Over time, your home’s exterior siding, brick, or patio area can become dingy thanks to accumulated dirt, dust, and mildew. Hire a pressure washing service to rinse the grime away.
It’s a fact of home ownership that you won’t be able to keep all of your exterior surfaces clean and sparkling all the time. Not only are you possibly dealing with hard-to-reach areas such as upper floors, nooks and crannies, and your roof, but you’re also fighting a losing battle against the elements. Over time, a layer of dirt, dust, mildew, pollen, and other environmental pollutants can make your home look dingy and grimy, especially if you have light-colored siding. But you don’t have to stand by as your home grows dirtier and dirtier. Bring in a pressure washing service to get your exterior walls, patio, sidewalks, and other areas looking like new again.
How It Works
In its most basic form, a pressure washer is a device that sprays out a powerful jet of water that can knock even embedded dirt, dust, and other debris loose from surfaces. A power washer’s pressure can be adjusted to spray at different strengths, depending on the surface to be cleaned and the stubbornness of the dirt. The user can also change the nozzle on the hose to get different effects, from a narrow, powerful stream of water to a more diffuse, gentler spray. Pressure washing professionals will often add detergent to the water, so that the liquid itself helps to loosen grime-lowering the level of pressure needed and thus the likelihood of damaging the surface.
What to Clean
A pressure washer can be used to clean siding, brick, concrete, asphalt, and even wooden exterior surfaces. The powerful spray can reach the top floors of a house with ease. It can remove mud and muck from a patio, sidewalk, driveway, or parking lot. However, not every power washing company will necessarily clean every surface. Contact your local pressure washing business to learn more about what services are available to you.
DIY vs. Professional
There are power washers available on the market for home use. These smaller units are either electric or gas-powered, and deliver a less powerful stream than an industrial-quality pressure washer. For smaller cleaning jobs, a consumer-model power washer might do the trick-but you’ll need to weigh the cost of purchasing the unit with how often you intend to use it. For a full house and property cleaning once every few years, bringing in a professional power washing team may actually be more cost effective.
Also note that all power washers-consumer and industrial models alike-can be dangerous if used incorrectly. The pressure at the nozzle of a power washer is strong enough to cause severe injury if you get in the way of the stream. A power washer can also dislodge objects from a surface and propel them away at a high speed, which could pose a danger to nearby people and objects. Finally, using the power washer incorrectly, particularly using a pressure that’s too high, can damage the surface you’re trying to clean. You might accidentally peel paint or leave the area dented or pockmarked. When you hire an expert to pressure wash your home or patio, he’ll take all necessary safety precautions to protect himself, you and your family, and your property. That includes knowing exactly what pressure is right for each cleaning scenario, so that you finish the process with a home that is clean and beautiful.
