How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a quick solution after your house starts to look drab and dated. Within hours, your house can be returned 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 Troy pressure washing service. It will be a little more costly upfront, but you don’t need to deal with bringing back equipment or the risk of damaging your house due to lack of training or experience.
However, pressure washing can damage your home as quickly as it can beautify 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 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 located and weather factors based on that location.
Most pros recommend having your house pressure washed every year or, no longer than every 2 years.
Any pressure washing service that tries to tell you more frequent services are necessary is probably trying to squeeze a little more money out of you. However, it’s your home, and if you love the way it looks shortly after a cleaning, you can pressure wash your house multiple times a year.
By simply touching the wood or siding of your house, you should be able to tell if it’s time for a cleaning. The presence of dirt, mud and grime can stain your house permanently if it isn’t washed off periodically, so you may have to deviate from a planned schedule if you start to see a lot of buildup between cleanings.
Pressure washing can be harmful, but not doing it often enough will leave your house looking dirtier far more than it should. It’s necessary to note that modern building materials, especially vinyl siding, are resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These materials 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 do not need to climb a ladder with a brush and a bucket while dragging a garden hose. Pressure washing can be performed from the ground in most residential situations.
Mold and mildew are organic organisms that eat away at exterior surfaces and find their way into your house. They are not easy to get rid of, yet it is very easy for these things to grow into colonies on your home, particularly on the north side of a home where it doesn’t get as much direct sunlight or wind as the other sides of your house.
Plus, pressure washing eliminates more dirt and grime than manual hand washing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the following factors can impact the appearance of a home. All are factors that must be considered before you decide to hire a nearby pressure washer or try to do the job yourself.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and weather events create a perfect environment for mold and mildew to grow. If you live in a rainy area, you may also have wind and rain splashing mud onto the exterior of your house.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold are sometimes more of a problem in some areas of Troy than in others. Having a home in a rural area or near an unpaved road will determine what type of environmental factors impact your house more.
HOME CONDITION
If you think it is time to have your house pressure washed, it may be a good idea to have chipped siding replaced so the high water pressure won’t do more damage. Pressure washing can also worsen a peeling paint problem.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The processes 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. Additionally, the expected results can vary widely based on technique.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Determining the right time to have your house pressure washed is just as important as deciding how often the service has to be performed. There are different times during the year when pressure washing would be a real waste of time and money. Different times, however, a professional pressure washing could help you in more ways than appearance.
WEATHER
Don’t waste money on pressure washing in 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 the most useful near 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 the same time you are having different work done on your house. Rock, brick or siding may not be sealed into place during a renovation or repair like it would normally be, which means you run the risk of ruining the area, prolonging the ongoing work and trapping water below building materials.
BEFORE SELLING
Pressure washing is a smart 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 sunny day, but don’t choose one that is extremely hot. This is the perfect condition for the exterior surfaces to dry quickly without baking cleaning chemicals onto your home’s surfaces.
If you live in a neighborhood with an HOA, there may be requirements about how often you have your house pressure washed or if you can do it on your own or if you have to hire a local service. You may only be under HOA rules concerning how your house looks, but it’s ultimately up to you to have it looking maintained.
Pressure washing is one of the fastest 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 surfaces and can remove years of dirt and stains.