How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a quick fix after your home starts to look drab and dated. Within just a few hours, your home can be restored to its beautiful appearance with nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent pressure washing equipment from most home improvement stores, or you can call a Silver Spring pressure washing service. It might be costly upfront, but you won’t have to deal with bringing back equipment or run the risk of harming your home due to lack of training or experience.
However, pressure washing can damage your home just as fast as it can renew it. The pressurized water can break windows, damage siding and destroy shingles. Therefore, you 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 heavily on where your home is and environmental factors around that location.
Most professionals will recommend having your home pressure washed each year or, at least every 2 years.
Any pressure washing company that tells you more frequent cleanings are needed is just trying to squeeze more money out of you. However, it’s your home, and if you love how it looks right after a cleaning, you can pressure wash your home many times a year.
By just touching the exterior of your home, you will 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 removed from time to time, so you may have to deviate from a planned schedule if you notice a lot of buildup between cleanings.
Power washing often can be harmful, but not doing it often enough can leave your home looking lackluster far more than it should. It’s important to note that modern building materials, especially vinyl siding, are very resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These materials protect your home between pressure washings.
Why Pressure Washing is the Preferred Method
Pressure washing is a lot safer than scrubbing the outside of your home because you won’t have to climb a ladder with a rag and a bucket while pulling ahose. Power washing can be completed from the ground in almost all residential situations.
Mold and mildew are living organisms that can 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 extremely easy for these organisms to create colonies on your exterior, especially on the north side of a home where it usually doesn’t get much sunlight or wind as other sides of your home.
Plus, pressure washing gets rid of more dirt and grime than hand scrubbing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the below items can negatively impact the appearance. All are factors that need to 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 can create a perfect environment for mold and mildew. If you live in a rainy area, you might also have wind and rain splashing mud on the exterior of your home.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold are sometimes more of a problem in some areas than in others. Living in a rural area or next to an unpaved road will determine what types of environmental factors affect your home more.
HOME CONDITION
If you do decide to have your home pressure washed, it may be a smart idea to have chipped siding repaired so the high pressure water doesn’t do more damage. Power washing can also worsen a peeling paint issue.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The techniques used for pressure washing are specific to your home’s exterior (brick, siding or paint) and the section of the home. For example, for roof cleaning, a pressure washing service will use soft washing opposed to pressure washing to protect the shingles. Also, the results can vary widely based on technique.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Determining the correct time to have your home pressure washed is just as important as choosing how often the service has to be performed. There are different times throughout the year when pressure washing would be an ultimate waste of time and money. Different times, however, a professional pressure washing can benefit you in more ways than just appearance.
WEATHER
Do not waste any money on pressure washing during a rainy time of year. You’ll just end up with mud stains and mildew at the end of the season anyway. Winter, as an example, isn’t the best time of year. Pressure washing is most impactful at the end of a season, whether it’s spring, summer, fall or winter.
BEFORE/AFTER HOME PROJECTS
Don’t have your home pressure washed while you are having other work done on your home. Rock, brick or siding may not be fastened into place during a renovation or repair like it would normally be, which means you run the risk of harming the area, prolonging the other project and even trapping water under building materials.
BEFORE SELLING
Pressure washing is a great 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 don’t choose one that is blazing hot. This is the optimal condition for the surfaces to dry fast without baking cleaning products onto your home’s siding or brick.
If you are in an HOA, there may be guidelines about how regularly you have your home pressure washed or whether you can do it on your own or if you have to hire a professional. You might only be under HOA rules regarding how your home looks, but it’s really up to you to have it looking a certain way.
Power washing is one of the easiest 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 built up dirt and stains.