How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a quick solution after your house starts looking drab and dated. Within hours, your house can be returned to its beautiful appearance with nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent power washing equipment at most home improvement stores, or you can hire a Smyrna pressure washing service. It could be a little more costly upfront, but you won’t need to deal with returning equipment or the risk of damaging your house due to lack of training or experience.
However, power washing can damage your home just as fast as it can clean it. The pressurized water can break windows, damage siding and destroy roof shingles. Therefore, you have to be careful about how often you power 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 on where your house is and environmental factors around that location.
Most professionals encourage having your house pressure washed once a year or, no longer than every 2 years.
Any pressure washing service that tries to tell you more frequent services are necessary is just trying to squeeze more money out of you. However, it’s your house, and if you love how it looks right after a cleaning, you can power wash your house multiple times a year.
By touching the exterior of your house, you should 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 may have to deviate from a planned schedule if you start to see excess buildup between cleanings.
Pressure washing can be harmful, but not doing it often enough can leave your house looking lackluster far more than it should. It’s important to note that modern building materials, particularly vinyl siding, are very resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These types of materials protect your house between power washings.
Why Pressure Washing is the Preferred Method
Pressure washing is much safer than scrubbing the exterior of your house because you won’t need to climb up and down a ladder with a rag and a bucket while dragging ahose. Pressure washing can be done from the ground in almost all residential situations.
Mold and mildew are organisms that can eat away at home exterior surfaces and make their way into your house. They are not very easy to remove, yet it is really easy for these organisms to create colonies on your exterior, especially on the north side of a home where it usually doesn’t get much sunlight or wind as the other sides of your house.
Plus, power washing gets rid of more dirt and grime than hand washing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the below items can impact the appearance. All are factors that must be considered before you decide to hire a local pressure washer or attempt the job on your own.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and weather events can create a perfect environment for mold and mildew. If you live in a rainy area, you may also have powerful wind and rain splashing mud onto the exterior of your house.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold are bigger threat in some areas of Smyrna than in others. Living in a more rural area or near an unpaved road will factor into what types of environmental factors impact your house more.
HOME CONDITION
If you think it is time to have your house pressure washed, it may be a good idea to have chipped siding repaired so the high pressure water won’t do any more damage. Pressure washing can also worsen a peeling paint problem.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The methods 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 instead of power washing to protect the roof shingles. Additionally, the results can vary widely based on technique.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Determining the best time to have your house pressure washed is just as important as determining how often the service needs to be completed. There are certain times throughout the year when power washing would be a total waste of time and money. Different times, however, a professional pressure washing service might help you in more ways than just appearance.
WEATHER
Don’t waste any money on power washing in a rainy time of year. You’ll just end up with mud splatter and mildew at the end of the season anyway. Winter, for example, isn’t the best time of year. Pressure washing is the most beneficial at 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 different work done on your house. Rock, brick or siding may not be fastened into place during a renovation or repair like it would typically be, which means you run the risk of ruining the area, disrupting the ongoing work and trapping water below building materials.
BEFORE SELLING
Pressure washing is a cost-effective way to increase your home’s curb appeal. It’s the simple answer 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 don’t choose one that is very hot. This is the best condition for the surfaces to dry fast without baking cleaning chemicals onto your home’s siding or brick.
If you are in an home owner’s association, there may be rules about how regularly you have your house power washed or if you can do it on your own or if you have to hire a local service. You may only be under HOA rules regarding how your house looks, but it’s really up to you to have it looking good.
Pressure washing is one of the easiest and most effective ways to clean your entire home exterior. As long as it’s done right, it is safe for several home surfaces and can remove months of dirt and stains.