Exterior painting, mildew removal

[Whoaru99]

Trying to get my last of the season painting done. I've scraped, sanded, and washed with Jomax + bleach in the recommeded mix concentration and left it on the surfaces for the recommended dwell time with a light scrub.

Should the Jomax + bleach have bleached/removed all the dark/mildewy areas back to light color, or is the mildew dead but the wood will still be a bit discolored? It was quite heavily mildewed in some areas.

[delcecchi]

When the guy did my house he power washed it after the bleach to get the dead mildew off. I don't think it just falls off. At least it hasn't when I tried other times.

[Whoaru99]

Hmmm. Well, I did scrub the surfaces with a stiff bristle brush and rinsed with as strong of a stream as I can get from municipal water and a tight pattern nozzle. But, I believe it's cedar (or whatever, but very soft wood) so I'm a bit hesitant to hit it with a strong pressure washer.

I suppose I'll try a second application in an area to see of that makes any difference.

[pureinsanity]

If it is truly cedar, just go to your lumber yard and get a replacement board. By the time you finish messing with scrubbing, washing, scrapping, sanding, repeat over, you could just replace some of those boards.

If you pressure wash wood don't hit it too close. it will tear it up. specially cedar.

[delcecchi]

The peak or gable end of my house is rough sawn cedar, and the bleach/power wash did the trick fine. Just use care and judgement with the power washer, start out with the nozzle fanned and back a ways until you see how it is going.

One of those really long wand deals would make it easier.

[Whoaru99]

Unfortunately, I'd have to re-side almost the entire East and South sides of the garage to replace all the boards that had mildew. Yes, it was in a sad state.

The good news is that in the light of today, the wood looks quite a lot better than I expected so I hit a few (relatively) small areas with a second treatment and think I'll be in pretty good shape.

Have already got a bit more elbow grease into it that planned but just need to get with it for a couple more years then it will be either a new garage or a re-sided.