How Often Should You Pressure Wash Your Home?
Pressure washing is a quick option when your house starts looking drab and outdated. Within hours, your house can be renewed to its beautiful appearance with nothing more than high pressure water.
You can rent power washing equipment from home improvement stores, or you can enlist the help of a Oxnard pressure washing service. It will be expensive upfront, but you don’t have to deal with bringing back equipment or run the risk of damaging your house because of lack of training or experience.
However, power washing can damage your home as quickly as it can beautify it. The pressurized water can break windows, damage siding and ruin shingles. Therefore, you need to be careful how often you power wash your house 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 a lot on where your house is and weather factors around that location.
Most professionals encourage having your house pressure washed once a year or, no longer than every 2 years.
Any pressure washing service that tells you more frequent cleanings are needed is probably trying to squeeze a little more money out of you. However, it’s your house, and if you love the way it looks shortly after a cleaning, you can power wash your house multiple times a year.
By touching the exterior of your house, you will be able to tell if it’s time for a cleaning. The presence of dirt, mud and grime can stain the outside of your house permanently if it isn’t washed off from time to time, so you could have to deviate from a planned schedule if you start to see a lot of buildup between cleanings.
Pressure washing often 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 modern building materials, particularly vinyl siding, are very 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 a lot safer than scrubbing the outside of your house because you don’t have to climb a ladder with a rag and a bucket while pulling a garden hose. Pressure washing can be done from the ground in almost all residential situations.
Mold and mildew are living organisms that can eat away at home exterior surfaces and make their way into your house. They are not very easy to get rid of, yet it is really easy for these things to form 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, power washing removes more dirt and grime than hand scrubbing.
Factors that Affect Your Home’s Exterior
All of the below items can negatively impact the appearance of a home. They are all factors that need to be considered before you hire a local pressure washer or think about doing the job on your own.
CLIMATE
Factors like humidity and extreme 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 powerful wind and rain splashing mud on the exterior of your house.
ENVIRONMENT
Pollen, pollution and mold are sometimes bigger problem in some areas of Oxnard than in others. Living in a rural area or next to an unpaved road will factor into what types of environmental factors affect your house more.
HOME CONDITION
If you think it is time to have your house pressure washed, it could be a good idea to have chipped siding replaced so the high pressure water won’t do any more damage. Pressure washing can also expedite a peeling paint issue.
EXTERIOR FINISH
The processes used for pressure washing are specific 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 power washing to protect the shingles. Also, the 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 has to be performed. There are times during the year when power washing would be a total waste of time and money. Other times, however, a professional pressure washing service could help you in more ways than appearance.
WEATHER
Do not waste your money on power washing in a rainy season. You’ll end up with mud stains and mildew at the end of the season anyway. Winter, for example, isn’t the best time of year. Pressure washing is the most useful 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 the same time you are having different projects done on your house. Rock, brick or siding could not be tightened into place during a repair like it would normally be, so you run the risk of ruining the area, disrupting the ongoing work and trapping water under building materials.
BEFORE SELLING
Pressure washing is a smart 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
Pick a sunny day, but don’t choose one that is blazing hot. This is the best condition for the surfaces to dry quickly without baking cleaning chemicals onto your home’s surfaces.
If you are in an home owner’s association, there could be guidelines about how often you have your house power washed or whether you can do it yourself or if you are required to hire a local service. You might only be under HOA guidelines concerning how your house appears, but it’s really up to you to have it looking maintained.
Pressure washing is one of the fastest and most effective methods to clean your entire home exterior. As long as it’s done right, it is safe for several home surfaces and can eliminate months of dirt and stains.