October 24, 2017
After softwashing a surface such as a roof, which has a lot of lead flashing, with a sodium hypochlorite product (eg Benz Lightning Cleanze) the sodium hypochlorite may react with the lead and discolour it.
Rinsing prior to softwashing with any sodium hypochlorite product, rinsing during softwashing, and then a final rinse when the softwash treatment is complete, will go a long way to protect the lead.
Quick tips:
Of course sometimes rinsing alone just isn't enough.
That's where Benz Oxy Cleanze oxidation removal gel comes in ...
New lead has a whitish/blueish appearance that "dulls down" to the grey colour we are familiar with, eg. the lead flashing on roofs.
Oxy Cleanze will quickly remove oxidation stains on lead flashing caused by natural oxidation and softwashing with sodium hypochlorite.
Quick tip: Modern lead may not be pure and so can discolour over time. Benz Oxy Cleanze will not reverse this form of reaction.
We coated the lead in the photo below with neat Lightning Cleanze and left it for 60 minutes. Then we rinsed and dried it. The temperature was 6 ℃.
In the photo below we applied Oxy Cleanze rust remover by brush and left it to work.
The photo below shows the results after only 30 minutes.
Two hours later we rinsed the Oxy Cleanze gel from the lead.
The results we achieved would be satisfactory for most lead restoration work, e.g. after lead has been cleaned with a sodium hypochlorite based product.
Apply a second coat if needed. In the photo below the far right section was treated a second time. We left this overnight (it was winter and cold – we do not recommended leaving a treated surface overnight during the warmer summer months) and rinsed the oxidation removal gel from the lead.
The photo below shows what it looked like when dry. Notice that the lead looks brighter and more blue/white than the dull grey we are used to seeing on lead flashing. It will gradually "dull down" with age (btw: the change of background colour was due to poor lighting conditions).
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On the property below, one application of Oxy Cleanze was enough to remove the yellow staining caused by softwashing with sodium hypochlorite, along with some ingrained oxidation.
After four hours at 5 ℃ we thoroughly rinsed Oxy Cleanze rust removal gel off the lead flashing with water using a garden hose and some light brushing. The photo below shows the result:
Quick tip: The ingrained oxidation, which had built up over many years, cannot be removed without the repeated use of Oxy Cleanze rust remover, which could cause whitening of the lead .
This may be undesirable in some situations and for some customers. So always inform your customer of the possible results of repeated applications of Oxy Cleanze and allow your customer to make the decision as to whether to go ahead.
Natural weathering will reverse the whitening you can see in the above photo as the lead flashing tarnishes and dulls down.
Btw:
We hope this information is helpful.
Cheers,
Ben, Leo & Fiona
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April 01, 2021
We recently tested – just out of curiosity – some old Tornado Cleanze that was nearly two months past it's best-by date. We wanted to find out how long it could be stored for and still produce effective results. And stored badly at that ...
Want to know what happened? (the results even surprised us)
Click the link on this page to find out ...
March 11, 2021
Cleaning caravans and mobile homes is an excellent soft washing market.
The process is simple and straight-forward. And cleaning several on the same day can be highly profitable.
Click the link on this page to learn more ...
March 04, 2021
Huge thanks to all our customers for your loyalty in making Benz your softwash product supplier of choice. We appreciate the fact that so many of our trade customers come back to us week after week, month after month, year after year.
And by way of practical appreciation, we've decided to no longer pro-actively seek domestic customers for our products and will not knowingly sell products to the customers of our trade customers, i.e. those who want to play around with d.i.y.
Click the link on this page to continue reading ...
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