How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a quick fix if your house starts looking drab and dated. Within just a few hours, your house can be returned to its beautiful appearance by nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent pressure washing equipment from most home improvement stores, or you can hire a Forest Hills pressure washing service. It will be a little more expensive upfront, but you won’t have to deal with bringing back rented equipment or the risk of damaging your house due to lack of training or experience.
However, pressure 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 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 a lot on where your house is located and weather factors around that location.
Most professionals will encourage having your house pressure washed each year or, at least every 2 years.
Any pressure washing pro that tells you more frequent services 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 shortly 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’s time for 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 may have to deviate from a planned schedule if you start to see excess buildup between cleanings.
Pressure washing can be detrimental, but not doing it enough can leave your house looking lackluster more than it should. It’s necessary to note that modern building materials, especially vinyl siding, are very resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These materials protect your house between pressure washings.
Why Pressure Washing is the Preferred Method
Pressure washing is a lot safer than scrubbing the outside of your house because you don’t have to climb up and down a ladder with a rag and a bucket while pulling a garden hose. Pressure washing can be accomplished from the ground in almost all residential situations.
Mold and mildew are organic organisms that eat away at home exterior surfaces and eventually find their way into your house. They are not very easy to remove, yet it is extremely easy for them to form colonies on your house, especially on the north side of a home where it doesn’t get as much direct sunlight or wind as other sides of your house.
Plus, pressure washing gets rid of more dirt and grime than hand scrubbing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the below items can negatively impact the appearance of a home. They are all factors that have to be considered before you call a local pressure washer or think about doing the job on your own.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and weather events create a perfect environment for mold and mildew. If your home is in a rainy area, you might also have powerful wind and rain splashing mud onto the side of your house.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold are sometimes bigger threat 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 house more.
HOME CONDITION
If you do decide to have your house pressure washed, it may be a smart idea to have chipped siding repaired so the high pressure water doesn’t do more damage. Pressure washing can also worsen a peeling paint issue.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The equipment 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 company will use soft washing opposed to pressure washing to protect the shingles. Also, the results can vary widely.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Choosing the best time to have your house pressure washed is as important as determining how often the service needs to be completed. There are certain times throughout the year when pressure washing would be a total waste of time and money. Different times, however, a professional pressure washing could benefit you in more ways than appearance.
WEATHER
Don’t waste your money on professional pressure washing in a rainy season. You’ll end up with mud stains and mildew at the end of the season anyway. Winter, as an example, isn’t the best time. Pressure washing is most useful 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 while you are having different work done on your house. Rock, brick or siding may not be sealed into place during a repair like it would typically be, which means you run the risk of ruining the area, disrupting the other project and even trapping water under building materials.
BEFORE SELLING
Pressure washing is a helpful way to increase your home’s curb appeal. It’s the easiest answer 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 extremely hot. This is the perfect condition for the exterior surfaces to dry quickly without baking cleaning chemicals onto your home’s siding or brick.
If you are in an HOA, there may be guidelines about how often you have your house pressure washed or if you can do it yourself or if you have to hire a professional. You might only be under HOA rules regarding how your house appears, but it’s really up to you to have it looking maintained.
Pressure washing is one of the simplest and most effective ways to clean your entire home exterior. As long as it’s done right, it is safe for most home surfaces and can eliminate months of built up dirt and stains.