I installed a deck contstructed of ProCell, a 100% PVC product. Great to work with and doesn’t scratch easily. But I just found out that insect repellant (Off!) stains the stuff instantly. Over spay leaves dots all over the place. We’ve tried soap, mineral spirits and bug and tar remover and nothing works. The boss wants to try straight bleach on a piece of scrap to see what happens. (She just loves bleach)Any ideas? Its a damn shame that a product so likely to be used on a deck has such an impact.
How much time have you given the stain to fade?
If it’s the DEET getting mixed in with the decking’s plasticizer, I’d expect the stain to spread, and become unnoticeable over time.
Doing things backwards, as usual, I searched the web for this problem after posting here. It turns out that this a is a common problem w/o a solution other than some talk about a class action lawsuit regarding a “bad batch”. Come up with a cure and get rich selling your formula to Azek!
Bleach sounds like the best prospect to me; I don’t know whether it will have long-term effects on the decking, though. DEET is a plasticizer in its own right, softening and degrading the vinyl, so it’s not like there’s a solvent that will remove it cleanly.
If you do get the stain out, switch to permethrin repellent, as it supposedly doesn’t attack plastic like DEET.
Please contact me. We have a group of people with the same problem and are trying to plan a solution, or legal action.
You could try using the plastic cleaner stuff for dishwashers, or other plastic cleaning products. TSP might help. You could also paint it with several products available at the hardware store. Then you would only be complaining about the paint peeling off.