How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a fast option once your house starts to look drab and outdated. Within just a couple of hours, your house can be restored to its beautiful appearance from nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent power washing equipment from most home improvement stores, or you can enlist the help of a New Braunfels pressure washing service. It will be a little more expensive upfront, but you don’t have to deal with returning rented equipment or run the risk of damaging your house because of lack of training or experience.
However, power washing can damage your home as fast as it can clean it. The pressurized water can break windows, damage siding and destroy roof shingles. Therefore, you need to be careful how often you power 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 weather factors around that location.
Most pros recommend having your house pressure washed each year or, no longer than every 2 years.
Any pressure washing technician that tries to tell you that more frequent services are necessary is probably 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 power wash your house many times each year.
By simply touching the wood or siding of your house, you will be able to tell if it needs a cleaning. The presence of dirt, mud and grime can stain your house permanently if it isn’t washed off periodically, so you might have to deviate from a planned schedule if you start to see too much buildup between cleanings.
Pressure washing can be detrimental, but not doing it enough can leave your house looking lackluster far 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 power washings.
Why Pressure Washing is the Preferred Method
Pressure washing is much safer than scrubbing the outside of your house because you don’t have to climb up and down a ladder with a rag and a bucket while dragging a garden hose. Pressure washing can be completed from the ground in almost all residential situations.
Mold and mildew are organic organisms that can eat away at exterior surfaces and make their way into your house. They are not easy to remove, yet it is very easy for them to form colonies on your exterior, especially on the north side where it doesn’t get much sunlight or wind as other sides of your house.
And, power washing gets rid of more dirt and grime than hand scrubbing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the below factors can negatively impact the appearance of a home. They are all factors that need to be considered before you decide to hire a local pressure washer or think about doing the job yourself.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and weather events 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 a lot of rain splashing mud on the side of your house.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold are bigger problem in some areas of New Braunfels than in others. Living in a more rural area or next to an unpaved road will determine what types of environmental factors affect your house more.
HOME CONDITION
If you think it is time to have your house pressure washed, it might be a good idea to have damaged siding repaired so the high water pressure doesn’t do any more damage. Pressure washing can also expedite a peeling paint issue.
EXTERIOR 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 technician will use soft washing opposed to power washing to protect the roof shingles. And, the results can vary widely based on technique.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Determining the optimal time to have your house pressure washed is almost as important as choosing how often the service should be completed. There are different times during the year when power washing would be an ultimate waste of time and money. Different times, however, a professional pressure washing can help you in more ways than appearance.
WEATHER
Don’t waste any money on power washing during a rainy time of year. You’ll end up with muddy stains and mildew at the end of the season regardless. Winter, as an example, isn’t the best time of year. Pressure washing is most beneficial 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 other work done on your house. Rock, brick or siding might not be sealed into place during a renovation or repair like it will typically 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 cost-effective way to increase your curb appeal. It’s the easiest 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 don’t choose one that is extremely hot. This is the optimal condition for the surfaces to dry fast without baking cleaning chemicals onto your home’s exterior.
If you have an HOA, there might be requirements about how regularly you have your house power washed or if you can do it on your own or if you are required to hire a professional. You might only be under HOA guidelines regarding how your house appears, but it’s usually up to you to keep it looking maintained.
Pressure washing is one of the quickest and most effective ways to clean your entire home exterior. As long as it’s done right, it is safe for a multitude of surfaces and can remove months of dirt and stains.