Painting - The right soap

I have a wood frame house that needs painting. What is the best kind of soap to use for washing the exterior walls in preparation for painting? Would laundry detergent or dishwashing liquid be okay?

Thanks in advance.

If there are any mold or mildew problems you will need to use a bleach solution. This is usually all I use but there are times when TSP is benificial to use. A good detergent can also be used. I don't know how well dish liquid would work. No matter what cleaner you use, it must be rinsed throughly!!

The house doesn't need to be perfectly clean to paint but all mildew should be killed and any loose grime removed. Chalk also needs to be removed or neutralized.

NO!!!!!! Liquid dish soap is for dishes. It would be no more appropriate for you to use Armor All Car Wash Fluid to wash your fine china!

Use either Simple Green, or any of the # of EXTERIOR detergents designed for home cleaning. As indicated if you have mildew, you can clean that with a commercial mildew cleaner, or make your own with a simple ratio of 3 parts water/ 1 part bleach.

It is also important to rinse properly, so that the new paint has a good chance to adhere.

If you can find a product called Jomax (I think) it's an excellent exterior mildew remover and cleaner for surfaces before painting.

Otherwise TSP and/or TSP and bleach is fine,cheap and will do a good job.

Some TSP containers even give you the ratio to mix bleach with it.As stated thorough rinsing is essential.

Dish washing liquid is not a good idea.