Removing stains caused by black walnut trees

Retiredguy2 · Oct 19, 2016

I have white PVC deck railings on two large decks as well as a fair assortment of beige colored Suncast brand plastic deck boxes. There are a pair of huge black walnut trees in front of the house and the residue badly discolors anything made of plastic even though nothing is located under the trees and the leaves almost never fall on the deck furniture or railings. I have tried a multitude of cleaners of several types along with a powerful electric washer in attempts to clean off the dark residue from the railings, etc. but still have found nothing that works well. Any advice? Thank you.

murphy1244 · Oct 19, 2016

Welcome back JDGreen.

roadhunter · Oct 19, 2016

I used this on tough marine stains when I did boat detailing. It was amazing what it would do on stuff like white rubber fenders. We used it when regular soap wouldn't work.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Roll-Off...46354&wl11=online&wl12=33276722&wl13=&veh=sem

bigtiller · Oct 20, 2016

Have you tried 20% bleach/warm water and a non abrasive scrubbing pad?

PJSprog · Oct 20, 2016

No idea, but good luck. We have a black walnut tree in our back yard, and are having a bumper crop this year. The Wife invited over a friend last weekend who wanted some, and they sat out there and shucked them out of the husks for a couple of hours. Even with good rubber gloves on, some of that stuff still found its way onto her hands. She's tried soap, cleanser, bleach, lemon juice, Goop, and turpentine, and nothing has worked. That black stuff is used for wood stains. If there's any porosity to your deck material and that stuff has gotten in, it will not be easy to remove.

2LaneCruzer · Oct 20, 2016

PJSprog said:
No idea, but good luck. We have a black walnut tree in our back yard, and are having a bumper crop this year. The Wife invited over a friend last weekend who wanted some, and they sat out there and shucked them out of the husks for a couple of hours. Even with good rubber gloves on, some of that stuff still found its way onto her hands. She's tried soap, cleanser, bleach, lemon juice, Goop, and turpentine, and nothing has worked. That black stuff is used for wood stains. If there's an porosity to your deck material and that stuff has gotten in, it will not be easy to remove.

Pour the walnuts out in your drive way; after running back and forth on them for a few days, most of the "shucking" will already be done.

Whoops! I forgot, some of us have driveways made out of concrete. I think my way will only work on gravel or dirt driveways; I can imagine what a concrete drive would look like...speaking of STAINS!