How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a fast fix once your house starts looking drab and outdated. Within just a few hours, your house can be restored to its beautiful appearance by nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent pressure washing equipment from many home improvement stores, or you can hire a Peoria pressure washing service. It will be a little more costly upfront, but you don’t need to deal with bringing back rented equipment or run the risk of harming your house because of 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 roof shingles. Therefore, you need to be careful 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 a lot on where your house is and environmental factors around that location.
Most pros will recommend having your house pressure washed every year or, at least every 2 years.
Any pressure washing company that tries to tell you that more frequent cleanings are necessary is probably trying to squeeze more money out of you. However, it’s your house, and if you love how it looks shortly after a cleaning, you can pressure wash your house multiple times each year.
By simply touching the exterior of your house, you will be able to tell if it’s time for a cleaning. The presence of dust, mud and grime can stain your house permanently if it isn’t washed off periodically, so you may have to change from a planned schedule if you notice too much buildup between cleanings.
Pressure washing can be detrimental, but not doing it often enough will leave your house looking lackluster far more than it should. It’s important to note that modern 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 exterior of your house because you do not need to climb a ladder with a brush and a bucket while dragging ahose. Pressure washing can be performed from the ground in almost all residential situations.
Mold and mildew are organic organisms that eat away at exterior surfaces and find their way into your house. They are not easy to get rid of, yet it is extremely easy for these things to form colonies on your exterior, especially on the north side where it usually doesn’t get much sunlight or wind as the other sides of your house.
Plus, 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 need to be considered before you decide to call a local pressure washer or attempt the job on your own.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and weather events create a perfect environment for mold and mildew to grow. If you live in an area that is rainy, you might also have powerful wind and a lot of rain splashing mud on the exterior of your house.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold can be bigger threat in some areas than in others. Having a home in a more rural area or next to an unpaved road will factor into what type of environmental factors affect your house more.
HOME CONDITION
If you think it is time to have your house pressure washed, it may be a smart idea to have damaged siding repaired so the high pressure water won’t do any more damage. Pressure washing can also worsen a peeling paint issue.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The equipment 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 company 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
Choosing the correct time to have your house pressure washed is as important as deciding how often the service has to be completed. There are different times during the year when pressure washing would be an ultimate waste of time and money. Different times, however, a professional pressure washing could help you in more ways than appearance.
WEATHER
Don’t waste any money on professional pressure washing during a rainy time of year. You’ll 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 impactful 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 while you are having different projects done on your house. Rock, brick or siding may not be sealed into place during a renovation or repair like it should typically be, which means you run the risk of harming the area, prolonging the ongoing work and trapping water underneath 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 bright, sunny day, but not one that is blazing hot. This is the optimal condition for the 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 regularly you have your house pressure washed or if you can do it by yourself or if you are required to hire a local service. You might only be under HOA rules regarding how your house looks, but it’s really up to you to keep it looking maintained.
Pressure washing is one of the fastest and most effective methods to clean your entire home exterior. As long as it’s done right, it is safe for a multitude of surfaces and can remove years of built up dirt and stains.