How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a fast option when your house starts to look drab and outdated. Within hours, your house can be restored to its beautiful appearance with nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent pressure washing equipment at home improvement stores, or you can call a Torrance pressure washing service. It could be expensive upfront, but you don’t need to deal with returning equipment or run the risk of harming your house due to lack of training or experience.
However, pressure washing can damage your home as fast as it can beautify it. The pressurized water is powerful enough to break windows, damage siding and ruin shingles. Therefore, you have to be careful about how often you pressure wash your house 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 house is located and weather factors based on that location.
Most pros encourage having your house pressure washed every year or, at least every 2 years.
Any pressure washing service that tells you more frequent cleanings are needed is probably 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 dust, mud and grime can stain your house permanently if it isn’t washed off periodically, so you might have to change from a planned schedule if you notice excess buildup between cleanings.
Pressure washing often can be harmful, but not doing it enough can leave your house looking dirtier more than it should. It’s important to note that home building materials, especially vinyl siding, are resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These types of materials help to 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 won’t need to climb a ladder with a rag and a bucket while dragging a garden hose. Pressure washing can be accomplished from the ground in almost all residential situations.
Mold and mildew are organic organisms that eat away at home exterior surfaces and find their way into your house. They are not easy to remove, yet it is extremely easy for these organisms to create colonies on your home, particularly on the north side of a home where it usually doesn’t get much sunlight or wind as the other sides of your house.
And, pressure washing eliminates more dirt and grime than hand scrubbing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the following factors can impact the appearance. All are factors that must be considered before you decide to call a nearby pressure washer or try to do the job on your own.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and weather create a perfect environment for mold and mildew. If you live in a rainy area, you might also have powerful wind and rain splashing mud onto the side of your house.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold are sometimes more of a threat in some areas of Torrance than in others. Living in a more rural area or near an unpaved road will factor into what type of environmental factors impact your house more.
HOME CONDITION
If you do decide to have your house pressure washed, it might be a good idea to have chipped siding repaired so the high water pressure doesn’t do more damage. Pressure washing can also worsen a peeling paint problem.
E424-378-5245TERIOR FINISH
The techniques 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 opposed to pressure washing to protect the shingles. Also, the results can vary widely.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Determining the optimal time to have your house pressure washed is just as important as determining how often the service should be completed. 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 your money on professional pressure washing in a rainy time of year. You’ll end up with mud stains and mildew by the end of the season anyway. Winter, for example, isn’t the best time. Pressure washing is the most useful 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 while you are having different work done on your house. Rock, brick or siding might not be sealed into place during a repair like it should typically be, so you run the risk of harming the area, prolonging the other project and 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
Choose a bright, sunny day, but not one that is extremely hot. This is the best condition for the exterior surfaces to dry fast without baking cleaning products onto your home’s surfaces.
If you live in a neighborhood with an home owner’s association, there might be guidelines about how often you have your house pressure washed or whether you can do it on your own or if you are required to hire a local company. You might only be under HOA guidelines regarding how your house looks, but it’s ultimately up to you to keep it looking a certain way.
Pressure washing is one of the simplest and most effective ways to clean your entire home. As long as it’s done the right way, it is safe for a multitude of home surfaces and can get rid of years of dirt and stains.