Power Washing and Roof Cleaning Forum

Hello again from down here.

I recently made enquiries about cleaning Tensile Canvas Awnings of which I received some sage advise. We had the opportunity to put those suggestions to good use and I thought I would share our findings with you all.

The job consisted of cleaning both the top and underside of a large canvas that covers a Golf Pro Shop, Cafe  and Tennis Courts at a local resort.  

So to the job. 

Underside - I chose to use a foaming jet head on my pressure wash to get the product onto the underside. This system created a bit more stick and allowed the product (SH) to sit and do its thing. I mixed up a 3% solution and then ran that through the foamer. Really hard to tell what the actual % of product applied to the tensile (less than 1%) needless to say it worked. We simply then changed the foamer head out for a volume nozzle and rinsed that off. Starting at the high point and letting gravity help us alone.

All this was done in a 30ft Electric Knuckle boom. Great machine we hired locally. Small enough to operate in a confined space and access the court area by a wheelchair ramp. Big enough to put us right up in canvas for ease of application.

 Topside - Heres where it got a bit tricky. Not being over confident with how to tackle the accessing the topside I contracted a local Rope Access Company to provide a service which in the end basically they walked up the canvas free style and created a free line off the top hat of the canvas and worked in a harness. Lesson No. 1 . They turned up two days late with half the advised manpower and proceeded to apply truck wash with a foamer and then scrubbed the surface with a scourer on a broom pad. This did in fact make some improvement however the majority of mould and staining remained. The client was not satisfied and I was amazed at how little they understood softwashing processes for a rather large outfit.

After  two days of the same stuff they packed up and left claiming to have done the best they could. At which point I advised the client that I would return the next day and rectify the situation myself.  

On returning to site we used the same access method and applied a 1% softwash solution to the total topside canvas. 2 Hrs into the job we received a huge downpour and presto "Clean as the day it was put up." plants rinsed, surrounding hardstand cleaned. 

So at the end of the day the client is over the moon. I dont like to put others down but really the contractor did not understand the job at hand which is Lesson No 2. Far be it for me to school them either. That is my market advantage as I see it.

I have included pics. Hope any of the above is valuable to you and don't hesitate to go after canvas. Its tough stuff and it loves rain.

Cheers'

Nick