How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a fast fix if your home starts looking drab and dated. Within just a couple of hours, your home can be returned to its beautiful appearance with nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent pressure washing equipment from many home improvement stores, or you can call a Cleveland pressure washing service. It might be expensive upfront, but you won’t need to deal with returning rented equipment or the risk of damaging your home because of lack of training or experience.
However, pressure washing can damage your home as fast as it can clean it. The pressurized water can break windows, damage siding and destroy shingles. Therefore, you really need to be careful about how often you pressure 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 a lot on where your home is and weather factors based on that location.
Most professionals will recommend having your home pressure washed every year or, no longer than every 2 years.
Any pressure washing service that tries to tell you more frequent cleanings are needed is just trying to squeeze a little more money out of you. However, it’s your home, and if you love how it looks right after a cleaning, you can pressure wash your home multiple 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 dust, mud and grime can stain your home permanently if it isn’t removed periodically, so you could have to deviate from a set schedule if you start to see excess buildup between cleanings.
Power washing can be detrimental, but not doing it often enough will leave your home looking dirtier far more than it should. It’s important to note that home building materials, particularly vinyl siding, are resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These types of materials protect your home between pressure washings.
Why Pressure Washing is the Preferred Method
Pressure washing is safer than scrubbing the outside of your home because you don’t need to climb up and down a ladder with a rag and a bucket while dragging a garden hose. Power washing can be performed from the ground in most residential situations.
Mold and mildew are organic organisms that can eat away at exterior surfaces and eventually find their way into your home. They are not easy to get rid of, yet it is very easy for these things to form colonies on your exterior, particularly on the north side where it usually doesn’t get much sunlight or wind as other sides of your home.
And, pressure washing removes more dirt and grime than hand scrubbing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the below items can impact the appearance of a home. All are factors that must be considered before you decide to hire a nearby pressure washer or think about doing the job yourself.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and extreme weather events can create a perfect environment for mold and mildew. If you live in an area that is rainy, you might also have wind and rain splashing mud on the side of your home.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold are more of a problem in some areas than in others. Living in a more rural area or next to an unpaved road will factor into what types of environmental factors impact your home more.
HOME CONDITION
If you think it is time to have your home pressure washed, it could be a smart idea to have damaged siding repaired so the high pressure water doesn’t do more damage. Power washing can also worsen a peeling paint issue.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The techniques used for pressure washing are specific to your home’s exterior (brick, siding or wood) and the area of the home. For example, for roof cleaning, a pressure washing service will use soft washing opposed to pressure washing to protect the shingles. And, the expected results can vary widely.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Determining the right time to have your home pressure washed is just as important as deciding how often the service needs to be performed. There are certain times throughout the year when pressure washing would be a total waste of time and money. Other times, however, a professional pressure washing service might benefit you in more ways than appearance.
WEATHER
Don’t waste any money on professional pressure washing in a rainy time of year. You’ll end up with muddy stains and mildew at the end of the season anyway. Winter, for example, isn’t the best time. Pressure washing is most impactful at 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 other work done on your home. Rock, brick or siding could not be fastened into place during a renovation or repair like it would typically be, so you run the risk of damaging the area, prolonging the ongoing work and 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 outside surfaces, including sidewalks, porches, driveways, patio furniture and wood and composite decks.
SUNNY DAYS
Choose a sunny day, but don’t choose one that is blazing hot. This is the best 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 could be guidelines about how often you have your home pressure washed or if you can do it on your own or if you are required to hire a local company. You might only be under HOA rules concerning how your home appears, but it’s really up to you to keep it looking a certain way.
Power washing is one of the simplest and most effective ways to clean your entire home exterior. As long as it’s done the right way, it is safe for most surfaces and can get rid of months of built up dirt and stains.