How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a quick option if your house starts to look drab and dated. Within just a couple of hours, your house can be renewed to its beautiful appearance from 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 Augusta pressure washing service. It will be expensive upfront, but you don’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 fast as it can clean it. The pressurized water can break windows, damage siding and ruin shingles. Therefore, you really 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 on where your house is located and weather factors around that location.
Most professionals will encourage having your house pressure washed once a year or, no longer than every 2 years.
Any pressure washing company that tries to tell you that more frequent cleanings are necessary is just trying to squeeze more money out of you. However, it’s your house, and if you love the way it looks shortly after a cleaning, you can pressure wash your house multiple times each year.
By touching the wood or siding of your house, you should 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 periodically, so you could have to change from a set schedule if you start to see a lot of buildup between cleanings.
Power washing often can be harmful, but not doing it often enough can leave your house looking lackluster 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 outside of your house because you do not have to climb a ladder with a brush and a bucket while pulling ahose. Power washing can be done from the ground in almost all residential situations.
Mold and mildew are organisms that can eat away at exterior surfaces and eventually make their way into your house. They are not easy to remove, yet it is really easy for these things to create colonies on your house, particularly on the north side of a home where it usually doesn’t get as much direct sunlight or wind as other sides of your house.
Plus, 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 of a home. They are all factors that need to be considered before you decide to call 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 your home is in an area that is rainy, you might also have wind and rain splashing mud onto the exterior of your house.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold can be bigger problem in some areas than in others. Having a home in a more rural area or next to an unpaved road will determine what types of environmental factors impact your house more.
HOME CONDITION
If you think it is time to have your house pressure washed, it could be a good idea to have chipped siding replaced so the high water pressure won’t do any more damage. Power washing can also worsen a peeling paint problem.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The techniques used for pressure washing are unique 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 instead of pressure washing to protect the shingles. And, 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 deciding how often the service should be performed. There are certain times during the year when pressure 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 appearance.
WEATHER
Don’t waste your money on 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, for example, isn’t the best time of year. Pressure washing is most beneficial at the end of a season, whether it’s spring, summer, fall or winter.
BEFORE/AFTER HOME PROJECTS
Don’t have your house pressure washed while you are having other projects done on your house. Rock, brick or siding could not be fastened into place during a repair like it should normally be, which means you run the risk of ruining the area, disrupting the ongoing work and even trapping water underneath building materials.
BEFORE SELLING
Pressure washing is a helpful 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
Pick a bright, sunny day, but don’t choose one that is extremely hot. This is the optimal condition for the exterior surfaces to dry fast without baking cleaning products onto your home’s siding or brick.
If you have an home owner’s association, there could be guidelines about how regularly you have your house pressure washed or if you can do it yourself or if you are required to hire a local company. You might only be under HOA guidelines concerning how your house appears, but it’s ultimately up to you to have it looking maintained.
Power 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 most surfaces and can remove months of dirt and stains.