How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a fast fix when your house starts looking drab and outdated. Within just a couple of 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 Chattanooga pressure washing service. It will be a little more expensive upfront, but you don’t have to deal with returning rented equipment or run the risk of harming your house due to lack of training or experience.
However, pressure washing can damage your home as quickly as it can clean it. The pressurized water can break windows, damage siding and ruin roof shingles. Therefore, you need to be careful how often you pressure wash your house 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 house is and environmental factors based on that location.
Most pros encourage having your house pressure washed once a year or, no longer than every 2 years.
Any pressure washing pro that tells you that more frequent cleanings are necessary is just trying to squeeze more money out of you. However, it’s your home, and if you love the way it looks shortly after a cleaning, you can pressure wash your house many times a year.
By just touching the wood or siding of your house, you should be able to tell if it needs a cleaning. The presence of dirt, mud and grime can stain your house permanently if it isn’t washed off from time to time, so you might have to change from a planned schedule if you start to see too much buildup between cleanings.
Power washing sometimes can be harmful, but not doing it enough will leave your house looking dirtier far more than it should. It’s necessary to note that building materials, especially vinyl siding, are resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These materials protect your house between pressure washings.
Why Pressure Washing is the Preferred Method
Pressure washing is much safer than scrubbing the outside of your house because you don’t have to climb a ladder with a brush and a bucket while dragging a garden hose. Power washing can be performed from the ground in almost all residential situations.
Mold and mildew are organic organisms that can eat away at exterior surfaces and make their way into your house. They are not easy to remove, yet it is extremely easy for them to grow into colonies on your house, especially on the north side where it usually doesn’t get much sunlight or wind as other sides of your house.
And, pressure washing gets rid of more dirt and grime than manual hand washing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the below items can negatively impact the appearance. They are all factors that must be considered before you decide to hire a professional pressure washer or attempt the job on your own.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and extreme weather events can create a perfect environment for mold and mildew. If your home is in an area that is rainy, you may also have wind and rain splashing mud on the exterior of your house.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold are sometimes more of a problem in some areas than in others. Living in a rural area or next to an unpaved road will factor into what types of environmental factors affect your house more.
HOME CONDITION
If you do decide to have your house pressure washed, it might be a good idea to have chipped siding replaced so the high pressure water won’t do any more damage. Power washing can also worsen a peeling paint issue.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The techniques used for pressure washing are unique to your home’s exterior (brick, siding or wood) and the section of the home. For example, for roof cleaning, a pressure washing technician 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
Determining the correct time to have your house pressure washed is as important as determining how often the service has to be completed. There are certain times during the year when pressure washing would be an ultimate waste of time and money. Other times, however, a professional pressure washing might help you in more ways than appearance.
WEATHER
Don’t waste 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 regardless. Winter, as an example, isn’t the best time of year. Pressure washing is most beneficial near the end of a season, whether it’s spring, summer, fall or winter.
BEFORE/AFTER HOME PROJECTS
Don’t have your house pressure washed the same time you are having different work done on your house. Rock, brick or siding might not be fastened into place during a repair like it would normally be, so you run the risk of harming the area, disrupting the ongoing work and trapping water underneath 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 bright, sunny day, but not one that is very hot. This is the best condition for the surfaces to dry quickly without baking cleaning chemicals onto your home’s exterior.
If you live in a neighborhood with an home owner’s association, there might be rules about how regularly you have your house pressure washed or if you can do it on your own or if you are required to hire a local company. You may only be under HOA rules concerning how your house looks, but it’s really up to you to have it looking maintained.
Power washing is one of the fastest and most effective ways to clean your entire home exterior. As long as it’s done right, it is safe for a multitude of surfaces and can get rid of years of dirt and stains.