How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a fast fix if your house starts looking drab and outdated. Within just a few hours, your house can be restored to its beautiful appearance by nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent pressure washing equipment at many home improvement stores, or you can enlist the help of a Folsom pressure washing service. It might be costly upfront, but you won’t need to deal with returning rented equipment or the risk of damaging your house because of lack of training or experience.
However, pressure washing can damage your home as fast as it can clean it. The pressurized water is powerful enough to break windows, damage siding and destroy roof shingles. Therefore, you need to be careful about how often you pressure wash your house and who you let 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 house is and environmental factors around that location.
Most professionals will encourage having your house pressure washed every year or, at least every 2 years.
Any pressure washing service that tries to tell you that more frequent cleanings are necessary is probably trying to squeeze more money out of you. However, it’s your house, and if you love the way it looks right after a cleaning, you can pressure wash your house many times a year.
By touching the exterior of your house, you will be able to tell if it needs a cleaning. The presence of dirt, mud and grime can stain the outside of your house permanently if it isn’t washed off from time to time, so you might have to deviate from a planned schedule if you notice a lot of buildup between cleanings.
Pressure washing can be detrimental, but not doing it often enough will leave your house looking dirtier more than it should. It’s important to note that modern building materials, particularly vinyl siding, are resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These materials help to protect your house between pressure washings.
Why Pressure Washing is the Preferred Method
Pressure washing is a lot safer than scrubbing the exterior of your house because you do not need to climb up and down a ladder with a brush and a bucket while dragging ahose. Pressure washing can be performed from the ground in almost all residential situations.
Mold and mildew are living organisms that can eat away at exterior surfaces and find their way into your house. They are not easy to get rid of, yet it is really easy for these organisms to create colonies on your house, especially on the north side of a home where it usually doesn’t get much direct sunlight or wind as the other sides of your house.
And, pressure washing eliminates more dirt and grime than manual hand washing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the following items can negatively impact the appearance. All are factors that must be considered before you decide to hire a nearby pressure washer or try to do the job on your own.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and extreme weather events can create a perfect environment for mold and mildew to grow. If your home is in a rainy area, you may also have powerful wind and a lot of rain splashing mud onto the side of your house.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold can be bigger problem in some areas of Folsom than in others. Having a home in a rural area or next to an unpaved road will factor into what type of environmental factors affect your house more.
HOME CONDITION
If you do decide to have your house pressure washed, it might be a smart idea to have chipped siding replaced so the high water pressure won’t do more damage. Pressure washing can also expedite a peeling paint issue.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The techniques used for pressure washing are specific to your home’s exterior (brick, siding or paint) and the section of the home. For example, for roof cleaning, a pressure washing service will use soft washing instead of pressure washing to protect the roof shingles. Additionally, the results can vary widely.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Choosing the right time to have your house pressure washed is just as important as deciding how often the service should be completed. There are different times throughout the year when pressure washing would be a total waste of time and money. Other times, however, a professional pressure washing service can benefit you in more ways than appearance.
WEATHER
Don’t waste your money on professional pressure washing during a rainy time of year. You’ll end up with muddy stains and mildew by the end of the season regardless. Winter, as an example, isn’t the best time of year. Pressure washing is the most beneficial near the end of a season, whether it’s spring, summer, fall or winter.
BEFORE/AFTER HOME PROJECTS
Don’t plan to have your house pressure washed the same time you are having other work done on your house. Rock, brick or siding might not be tightened into place during a repair like it should typically be, which means you run the risk of harming the area, prolonging the other project and even trapping water under building materials.
BEFORE SELLING
Pressure washing is a smart way to increase your home’s curb appeal. It’s the simple solution for all your home’s exterior surfaces, including sidewalks, porches, driveways, patio furniture and wood and composite decks.
SUNNY DAYS
Choose a sunny day, but not one that is very hot. This is the optimal condition for the exterior surfaces to dry fast without baking cleaning chemicals onto your home’s surfaces.
If you are in an home owner’s association, there might be rules about how often you have your house pressure washed or whether you can do it by yourself or if you have to hire a local company. You may only be under HOA rules regarding how your house looks, but it’s ultimately up to you to have it looking a certain way.
Pressure washing is one of the most common and most effective methods to clean your entire home. As long as it’s done the right way, it is safe for a multitude of surfaces and can get rid of years of dirt and stains.