Should You Be Using A Pressure Washer To Clean Your Home?

Here this blog post is all about “Should you be using a pressure washer to clean your home?”. Over time it is very common for organic growth like green algae to begin to grow in your home. This can not just be unsightly. It can actually cause damage to the building materials. Algae is a living organism that can root in and eat away at the paint. Organic growth can also retain water saturation which can cause rot and mould. Don’t even get me started on all the damage it can do to roofs and masonry. Even though organic growth can cause damage to your home, if you do not use the proper cleaning techniques while using a pressure washer. I run a pressure washing service near Pittsburgh PA, and I would like to go over how we clean homes to remove organic growth and not cause damage to building materials while cleaning.

First of all, remember to always wear protective PPE while cleaning. You will want safety glasses, a respirator, latex gloves, and possibly a face shield. Your health is nothing to play with and the chemical used to clean siding can cause serious harm to your skin, eyes, and lungs. The primary cleaner you will be using is sodium hypochlorite aka bleach.

Another thing to be aware of is the building materials you will be applying the sh ” sodium hypochlorite” to. Sherwin-Williams has an organic pigment problem with some of its paints. This leads to the colour of the paint going all disco when sh gets on it. SH will also pull oil base stains from wooden surfaces, bleach cloth materials, and clean/discolour building materials not intended to be cleaned when the leech water comes in contact with them. So Plan ahead, do test spots on building materials, and always make sure all windows and doors are sealed well.

So now we are ready to talk about how to get to cleaning. The technique we use to clean is called soft washing. This is when you use low water pressure to apply the sh, and surfactant soap that’s compatible with sh. Then rinse with low water pressure. Most Pressure washers will have a pressure valve where you can turn the pressure up and down. Having a higher gallon-per-minute machine helps, but if you go any higher than 4 gallons per minute you will need a buffer tank to fill up and draw water out of with your pressure washer. Otherwise, you could ruin your machine.

There are two ways of applying the cleaner. One is with an x jet. You will put the cleaner in a 5-gallon bucket. After wetting down the home you can then hook up the x jet to your wand, and put the draw hose into the bucket of cleaner. When you spray the house the suction created will pull the cleaner out of the bucket, and apply it to the home. Let dwell without drying for about 2 minutes then rinse. If the sun is baking the siding the day you are cleaning, then rinse immediately, and make multiple applications if necessary.

The second way to do this is called down streaming. This is where you will hook up a quick connect the line with a dropped stick to put into the bucket of cleaner right before your pressure washer hose. When you are ready to apply the cleaner you will put the drop stick into the bucket, then into a bucket of water when done flush your line and rinse the home.

When cleaning some building materials like roofs you will need a dedicated pump to achieve a stronger mix ratio. Most use 12-volt pumps, air diaphragm pumps, or gas roof pumps. Then you can use low water pressure from the pressure washer to rinse.

With concrete, you must be careful. If the masonry has not had at least 2 years to cure, then you will want to only soft wash it. If it has had two years to cure before cleaning then you can use a surface cleaner. This will clean the masonry better. You will apply cleaner by either x jet or downstream. Then use surface cleaning attachment. Then rinse and apply cleaner again to post-treat. Then water the broom.

We hope you are satisfied to your question “Should you be using pressure washer to clean your home?”. Well, thank you for reading, and good luck with your cleaning projects. I hope this can help you out. Keep following Guest Blogging Pro to read top-trending education blogs.