How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a quick fix after your house starts to look drab and outdated. 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 home improvement stores, or you can hire a Frisco pressure washing service. It might be costly upfront, but you don’t need to deal with returning equipment or the risk of harming 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 is powerful enough to break windows, damage siding and ruin roof 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 located and environmental factors around that location.
Most professionals will encourage having your house pressure washed once a year or, no longer than every 2 years.
Any pressure washing service that tries to tell you that more frequent services are needed is probably trying to squeeze more money out of you. However, it’s your house, and if you love the way it looks shortly after a cleaning, you can pressure wash your house multiple times a year.
By touching the wood or siding of your house, you will be able to tell if it needs a cleaning. The presence of dust, 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 a lot of buildup between cleanings.
Power washing can be harmful, but not doing it enough can leave your house looking dirtier far more than it should. It’s important to note that modern building materials, particularly vinyl siding, are resistant to stains, mold and mildew. These types of materials help to protect your house between pressure washings.
Why Pressure Washing is the Preferred Method
Pressure washing is safer than scrubbing the outside of your house because you won’t need to climb up and down a ladder with a rag and a bucket while dragging ahose. Power washing can be completed from the ground in most residential situations.
Mold and mildew are living organisms that eat away at home exterior surfaces and find their way into your house. They are not easy to get rid of, yet it is extremely easy for these things to form colonies on your home, particularly on the north side where it doesn’t get much direct sunlight or wind as other sides of your house.
And, pressure washing removes more dirt and grime than hand scrubbing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the below factors can impact the appearance. They are all factors that have to be considered before you hire a local pressure washer or try to do the job on your own.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and extreme weather create a perfect environment for mold and mildew to grow. If your home is in an area that is rainy, you might also have powerful wind and rain splashing mud on the side of your house.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold are more of a problem in some areas than in others. Having a home in a more rural area or next to an unpaved road will factor into what type of environmental factors impact your house more.
HOME CONDITION
If you think it is time to have your house pressure washed, it might be a smart idea to have chipped siding replaced so the high water pressure won’t do any more damage. Power washing can also worsen a peeling paint issue.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The methods used for pressure washing are unique to your home’s exterior (brick, siding or wood) and the section of the home. For example, for roof cleaning, a pressure washing service will use soft washing instead of pressure washing to protect the roof shingles. Also, the expected results can vary widely.
When to Pressure Wash Your Home
Choosing the best time to have your house pressure washed is as important as deciding how often the service should be completed. There are times throughout the year when pressure washing would be a total waste of time and money. Different times, however, a professional pressure washing service might benefit you in more ways than appearance.
WEATHER
Don’t waste your money on professional pressure washing in a rainy time of year. You’ll end up with muddy splatter and mildew at the end of the season anyway. Winter, for 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 house pressure washed the same time you are having different work done on your house. Rock, brick or siding might not be fastened into place during a renovation or repair like it will typically be, which means you run the risk of damaging the area, disrupting the other project and even trapping water underneath building materials.
BEFORE SELLING
Pressure washing is a smart way to increase your curb appeal. It’s the easiest solution for all your home’s outside surfaces, including sidewalks, porches, driveways, patio furniture and wood and composite decks.
SUNNY DAYS
Choose a bright, sunny day, but don’t choose one that is very hot. This is the best condition for the exterior surfaces to dry quickly without baking cleaning products onto your home’s exterior.
If you live in a neighborhood with an HOA, there might be guidelines about how often you have your house pressure washed or whether 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.
Power washing is one of the most common and most effective methods to clean your entire home. As long as it’s done right, it is safe for most home surfaces and can eliminate months of built up dirt and stains.