What's causing this "pink" stuff on my exterior walls?

vicwatson

It's at all heights, is it pigment in the White paint that was used to paint the house?

Other houses have it too not just mine...

wait4me

Spray it with a diluted mix of household bleach and watch it (the pink stuff - not your oversized pic) come off.

.Henry Sellers.

Try a powerwasher on it to see if you can shift it,use domestos or jeyes fluid and brush it on then powerwash off, the pink is strange alright, are you near any chemical plants or factories?could possibly be a staining from the fumes from a factory, if it was me I'd wash it all down and if there is any stains left use Zinnser stain block on it and paint.

Cerco

Looks to me like algae or lichen carried on the wind and rain.
Spray diluted Domestos 50/50, with water, over the affected area.
Mix in a bucket and pour into a garden knapsack sprayer.

Try to get a dry day. No need to wash off, power washing will only weaken and lift your plaster.
The bleach will take a day or two to take effect. You will have to repeat this annually.

Bruthal

vicwatson wrote: »

Jeez, how do I fix that picture size? Didn't mean it to be that large.

Keep the pics to a max of 800 pixels on the longest side, to fit nicely in a post. Your pic is 2500 pixels, so needs to be scaled down.

.Henry Sellers.

Cerco wrote: »

Looks to me like algae or lichen carried on the wind and rain.
Spray diluted Domestos 50/50, with water, over the affected area.
Mix in a bket and pour into a garden knapsack sprayer.

Try to get a dry day. No need to wash off, power washing will only weaken and lift your plaster.
The bleach will take a day or two to take effect. You will have to repeat this annually.

A powerwasher wouldn't weaken or lift the plaster unless it was ridiculously powerful, A standard car powerwasher would be fine to blast any dirt or fungus away and not do damage to the wall.

wait4me

An ordinary hose-down usually suffices, if the bleach is apllied and left to work. Never had to use a powerwasher yet

vicwatson

Picture fixed (finally !!)