How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a quick solution if your home starts to look drab and dated. Within just a few hours, your home can be returned to its beautiful appearance by nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent pressure washing equipment from home improvement stores, or you can call a Cedar Park pressure washing service. It will be a little more expensive upfront, but you won’t need 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 quickly as it can beautify it. The pressurized water can break windows, damage siding and destroy shingles. Therefore, you really 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 located and weather factors around that location.
Most professionals encourage having your home pressure washed every year or, no longer than every 2 years.
Any pressure washing company that tells you that more frequent services are needed is just trying to squeeze a little more money out of you. However, it’s your house, and if you love how it looks right after a cleaning, you can pressure wash your home many times each year.
By touching the wood or siding of your home, you should be able to tell if it needs a cleaning. The presence of dust, mud and grime can stain the outside of your home 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 sometimes can be harmful, but not doing it often enough can leave your home looking dirtier more than it should. It’s necessary to note that modern building materials, especially vinyl siding, are resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These types of materials help to protect your home between pressure washings.
Why Pressure Washing is the Preferred Method
Pressure washing is safer than scrubbing the outside of your home because you won’t need to climb a ladder with a rag and a bucket while pulling ahose. Pressure washing can be accomplished from the ground in most residential situations.
Mold and mildew are organisms that eat away at exterior surfaces and make their way into your home. They are not easy to get rid of, yet it is really easy for these organisms to create colonies on your house, 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 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 impact the appearance. All are factors that have to be considered before you call a nearby pressure washer or think about doing the job yourself.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and weather events create a perfect environment for mold and mildew. If your home is in a rainy area, you might also have wind and rain splashing mud onto the side of your home.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold are more of a threat in some areas than in others. Living in a more rural area or near an unpaved road will determine what type of environmental factors affect your home more.
HOME CONDITION
If you do decide to have your home pressure washed, it might be a smart idea to have chipped siding replaced so the high water pressure doesn’t do more damage. Pressure washing can also worsen a peeling paint issue.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The techniques used for pressure washing are unique 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. Additionally, the results can vary widely based on technique.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Choosing the optimal time to have your home pressure washed is almost as important as deciding how often the service needs to be performed. There are times during the year when pressure washing would be a real waste of time and money. Other times, however, a professional pressure washing service might help you in more ways than just appearance.
WEATHER
Do not waste any money on professional pressure washing during a rainy time of year. You’ll just end up with muddy stains and mildew at the end of the season anyway. Winter, as an example, isn’t the best time of year. Pressure washing is the most beneficial near the end of a season, whether it’s spring, summer, fall or winter.
BEFORE/AFTER HOME PROJECTS
Don’t have your home pressure washed the same time you are having other projects done on your home. Rock, brick or siding might not be tightened into place during a renovation or repair like it would typically be, so you run the risk of harming the area, disrupting the other project and trapping water under building materials.
BEFORE SELLING
Pressure washing is a great way to increase your 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
Choose a sunny day, but don’t choose one that is blazing hot. This is the perfect condition for the surfaces to dry quickly without baking cleaning products onto your home’s siding or brick.
If you live in a neighborhood with an home owner’s association, there might be rules about how often you have your home pressure washed or if you can do it yourself or if you are required to hire a professional. You might only be under HOA guidelines concerning how your home appears, but it’s ultimately up to you to keep it looking good.
Pressure washing is one of the fastest and most effective ways to clean your entire home exterior. As long as it’s done correctly, it is safe for several surfaces and can eliminate months of dirt and stains.