Clearing the confusion You may have heard the term “soft washing” being promoted and wondered…
Keeping the exterior of your home clean has benefits that you may not realize. First, it keeps your home looking its best, gives the overall curb appeal a boost. Keeping the exterior cleans will make it healthier, too by removing dirt, grime, fungus, mildew, and mold. Even though these are on the outside of your home, they are affecting the inside too.
With a professional that has experience at pressure washing or soft washing a house, they will know which method is best for your home’s exterior, decks, driveway, and more. So, you know what factors they consider in going with a soft wash or pressure wash, understand the differences:
Soft Washing and Pressure Washing: What Is The Difference?
While both methods are effective in getting things clean, they perform their jobs differently. A house soft washing waives the pressurization method and depends more on the chemicals used. The pressure washing service you choose to go with should be able to talk to you about soft washing a house and the chemicals they use. Those chemicals should be not only safe for your home but environmentally safe. And you want them to work!
The pressure wash method depends on the high-powered pressure, not the chemicals, to remove that dirt, grime, fungus, mildew, and mold. However, depending on the surface that it applies to could be damaging. It is an effective method, but if you must go back and replace siding or worse, roof shingles or a window, then you’re getting more than you expected and it isn’t good.
When is House Soft Washing Better Than Pressure Washing?
A pressure washing method uses a wand that can blast water as high as 2,500 PSI or more. While this will remove dirt, stains, and more, it can also leave damage behind. It will also remove paint, tear window screens, crack plastic siding, and more. Pressure washing is good for these types of surfaces:
- Concrete sidewalks
- Concrete driveways
- Concrete walkways
- Paved patios
- Brick or stone facade
Soft washing a house is the better choice because it is at 1,000 PSI or less. This method is giving the cleaning chemicals more responsibility. House soft washing is a better method for the following:
- Cedar shake
- Lanai’s
- Screens and screened-in enclosures
- Stucco and coquina
- Wood panel siding
There Are A Place and Time For Pressure Washing
It’s a matter of knowing the when and where as much as the how that makes the difference. Pressure washing is a broad term that comes with a stigma. It is always linked to blowing the paint off the house, blowing out the window seals, even destroying landscaping or more.
This usually comes from a bad experience for one of the following reasons:
1). It was a DIY attempt
2). An inexperienced contractor
The portable power washers you can buy at the local big box stores are great, but they aren’t commercial scale and the instructions aren’t providing you the best instructions. They won’t tell you they went to do a soft washing house or a pressure washing. A commercial-grade pressure washer will dispense diluted chemicals properly. It will apply the volume to the pressure ratio for the surfaces you’re cleaning.
To summarize, pressure washing a house and Soft washing a house is both an acceptable process for a home. You simply need to know which pressure to use on what surface and when. Going with a professional contractor that has a strong reputation and proven experience is always best. This will give you a guarantee the job is done right and if there is a problem, they will be bonded and insured.