GUTTER BRIGHTENING TREATMENT
GUTTER STAIN REMOVAL AND RESTORATION SERVICE
Whether you are planning to reside at your home for the long haul, or putting the home on the market soon, our Gutter Brightening Treatment Service is a great way to avoid having to buy new gutters. With Gutter Brightening Treatment, we are able to refurbish the gutters to a like new appearance. And at a fraction of the cost of gutter replacement!
Pressure washing the home typically cleans most dirt, grime, and organic growths from the outsides of gutters. However black streaks, also known as “Zebra Stripes” , are sometimes left behind. These stains typically aren’t removable with standard house washing surfactants. Fortunately we provide a treatment service to safely remove these stains from gutters that we call Gutter Brightening Treatment.
WHAT IS A GUTTER BRIGHTENING TREATMENT SERVICE?
Our gutter brightening service is basically a soak, scrub, and rinse process using a special solution that is designed to remove particles that cause stains from gutters. Since washing of the home is required during the gutter scrubbing, this service is available as an add-on only to a house washing service.
WHAT CAUSES BLACK STREAKS ON GUTTERS?
Black stains on the outsides of the gutters (zebra stripes) are not caused by typical gutter debris such as leaves or other organic materials. As it turns out, these stains are caused by particles coming down the roof shingles during rain, pollutants in the air, and a process called Molecular Bonding.
The aluminum material that gutters are made from goes through an Anodizing process. Anodizing the base metal allows the paint to adhere to the aluminum properly and prevents the paint from flaking or peeling. The downside to this Anodization process is that it attracts other particles and pollutants to the aluminum. Kind of like a magnet.
To put it short, black stripes (zebra stripes) on gutters are the direct result of particles from asphalt shingles washing down and bonding to the aluminum over time. Pollutants in the air such as carbon from automobiles, also accumulates on roofs and the outsides of gutters. To remove these stains a special treatment is needed that includes scrubbing the gutters by brush.
BENEFITS OF GUTTER BRIGHTENING TREATMENT
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RESTORES GUTTERS TO A “LIKE NEW” CONDITION
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ERASES HARD TO REMOVE STAINS
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INCREASE CURB APPEAL OF THE HOME
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SAVES MONEY ON GUTTER REPLACEMENT
GUTTER BRIGHTENING RESTORES GUTTERS TO A LIKE NEW CONDITION
With Gutter Brightening Treatment the gutters are able to be restored to a like new condition. We’ll make your gutters look the best that they possibly can with out treatment solution.
ERASES HARD TO REMOVE STAINS
Stains that were previously thought to be un-removable are finally able to be safely cleaned and erased.
INCREASE THE CURB APPEAL OF THE HOME
The overall appearance of the home goes up significantly with bright and shiny gutters!
SAVES MONEY FROM UNNECESSARY GUTTER REPLACEMENTS
Don’t just replace gutters because they look dingy and dirty. Restore the gutters back to a like new condition to get a few more years of life from them.
INCREASE HOME VALUE
When selling a home on today’s market, new gutter systems take the valuation of the home up. With gutter brightening treatment, you can make the gutters look all but brand new. Therefore you can still increase your home’s value at a fraction of the cost of gutter replacement.
HOUSE WASHING BEFORE AND AFTER PHOTO SAMPLE
Use the before and after slider to see how our standard soft wash service cleans gutters fairly well. Keep in mind this is without any type of gutter brightening treatment. If you look closely at the after photo, you’ll notice faint streaks on the gutter. These streaks (zebra stripes) are what the treatment service is designed to remove.
HOW GUTTER BRIGHTENING TREATMENT WORKS:
- SOFT WASHING OF GUTTERS: The first step for a Gutter Brightening Treatment is to soft wash the outsides of the gutters. This removes dirt, mud, grime, algae, mildew, and other stains from the gutters. That way we are able to apply the treatment directly to the black stripes.
- MIX TREATMENT SOLUTION: Once the soft washing of the gutters is complete, we are able to see the extent of the black stripes. We hand mix each batch of Brightening Treatment according to how bad the staining is.
- HOUSE PRE-RINSE: When we apply the treatment to the gutters, it will cause black streaks to run down the sides of the home. Therefore we like to pre-rinse these surfaces to allow the dirty water to easily flow across. When exterior surfaces are already wet, the dirty water tends to roll off instead of causing more staining.
- GUTTER BRIGHTENING TREATMENT APPLICATION: Once the treatment solution is mixed, we apply it to the outside surfaces of the gutters. How deep the staining is will determine how long we allow the treatment to soak before scrubbing and rinsing.
- SCRUB AND RINSE: Once the treatment has soaked into the gutters for the allotted amount of time, we begin our scrub and rinse process. We scrub the gutters using brushes and wash cloths to thoroughly break apart and remove the stains. (It often takes a second apllication, scrub, and rinse process to get the gutters as clean as possible, therefore we repeat steps 4 and 5 as needed.)
- HOUSE WASHING AND RINSE: Because the stains from the gutters will run down the sides of the home, we always soft wash the home exterior afterwards. This prevents the stains from the gutters running down and staining the house.
- FINAL VEGATION RINSE: The final step with any of our pressure washing or soft washing services is to re-rinse all vegetation around the home. This prevents chemicals from harming plants or bushes.
GUTTER BRIGHTENING FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
During our house washing services we clean the gutters using surfactants designed to kill organic growths and remove stains from vinyl. Our house washing solution does a great job of removing most stains from the gutters. However pollutants and particles that are bonded to the gutters through ionization leave behind black stripes (zebra stripes). These stains are much harder to remove and require a special treatment.
- BLACK STREAKS
- CARBON
- MOST DISCOLORATIONS
- ALGAE/MILDEW/MOLD/MOSS (removes with standard house wash)
- RUST
- CORROSION (discolorations often found at seams)
- COLOR FADING (sun damage to gutters over time is irreversible)
- ALUMINUN OXIDATION (after 30+ years aluminum starts to form a powdery mildew as the paint breaks down, this is also irreversible)
The reason for this is the house will get extremely dirty from once the residue on gutters starts running down the wall. Therefore the house needs to be washed before, during, and afterwards to remove the left over grime.
Yes, it does work on aluminum trim products the same as with aluminum gutters.
Over time black streaks form not only the gutters, but also on aluminum fascia wrap and aluminum soffit. Just as with aluminum guttering material, the aluminum used for trim wrap or soffit is also ionized to help the paint adhere to the base metal properly. Therefore the same process of molecular bonding occurs with these materials, which causes black stripes and other particles to stain.
Fortunately our Gutter Brightening Treatment is able to safely clean these surfaces in the same fashion as gutters. Bringing them back to the best they can possibly look. We’ll advise you if we recommend cleaning these surfaces with the treatment solution.
It all depends on how deep the stains are, how tall the gutters are from the ground, and it there are obstacles in the way. A good rule of thumb is that gutter brightening can easily double the time of a house washing service, sometimes triple.
Keep in mind the gutters are first soaked with our soft wash solution, allowed to soak for 5 – 10 minutes, and then rinsed before even beginning the treatment process. Then the deep cleaning solution is sprayed onto the gutters using a hand pump and also allowed to soak for 5 – 10 minutes. Finally the treatment is scrubbed by brush and then rinsed. This process is often repeated in small areas as the first passing doesn’t always get everything.
PRESSURE WASHING SERVICES WITH MY GUTTER DOCTOR
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HOUSE WASHING
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ROOF CLEANING
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PATIO & WALKWAY CLEANING
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DECK CLEANING
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FENCE CLEANING
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DRIVEWAY CLEANING