Hi everyone,

Over the weekend I decided it would be a good time to wash our vinyl siding. It's light beige. I had a lot of mildew on the back of the house because it never gets very much sun. On the other hand, the front takes a beating from the sun because it's full sun almost all day.

So I did some research and found that Oxiclean was a good product to use to kill mold and mildew on siding, without harming the surrounding plants and grass. I also saw one scoop to 1 gallon of water was a good ratio. So, I got out our 5 gallon cleaning bucket, filled it with hot water (probably 3-4 gallons worth) and put in three not-very-full scoops of the oxiclean in. Then I took our siding brush and hose and went to work.

The oxiclean did a great job of killing all the mildew and cleaning the siding. The back of the house looks fantastic. However, the front of the house is a different story. We had chaulking on the front of the house before I ever cleaned... but it's even worse now. I thought it might be oxiclean residue, but I rerinsed and it looks the same. It's almost like cleaning the siding in the front (and side where the sun hits more) made everything look worse than before.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can remove the chaulkiness? I did not use a power washer because I was told that the force of the water could push water behind the siding and cause rot. So are there ways to remove the chaulking without a powerwasher?

Thanks so much in advance!