How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a fast option when your home starts looking drab and outdated. Within hours, your home can be returned to its beautiful appearance with nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent power washing equipment at many home improvement stores, or you can call a Durham pressure washing service. It will be expensive upfront, but you won’t have to deal with returning rented equipment or run the risk of harming your home due to lack of training or experience.
However, power washing can damage your home as quickly as it can beautify it. The pressurized water can break windows, damage siding and ruin shingles. Therefore, you really need to be careful how often you power wash your home and who you hire to do it.
Is it Time to Pressure Wash Your Home?
The question of how often to pressure wash your home is one that depends heavily on where your home is and environmental factors around that location.
Most professionals encourage having your home pressure washed each year or, no longer than every 2 years.
Any pressure washing company that tries to tell you that more frequent cleanings are needed is just trying to squeeze more money out of you. However, it’s your house, and if you love the way it looks after a cleaning, you can power wash your home several times each year.
By touching the exterior of your home, you should be able to tell if it’s time for a cleaning. The presence of dirt, mud and grime can stain the outside of your home permanently if it isn’t removed from time to time, so you may have to deviate from a set schedule if you start to see too much buildup between cleanings.
Power washing often can be harmful, but not doing it often enough can leave your home looking lackluster far more than it should. It’s necessary to note that modern building materials, especially vinyl siding, are resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These materials protect your home between power washings.
Why Pressure Washing is the Preferred Method
Pressure washing is much safer than scrubbing the outside of your home because you don’t have to climb up and down a ladder with a brush and a bucket while dragging ahose. Power washing can be accomplished from the ground in most residential situations.
Mold and mildew are organisms that eat away at exterior surfaces and make their way into your home. They are not easy to get rid of, yet it is really easy for these things to form colonies on your exterior, particularly on the north side where it doesn’t get as much direct sunlight or wind as the other sides of your home.
And, power washing removes more dirt and grime than manual hand scrubbing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the below factors can impact the appearance. They are all factors that need to be considered before you call a local pressure washer or attempt the job yourself.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and extreme weather create a perfect environment for mold and mildew. If you live in a rainy area, you may also have wind and rain splashing mud onto the side of your home.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold can be bigger problem in some areas than in others. Living in a rural area or near an unpaved road will determine what types of environmental factors affect your home more.
HOME CONDITION
If you do decide to have your home pressure washed, it may be a smart idea to have chipped siding repaired so the high water pressure doesn’t do more damage. Power washing can also worsen a peeling paint problem.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The equipment used for pressure washing are unique to your home’s exterior (brick, siding or wood) and the area of the home. For example, for roof cleaning, a pressure washing company will use soft washing instead of power washing to protect the shingles. And, the results can vary widely.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Determining the best time to have your home pressure washed is as important as determining how often the service should be performed. There are different times throughout the year when power washing would be an ultimate waste of time and money. Different times, however, a professional pressure washing can help you in more ways than appearance.
WEATHER
Do not waste your money on power washing in a rainy time of year. You’ll end up with mud stains and mildew by the end of the season regardless. Winter, for example, isn’t the best time. Pressure washing is the most impactful near the end of a season, whether it’s spring, summer, fall or winter.
BEFORE/AFTER HOME PROJECTS
Don’t plan to have your home pressure washed while you are having different work done on your home. Rock, brick or siding may not be sealed into place during a repair like it should typically be, which means you run the risk of harming the area, disrupting the other project and trapping water underneath building materials.
BEFORE SELLING
Pressure washing is a great way to increase your home’s curb appeal. It’s the simple solution for all your home’s outside surfaces, including sidewalks, porches, driveways, patio furniture and wood and composite decks.
SUNNY DAYS
Choose a bright, sunny day, but don’t choose one that is extremely hot. This is the optimal condition for the exterior surfaces to dry quickly without baking cleaning chemicals onto your home’s surfaces.
If you are in an HOA, there may be rules about how regularly you have your home power washed or whether you can do it yourself or if you have to hire a local service. You may only be under HOA rules concerning how your home appears, but it’s really up to you to have it looking a certain way.
Power washing is one of the easiest and most effective ways to clean your entire home. As long as it’s done right, it is safe for several surfaces and can eliminate years of dirt and stains.