Power Washing Pros · 715-446-4271 · powerwashingproswittenberg.com
The short version
Orange and brown stains are almost always iron: from well water through a sprinkler, from lawn fertilizer, or from metal left sitting on the surface. Rust is a mineral stain, not grime or growth, and the cleaners that kill algae don't dissolve it. It needs a different treatment, and it comes back if the source keeps going.
How to tell
- An orange-brown band along the bottom of the siding or foundation, at sprinkler height.
- Small orange speckles across a driveway or walk after the lawn was treated.
- Rust-colored drips running down from nail heads, railings, light fixtures or downspout brackets.
- Orange rings on the patio where a grill, planter or metal chair has stood.
Why Wisconsin sees so much of it
Iron is one of the most common things in Wisconsin well water, and much of the central and northern part of the state is on private wells. Water with iron in it looks perfectly clear coming out of the tap. Spray it on a wall every morning all summer and the iron oxidizes as the water evaporates, leaving a rust-colored band exactly as high as the sprinkler reaches.
Nearly every house on a well with an irrigation system has some of this. It builds slowly enough that it is easy to mistake for dirt until someone tries to wash it off.
The other usual suspects
Many lawn fertilizers contain iron to green the grass up. Granules that bounce onto a driveway or walk and then get wet leave small orange spots, often in a spray pattern following the spreader's path.
Metal does the rest. Steel nails and fasteners bleed rust down siding and deck boards. Railings, light fixtures, and gutter and downspout hardware drip. Grills, metal furniture and planters leave rings on concrete. Trailers and equipment parked on a slab leave their own map.
Why washing doesn't take it off
Rust is not sitting on the surface the way dirt and algae are. It is a mineral deposit that has soaked into the pores of concrete and bonded to siding. Water and pressure do not dissolve it.
The cleaners used to kill algae and mildew are the wrong chemistry for it, too. They won't take rust out, and on some surfaces they can set it darker. Iron stains are removed with a dedicated rust treatment — a different product doing a different job.
If there is rust on the property, point it out on the call. You will find out up front whether it can be dealt with on the same visit, rather than discovering after the wash that the orange is still there.
Why it comes back
Rust treatment removes the stain that is there today. It does nothing about tomorrow's sprinkler cycle. If the source is still running, the band comes back — on a well with a lot of iron, within a season.
Keeping it from coming back
Turn sprinkler heads so they spray the lawn, not the house. That one adjustment stops most of it.
If you irrigate from the well, an iron filter on the irrigation line deals with the problem at the source. It is the permanent fix for properties that water heavily.
Sweep or blow fertilizer granules off hardscape before watering them in, and don't let metal furniture sit on concrete through a wet season. Stainless or coated fasteners on new decking and trim won't bleed the way plain steel does.
What a wash will and won't do
Washing will
- Removes the dirt and growth around the stain, so you can see how much rust there really is
- Cleans the rest of the surface to one even color
Washing won't
- Dissolve rust or iron staining — that takes a separate rust treatment
- Stop a sprinkler running on iron-heavy well water from re-staining the wall