sun-bleached cedar goes gray. Only one of those is a mildew problem.

January here is gutters full of oak, a porch that needs to look right for guests, and the odd jobs that got postponed all year.

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 LaGrange →