How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a fast fix once your house starts to look drab and outdated. Within hours, your house can be returned to its beautiful appearance from nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent pressure washing equipment at most home improvement stores, or you can enlist the help of a Costa Mesa pressure washing service. It might be expensive upfront, but you won’t have to deal with returning rented equipment or run the risk of damaging your house due to lack of training or experience.
However, pressure washing can damage your home as fast as it can renew it. The pressurized water is powerful enough to break windows, damage siding and destroy shingles. Therefore, you need to be careful about 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 on where your house is and environmental factors around that location.
Most professionals will recommend having your house pressure washed each year or, no longer than every 2 years.
Any pressure washing company that tells you more frequent cleanings are necessary is probably trying to squeeze a little more money out of you. However, it’s your home, and if you love how it looks after a cleaning, you can pressure wash your house many times a year.
By just touching the exterior of your house, you should be able to tell if it needs a cleaning. The presence of dirt, mud and grime can stain the outside of your house permanently if it isn’t washed off periodically, so you could have to change from a planned schedule if you notice too much buildup between cleanings.
Pressure washing sometimes can be detrimental, but not doing it enough will leave your house looking dirtier far more than it should. It’s important to note that home building materials, especially vinyl siding, are very resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These materials help to protect your house between pressure washings.
Why Pressure Washing is the Preferred Method
Pressure washing is a lot safer than scrubbing the outside of your house because you won’t have to climb up and down a ladder with a rag and a bucket while dragging ahose. Pressure washing can be accomplished from the ground in almost all residential situations.
Mold and mildew are organic organisms that can eat away at home exterior surfaces and eventually find their way into your house. They are not very easy to get rid of, yet it is really easy for these organisms to grow into colonies on your home, particularly on the north side of a home where it doesn’t get much sunlight or wind as the other sides of your house.
And, pressure washing gets rid of more dirt and grime than manual hand scrubbing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the following 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 weather events can create a perfect environment for mold and mildew. If you live in an area that is rainy, you might also have wind and rain splashing mud onto the side of your house.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold are more of a threat in some areas of Costa Mesa than in others. Living in a more rural area or near an unpaved road will determine what type of environmental factors affect your house more.
HOME CONDITION
If you do decide to have your house pressure washed, it could be a good idea to have damaged siding replaced so the high pressure water won’t do more damage. Pressure washing can also worsen a peeling paint problem.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The processes used for pressure washing are specific to your home’s exterior (brick, siding or paint) 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. And, the expected results can vary widely.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Determining the right time to have your house pressure washed is almost as important as deciding how often the service needs to be completed. There are different times during the year when pressure washing would be a total waste of time and money. Other times, however, a professional pressure washing can help you in more ways than appearance.
WEATHER
Do not waste your money on professional pressure washing in a rainy season. You’ll end up with mud splatter and mildew at the end of the season anyway. Winter, for example, isn’t the best time. Pressure washing is the most useful 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 could not be fastened into place during a repair like it would normally be, which means you run the risk of harming the area, prolonging the other project and trapping water underneath building materials.
BEFORE SELLING
Pressure washing is a smart way to increase your home’s curb appeal. It’s the simple answer for all your home’s outside surfaces, including sidewalks, porches, driveways, patio furniture and wood and composite decks.
SUNNY DAYS
Pick a bright, sunny day, but not one that is very hot. This is the best condition for the exterior surfaces to dry fast without baking cleaning chemicals onto your home’s exterior.
If you live in a neighborhood with an home owner’s association, there could be requirements about how regularly you have your house pressure washed or if you can do it on your own or if you have to hire a local company. You might only be under HOA rules concerning how your house looks, but it’s really up to you to keep it looking a certain way.
Pressure washing is one of the fastest and most effective ways to clean your entire home. As long as it’s done right, it is safe for most home surfaces and can remove months of dirt and stains.