How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a fast solution once your home starts to look drab and outdated. Within hours, your home can be renewed to its beautiful appearance with nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent pressure washing equipment at most home improvement stores, or you can call a Aurora pressure washing service. It will be a little more costly upfront, but you don’t need to deal with returning rented equipment or the risk of harming your home because of lack of training or experience.
However, pressure washing can damage your home as fast as it can clean 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 pressure 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 a lot on where your home is located and environmental factors around that location.
Most professionals recommend having your home pressure washed once a year or, no longer than every 2 years.
Any pressure washing service that tells you that more frequent cleanings are needed is just trying to squeeze a little 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 home many times each year.
By touching the exterior of your home, you should be able to tell if it needs a cleaning. The presence of dust, mud and grime can stain the outside of your home permanently if it isn’t removed periodically, so you may have to deviate from a planned schedule if you start to see excess buildup between cleanings.
Pressure washing often can be harmful, but not doing it often enough will leave your home looking lackluster far more than it should. It’s necessary to note that building materials, especially vinyl siding, are very resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These types of materials protect your home between pressure washings.
Why Pressure Washing is the Preferred Method
Pressure washing is safer than scrubbing the outside of your home because you don’t need to climb up and down a ladder with a brush 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 find their way into your home. They are not very easy to remove, yet it is extremely easy for these organisms to create colonies on your exterior, particularly on the north side where it usually doesn’t get as much sunlight or wind as other sides of your home.
And, pressure washing eliminates more dirt and grime than hand washing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the below items can negatively impact the appearance of a home. All are factors that must be considered before you hire a local pressure washer or try to do the job yourself.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and extreme weather can create a perfect environment for mold and mildew to grow. If your home is in an area that is rainy, you might also have wind and rain splashing mud onto the side of your home.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold can be more of a 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 home more.
HOME CONDITION
If you do decide to have your home pressure washed, it may be a good idea to have chipped siding repaired so the high pressure water doesn’t do more damage. Pressure washing can also worsen a peeling paint problem.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The methods used for pressure washing are unique to your home’s exterior (brick, siding or paint) and the area of the home. For example, for roof cleaning, a pressure washing technician will use soft washing instead of pressure washing to protect the shingles. Also, the expected results can vary widely based on technique.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Choosing the best time to have your home pressure washed is just as important as determining how often the service should be performed. There are times during the year when pressure washing would be a real waste of time and money. Different times, however, a professional pressure washing can benefit you in more ways than appearance.
WEATHER
Do not waste any money on professional pressure washing during a rainy season. You’ll end up with mud stains and mildew by the end of the season anyway. Winter, for example, isn’t the best time of year. Pressure washing is most impactful near the end of a season, whether it’s spring, summer, fall or winter.
BEFORE/AFTER HOME PROJECTS
Don’t have your home pressure washed the same time you are having different work done on your home. Rock, brick or siding may not be sealed into place during a renovation or repair like it will normally be, which means you run the risk of ruining the area, prolonging the ongoing work and 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
Choose a sunny day, but not one that is extremely hot. This is the optimal condition for the exterior surfaces to dry fast without baking cleaning chemicals onto your home’s surfaces.
If you are in an HOA, there may be guidelines about how regularly you have your home pressure washed or if you can do it by yourself or if you are required to hire a professional. You might only be under HOA guidelines concerning how your home appears, but it’s usually up to you to keep it looking good.
Pressure washing is one of the most common 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 eliminate months of built up dirt and stains.