So you get a letter from your HOA that says you’ll be fined if you don’t get that ugly green algae and mildew off of your house. Then you start looking for ways to clean it off of your house. Somewhere along the way you’ve heard this new phrase “Soft Wash.”
The terms “House Soft Wash” make house cleaning sound like a complex process. It’s not. You don’t have to have a trailer, tanks, pumps, and the whole nine yards. There are ways you can do this yourself and if you’re a pressure washing guy, you already have what you need and don’t need to buy all that fancy equipment. Either way, to soft wash your home you’ll need to have some kind of pressure washer.
What We Use
I’m a certified paint coatings inspector. Protecting a house’s paint job is always paramount when I take on a soft wash job.
I’ll share my methods which work very well for us. First things first! What ingredients do we use to clean houses? You’ll hear many different opinions and various hacks, however, we like to use products that are actually intended for house washing. You’ll need bleach and Jomax to start. There are batching instructions on the Jomax label. When mildew is heavy, a little more bleach in the batching is needed.
Generally a pump up sprayer is used to apply the solution to the house but you can also downstream it through your pressure washer hose and a detergent injector.
Once you have your batch made up simply apply it to the house and let it do the work. Here’s the important part! Never use high pressure to clean Hardie Board, stucco, vinyl, or even wood siding! We employ black pressure washing tips which significantly reduce pressure to that of 2x the strength pressure of a garden hose. You want chemical and detergent to do the work, not pressure. it’s easy to damage a home structure with a pressure washer. if you decide to use a nozzle like your yellow or green tip – be sure to cut the pressure at the machine and maintain a good distance from the siding.
Cleaning Glass and Windows
On nearly all window cleaning, we wet the surface first with detergent and then we’ll use a soft house washing brush to wash the glass, muttons, ledges, etc., and then we’ll rinse it off. Pressure washing or soft washing alone don’t generally clean these surfaces very well. Moreover, by gently washing them by hand, you get the gunk, dirt, and mildew off while putting very little water on the inside of the house.
Vegetation
It’s important to water all vegetation! Keep wetting it with fresh clean water! Doing this will keep your plants, grass, bushes, and trees very happy and unharmed.
Summary
Cleaning your home is a very good way to keep your home looking fresh, extend the life of your paint film, and maintain great curb appeal. It should never be a regrettable experience that leaves you with damaged surfaces! Need help with pressure washing?