How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a quick option if your home starts looking drab and outdated. Within just a couple of hours, your home can be returned to its beautiful appearance with nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent power washing equipment from many home improvement stores, or you can call a Sugar Land pressure washing service. It will be a little more costly upfront, but you won’t need to deal with returning rented equipment or the risk of damaging your home due to lack of training or experience.
However, power washing can damage your home just as fast as it can beautify it. The pressurized water is powerful enough to break windows, damage siding and destroy shingles. Therefore, you really have to be careful about how often you power wash your home 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 home is located and weather factors around that location.
Most professionals will recommend having your home pressure washed each year or, no longer than every 2 years.
Any pressure washing service that tries to tell you that more frequent services are needed 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 home multiple times each year.
By touching the exterior of your home, you should be able to tell if it’s time for a cleaning. The presence of dirt, mud and grime can stain your home permanently if it isn’t washed off periodically, so you might have to deviate from a set schedule if you start to see excess buildup between cleanings.
Power washing sometimes can be harmful, but not doing it often enough can leave your home looking dirtier far more than it should. It’s important to note that building materials, especially vinyl siding, are very resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These materials help to protect your home between power washings.
Why Pressure Washing is the Preferred Method
Pressure washing is safer than scrubbing the exterior of your home because you do not need to climb a ladder with a rag and a bucket while pulling a garden hose. Power washing can be performed from the ground in most residential situations.
Mold and mildew are living organisms that eat away at home exterior surfaces and find their way into your home. They are not very easy to get rid of, yet it is very easy for them to form colonies on your home, especially on the north side of a home where it usually doesn’t get as much direct sunlight or wind as the other sides of your home.
Plus, power washing eliminates more dirt and grime than hand scrubbing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the below items can impact the appearance. They are all factors that must be considered before you call a nearby pressure washer or think about doing the job on your own.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and extreme weather events create a perfect environment for mold and mildew. If your home is in an area that is rainy, you may also have wind and a lot of rain splashing mud onto the exterior of your home.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold are sometimes bigger problem in some areas than in others. Living in a more rural area or near an unpaved road will factor into what type of environmental factors affect your home more.
HOME CONDITION
If you think it is time to have your home pressure washed, it might be a smart idea to have chipped siding repaired so the high pressure water doesn’t do any more damage. Power washing can also expedite a peeling paint issue.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The processes 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 company will use soft washing opposed to power washing to protect the shingles. Also, the results can vary widely.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Choosing the right time to have your home pressure washed is just as important as choosing how often the service needs to be performed. There are times throughout the year when power washing would be a real waste of time and money. Other times, however, a professional pressure washing could benefit you in more ways than just appearance.
WEATHER
Don’t waste any money on professional power washing during a rainy season. You’ll just end up with muddy splatter and mildew at the end of the season regardless. Winter, as an example, isn’t the best time. Pressure washing is the most impactful at the end of a season, whether it’s spring, summer, fall or winter.
BEFORE/AFTER HOME PROJECTS
Don’t plan to have your home pressure washed while you are having other projects done on your home. Rock, brick or siding might not be fastened into place during a renovation or repair like it will typically be, so you run the risk of harming the area, disrupting the other project and even trapping water below building materials.
BEFORE SELLING
Pressure washing is a smart way to increase your curb appeal. It’s the easiest solution for all your home’s exterior surfaces, including sidewalks, porches, driveways, patio furniture and wood and composite decks.
SUNNY DAYS
Pick a sunny day, but not one that is blazing hot. This is the best condition for the surfaces to dry fast without baking cleaning solutions onto your home’s surfaces.
If you are in an home owner’s association, there might be guidelines about how regularly you have your home power washed or if you can do it on your own or if you are required to hire a local service. You may only be under HOA rules regarding how your home looks, but it’s really up to you to keep it looking a certain way.
Power washing is one of the fastest and most effective ways to clean your entire home exterior. As long as it’s done the right way, it is safe for several home surfaces and can get rid of months of dirt and stains.