Cleaning upvc best way

[Diamond geezer]

that would be4.6ltrs to give a stregnth of 3%

Thanks guys iwas begining to realize what Dave B has just said"buy a cheap bottle of bleach"To be honest thats great .just a couple in the back of the van.Thanks also for the strengths. Ive been looking into hypo its related to caustic soda,ive used caustic 10 before Thanks

BTW my sister would pour neat bleach onto her plastic garden table,wipe it over leave a bit then rinse Then nice white table ive done it for a custy to,no problems ive been very warey thinking hypo was some kind of mistical beast

 

[Dave B]

that would be4.6ltrs to give a stregnth of 3%

Thanks guys iwas begining to realize what Dave B has just said"buy a cheap bottle of bleach"To be honest thats great .just a couple in the back of the van.Thanks also for the strengths. Ive been looking into hypo its related to caustic soda,ive used caustic 10 before Thanks

BTW my sister would pour neat bleach onto her plastic garden table,wipe it over leave a bit then rinse Then nice white table ive done it for a custy to,no problems ive been very warey thinking hypo was some kind of mistical beast

Don't put neat bleach on upvc.

Did it once a long time ago.. will go bright orange for about a week.

 

[Diamond geezer]

No i wont but, seems to be ok on garden furniture

 

[Dave B]

I regularly get slight yellowing in places doing first cleans etc but as it's under 2% (usually more like an inch in a spray bottle fully topped up with water and it is perfectly strong enough) but the stains are gone before I've packed up and gone.

 

[Diamond geezer]

Hi Dave do you spray your brush ,from a spray bottle then and do the buisness ?Do you wet up first?

 

[Dave B]

Hi Dave do you spray your brush ,from a spray bottle then and do the buisness ?Do you wet up first?

Depends on the job.

First cleans spray bottle and spray windows.. fascias etc I use my chem pump and connect hose reel to it.

 

[Diamond geezer]

Ive been wondering if the general dirt that builds up on windows and frames excelorates the deterioration of upvc I mean if that film is heated up by the sun it may speed up oxidization,a good selling point for our industry,but is it true ? I know if dirt is left to long on upvc iit will stain,it may be 4 or 5 years or more,but it will stain.! So does it eccelorate oxidization specificly?

 

[Davy G]

Ive been wondering if the general dirt that builds up on windows and frames excelorates the deterioration of upvc I mean if that film is heated up by the sun it may speed up oxidization,a good selling point for our industry,but is it true ? I know if dirt is left to long on upvc iit will stain,it may be 4 or 5 years or more,but it will stain.! So does it eccelorate oxidization specificly?

I think pvc holds its colour and whiteness if it's cleaned fairly regularly. I don't know for sure if that's the case.

 

[Pjj]

I think pvc holds its colour and whiteness if it's cleaned fairly regularly. I don't know for sure if that's the case.

General road grime and algi growth will over time cause irreparable damage to white UPVC if not cleaned ,the signs  of this are after cleaning the plastic has like a grey staining on it , after much experimenting with different products over many years I have found some plastics can be cleaned and restored some with excellent results some with very poor results  , regular cleaning will prevent this from happening although plastic is affected by UV light and all will degrade over time , we clean a lot of UPVC that’s well over 25 years old and beacause it’s been cleaned regularly it looks almost like new , on the other end of the scale we tried cleaning some white plastic that was only 5 years old and the grey staining was that bad we couldn’t get acceptable results . 

 

[Incheck]

General road grime and algi growth will over time cause irreparable damage to white UPVC if not cleaned ,the signs  of this are after cleaning the plastic has like a grey staining on it , after much experimenting with different products over many years I have found some plastics can be cleaned and restored some with excellent results some with very poor results  , regular cleaning will prevent this from happening although plastic is affected by UV light and all will degrade over time , we clean a lot of UPVC that’s well over 25 years old and beacause it’s been cleaned regularly it looks almost like new , on the other end of the scale we tried cleaning some white plastic that was only 5 years old and the grey staining was that bad we couldn’t get acceptable results . 

Spot on dude, i also find that window frames and sills can often be restored well but fascia and soffit boards appear to be made of a different grade of UPVC And dont restore well no matter what you use. Also as you say the fact that fascias and soffits dont get cleaned as frequently as windows probably doesnt help matters. Some windows have years worth of soot on them and you are sometimes still left with brown staining even after using the best products and a lot of labour time 

 

[Diamond geezer]

Thanks guys,So regular washing of frames has it then

Just a sad tale to finish on.A new customer earlyer on this year,got me to clean her windows,for the first time since having them installed,five years ago,they were filthy,You guessed it, they were stained

 

[Pjj]

Thanks guys,So regular washing of frames has it then

Just a sad tale to finish on.A new customer earlyer on this year,got me to clean her windows,for the first time since having them installed,five years ago,they were filthy,You guessed it, they were stained

Depending what the staining is it might be possible to remove it relatively easily 

 

[Diamond geezer]

Hi PJJ Its just the build up of dust trafic film & weather over the last 5yrs,has penetrated the plastic, some places worse than others.ive got various cleaners upvc cream,solvent cleaner Bronze wool etc,but thats all by hand,What would you use please?Is this going to be my first Hypo job?

 

[Pjj]

Cream cleaner and a damp wfp give it a good scrub , rinse well will usually remove most things , solvent cleaner will need doing by hand with a cloth and obviously a ladder it’s slower but again should remove everything as it will remove the surface from the plastic , hypo will remove some types of grey staining I always find the plastics look better the day after the clean , don’t know why but it does . I don’t personally rate bronze wool I have tried it years ago and found cream cleaner and a cloth worked better and much easier , Ime sure others will say differently but that’s my experience.  

Ps 

if using hypo make sure it’s diluted well 5-6 parts water to 1 part hypo , or as I think it was @Dave B said cheap 1 ltr from the supermarket in a back pack full of water . 

 

[Dave B]

Hi PJJ Its just the build up of dust trafic film & weather over the last 5yrs,has penetrated the plastic, some places worse than others.ive got various cleaners upvc cream,solvent cleaner Bronze wool etc,but thats all by hand,What would you use please?Is this going to be my first Hypo job?

Hypo is for organic staining.

Traffic film etc won't be affected.

I would use pink stuff and a cloth.

Bleach/hypo would help clean the upvc but won't get the ingrained non organic stains out.

 

[Diamond geezer]

Cream cleaner and a damp wfp give it a good scrub , rinse well will usually remove most things , solvent cleaner will need doing by hand with a cloth and obviously a ladder it’s slower but again should remove everything as it will remove the surface from the plastic , hypo will remove some types of grey staining I always find the plastics look better the day after the clean , don’t know why but it does . I don’t personally rate bronze wool I have tried it years ago and found cream cleaner and a cloth worked better and much easier , Ime sure others will say differently but that’s my experience.  

Ps 

if using hypo make sure it’s diluted well 5-6 parts water to 1 part hypo , or as I think it was @Dave B said cheap 1 ltr from the supermarket in a back pack full of water . 

cream cleaner and wfp never thought or heard of that befor.What do you do?put some on a damp brush and go all over the frames etc?Is that how the solvent works ,by removing part or the plastic?In the past the cream cleaner& solvent were my main weapons.if one didnt work the other did.One day when trading,an indian lady was wanting me to do a better job on her window frames/sills.i explained that was not in the price,i had wiped over the sills though.i,gave her a price for doing a sills/frames job.but it was to expensive for her,obviously never had a windy befor,didnt understand the tradition.I had been paid,but for some reason was back up my ladder where she was trying to clean a particulary dirty sill,i fetched some solvent gave it a wipe,it came up like new even i was suprised,Her mouth is probebley still  wide open to this day!

 

[Pjj]

Squirt a bit of cream cleaner on the frames doesn’t need a lot then put a very small amount of water on the window s from the pole just to be able to spread it around the window give it a good scrub and then a thorough rinse it will take a fair bit of rinsing but will remove the worst of any staining evan black perished seals to a degree   ,if you want a better finish you can apply the cream with a sponge or cloth but the brush gets it into the nooks and crannies better.  solvent cleaner does desolve   the surface of the plastic removing a very small amount of it that’s how it works giving a newer look to the plastic . 

 

[Part Timer]

Hypo is for organic staining.

Traffic film etc won't be affected.

I would use pink stuff and a cloth.

Bleach/hypo would help clean the upvc but won't get the ingrained non organic stains out.

That's why TFR is handy. Used correctly it is as good as anything else for 90% of our work

 

[Pjj]

That's why TFR is handy. Used correctly it is as good as anything else for 90% of our work

Virosol is also good for normal plastic cleans don’t need much and it quickly bites inti the dirt two passes with the brush and it’s off 

 

[Diamond geezer]

ive got about 3ltrs of ubick is that as good as virosol

 

[Pjj]

ive got about 3ltrs of ubick is that as good as virosol

I have not used ubick but believe it’s similar , Ime guessing dilute it 10-1 spray it on leave for a couple of muinits good scrub rinse job done ?