If you are pressure washing your home, it's safe to say that you care about your home's aesthetics, but your actions may be a bit misinformed. So if you haven't heard this already, let me be the first to say,
"Stop pressure washing your home!"
When you apply high-powered water to your home siding, you could be voiding your siding manufacture warranty, stripping paint, causing permanent damage to the siding, and introducing water under the panels. That water remains and becoming the perfect breeding ground for mold and other growth. So effectively, when you pressure wash a home, you are trading extensive damage for visual appeal that is seldom worth it. Well, if you cannot pressure wash your home, what can you do?
The pressure washing industry has discovered the soft wash technique for decades now. Leaders in the industry have retired the old methods that risk serious damage to your home in favor of a better way. For soft materials like vinyl, wood, or lap siding, we will use a pressure washer or a soft wash machine to apply a mixture of sodium hypochlorite (the active ingredient in bleach), a surfactant (a fancy word for soap), and water to the siding of your home. The technician will factor in the amount of growth and the siding material to adjust the soft wash ingredients in real-time. This way, they do not apply too harsh a mix but still can thoroughly clean your home. They will use low-pressure water (around 60-300 psi) to coat your entire home. The treatment will be allowed 15-20 minutes to dwell and then will be rinsed off. When being rinsed off, the treatment will be reduced by the water so that it will be safe for the environment, pets, and other animals immediately after they've finished.
For harder surfaces like brick or concrete walls, we will still soft wash first. When you pressure wash hard surfaces, you are wearing them down and taking off millimeter layers. We want your wall to remain intact and beautiful for as long as possible. We will start with a high concentration of the soft wash treatment generously applied. The treatment will be allowed to dwell for 15-20 minutes and then rinsed off. If there are remaining imperfections, only then will we use high pressure to complete the cleaning.
Soft washing not only visibly cleans your home siding but kills the food source for future growth. This will keep growth from reoccurring for much longer than if you were to pressure wash your home. Most homes can get away with being soft-washed every 2-3 years, but we recommend yearly treatment to prevent growth rather than kill existing.
Our goal is to educate our community so that people can minimize damage to their homes and make them shine the right way. If you have any questions about soft washing or pressure washing, please feel free to call us directly or leave a comment below.