Does citralic need to be kept wet to work?

[RPetry]

Daniel,

I think "surfactants" in general help "spread out" a liquid solution and also may help in removing that solution by making rinsing more efficient and easier. This makes sense if you have to rinse off the acid mix. And no doubt, most stains require an acid rinsing. We do it ourselves when using a stain other than Ready Seal.

It is the "soap" part of citralic that is confusing. In posts on ESI's recent offer of 10 free lbs. of HD-80, Russell referred to sodium hydroxide as "soap". I'm sure they do not put NaOH in a citralic neutralizer/brightener. When I think of soap, I think of Dawn, Ivory, Irish Spring! What does that have to do with an acid brightener?

No matter, it is interesting but not applicable to our process. We will keep on using straight citric acid and not rinsing when using Ready Seal. It just works.

[plainpainter]

Rick - these guys refer to their surfactant 'package' which may or may not included detergent builders along with detergents as a 'soap'. Basically it's the base before they decide what to do with it - add sodium hydroxide and voila you have HD-80, or add oxalic acid and voila you have citralic brightener. The only difference being they may adjust the detergent 'builder' to be in the same ph range as the final product so a bucket of citralic won't contain TSP or STPP along with some surfactant, but may contain SAPP or whatever.

I agree with your readyseal and citric acid - you don't need to be concerned with what we're doing. And I like the idea of adding Vitamin C to a deck and not rinsing. Vitamin C will also De-Chlorinate bleach! You can clean a nasty deck with bleach and acid rinse with Citric acid and not have bleach residues! But I would advise applying the citric acid directly to the dwelling bleach prior to rinsing.

[RPetry]

Daniel,

Thanks for the explanation, makes much more sense. What is "SAPP" and "STPP"?

Vitamin C will also De-Chlorinate bleach! You can clean a nasty deck with bleach and acid rinse with Citric acid and not have bleach residues! But I would advise applying the citric acid directly to the dwelling bleach prior to rinsing.

Now there is an interesting and useful bit of information! We generally do not use a bleach mix on bare wood, only use it for Ready Seal maintenance work where stain is still in the wood.

Once in a blue moon come across a severely dirty, mold and mildewed mess, that we will first clean with bleach, do a second cleaning with a percarb, and finish off with citric. Have one coming up next month.

I guess due to the 2nd percarb cleaning, have never noticed a bleach type dull look to the wood before. Just wondering if there would be any benefit to hitting the wood twice with the citric.

[Beth n Rod]

Originally Posted by plainpainter

Rick - these guys refer to their surfactant 'package' which may or may not included detergent builders along with detergents as a 'soap'. Basically it's the base before they decide what to do with it - add sodium hydroxide and voila you have HD-80, or add oxalic acid and voila you have citralic brightener. The only difference being they may adjust the detergent 'builder' to be in the same ph range as the final product so a bucket of citralic won't contain TSP or STPP along with some surfactant, but may contain SAPP or whatever.

Very well written!

Beth