House Washing Tips You Need To Know Before You Wash Your House.
We’ve all done this. You take a walk around your house, look up, then look down. Do the old finger wipe trick. Take a look and examine the possibilities of how this happened so fast, and wonder, “if I just grab the hose and give it a quick bath it should be fine. It’s just a bit dusty.”
Suddenly, 3 or 4 (or 10) hours later in the heat, you’ve completed the task at hand and a job well done. Look at that. How remarkably shiny my siding looks! Filled with pride and accomplishment you head inside to boast to the family about how much money you just saved by doing it on your own. You get the kids to press pause on the controller and come outside because it’s lesson time.
Except, who got schooled? The house looks worse than before! There are black streaks down the siding. Half of it’s dried up black already and you can’t even wipe it off! What the heck? Now you just got a couple of minutes worth of sighs, eye rolls, and hunchback kids slowly slumping back into the house full of confusion. Why dad, Why? (note: this is not a gender-specific role, but I’m a guy and can’t relate otherwise.)
This is the time where you should probably just call a professional house washing company to take care of it, but just in case you aren’t finished with your lesson, here are some commonly asked questions that we can help you answer.
House Washing Tips #1: What is the best way to wash a house?
Usually, dirt and grime, mold, and mildew can stay on your siding for a long period of time because siding does have some porous properties to it, as well as the embedded design. The design itself can be enough to allow the dirt and grime to stay firm and collect.
Step 1: We recommend a simple house wash solution, most professional house washing companies will mix up a batch of their own ingredients they have tested that work for them. You can buy a house wash solution at any hardware store, like Canadian Tire.
We recommend adding a bit of dawn dish soap to the mix to help the house wash mix stick better on the siding and help pull the dirt away.
Step 2: Starting with your soap tip, start from the bottom of the siding and slowly work your way up as high as you can go, hopefully, that’s the top. If you can’t reach the top, you may need a wand extension, or use a ladder to get higher up.
Step 3: Let the house wash mix dwell for around 5 to 15 minutes. Do not let it dry or you could have issues. If it starts to dry, add a bit more solution.
Step 4: Rinse from top to bottom until all house wash mix is off and your siding appears to have shiny appeal to it.
That’s it! It’s really that simple. There are other variables to consider as well like:
- Covering electrical outlets and lights.
- Using a 12v pressure spray pump instead of a pressure washer.
- Making sure you read your pressure washer specs.
- Doing your research! There are lots of tutorials you can find on YouTube.
- Maybe just hiring a pro to do it like ClearView Home Services.
House Washing Tips #2: Is pressure washing or power washing my house a bad idea?
The first thing I can say is that using high pressure to wash your house is strongly discouraged. You will not only cause permanent damage, but you could also create flying debris that, if you’re not protected, can harm you.
Pressure washing a house, especially vinyl siding, can lead to creating lines and stroked patterns in the vinyl that may be unrepairable. Like this:
It’s not to say you can’t use high pressure to wash your house, you just need to make sure you are using the right pressure, and the right tips, for your wand. Never use the 0-degree red tip to wash your house. It will not clean your house, even if you think it makes sense.
House Washing Tips #3: Will bleach ruin the siding of my house?
Actually, not like you think. In fact, most professional house washing companies use an industrial grade bleach for house washing and roof washing. There are even times you can get away using bleach from the store. Always mix with water so you have some barrier there, especially for hot days.
What you do not want to happen is to have bleach dry on your siding, as it can cause lasting color pigmentation.
Always have someone with you water down the area and bushes that you’re cleaning close to. This will completely turn the solution into a saline type solution that’s not harmful and will not kill the plants and greenery nearby.
Always wear eye protection and even ventilating masks to protect your skin and lungs.
Never mix bleach with other chemicals, ever, unless you’ve done your research or you’re a professional that’s trained to handle chemicals, like WHMIS.
Or…just hire us to do it.
House Washing Tips #4: Can you use dawn to wash your house?
Dawn by itself will not wash your house. The only way that will work is if you decide to scrub your entire house with a heavy-duty brush and pole. Dawn can work in conjunction with a store-bought house wash mix. It’s a surfactant that will actually stick to the dirt to help pull it away from surfaces. That’s why it works great for dishes.
House Washing Tips #5: What does Soft Washing a house mean?
Soft washing is simply using low pressure to wash a surface with the use of proper chemicals and mixes. It was invented to help protect homeowners from causing damage to their homes and roofs with high-pressure power washers.
If you ever come across a business that’s offering to wash your house using machines like a surface cleaner, stay away! It’s a horrible idea!
Summary
As it can be fun and enjoyable to spend your weekend cleaning up the home and spending the day outside, we encourage you to make sure you do your research before attempting any roof cleaning or house washing yourself. If you know what you’re doing and can handle using different tips and different pressure types to wash your house then we are happy you can do that.
Otherwise, hire a professional company that’s been in the industry awhile and can guarantee results that last for longer than 3 months.
Kevin Trout
ClearView Home Services
34-10550 248 St
Maple Ridge, BC
V2W 0H9
https://cvhomeservices.com/house-washing
https://www.google.com/maps?cid=16888362697555938950
