Can you remember when you last took the time to wash your house’s exterior? If not, you should consider hiring professionals to assist you with the task. While a house exterior wash requires the right tools and lots of time and energy, it also ensures the longevity of your home’s materials.
How to Wash Your House Exterior
If you aren’t sure how to clean a house exterior or where to begin, use this checklist to clean all pertinent areas of your home’s exterior.
Roof
When cleaning the roof, trim trees and remove any debris, like fallen branches, twigs, and moss. These materials create an ecosystem for moss to flourish. Moss receives sustenance from damp, decaying matter and damages your roof shingles in the process.
Gutters
Gutters collect small debris like sticks and dead leaves. As the gutters become weighed down, they can’t redirect water as efficiently. After cleaning your roof, you should empty the gutters.
Windows
Dirt and grime scratch each window’s surface, making the glass more fragile. Heavy winds blow debris into the window’s edges. Window maintenance is an important part of learning how to clean the outside of a house. It’ll prevent drafts and improve natural light.
Vinyl Siding
Dirt and mold cover your home’s vinyl siding over time. The dirt can weaken the material’s integrity, while mold causes respiratory problems. You can eliminate this debris with thorough pressure washing.
Brick Walls
When you wash house exteriors made of brick, make sure you choose a brick-safe solution. While brick is one of the most durable materials for exterior surfaces, it requires different care than vinyl or plastic siding.
Garage Door
Like your windows, your garage door can trap debris in its mechanics or around its edges. It can also collect a film of dirt and mold. Using a method similar to that applied to your vinyl siding, wash your garage door and the surrounding trim.
Driveway & Sidewalks
Driveways and sidewalks collect debris throughout the year. But after washing your house from top to bottom, it’ll catch much more debris than it usually does. This is the perfect time to clean all paved areas with pressure washers.
Methods in Washing House Exterior
Like many home improvement projects, you can’t wash a house exterior without planning or acquiring the proper tools and cleaning products. You will need assistance from a cleaning professional to access hard-to-reach areas. Other surfaces, like the siding, need a professional cleaning solution that removes debris without harming surrounding flora and fauna.
Preparing the Exterior of Your Home
Preparation begins with removing any loose detritus from and preparing the roof. A homeowner who knows how to clean the exterior of a house typically starts here. Remove all loose detritus from the roof’s surface first.
Then, use water and an appropriate solution to loosen moss and lichen. While the cleaning solution soaks, begin preparing the rest of your home’s external surfaces with a similar method. Remove loose leaves and branches when necessary and follow up with a pre-wash soak.
Alternatively, consider hiring a professional to handle high areas, such as gutters and roofs, to prevent severe injuries.
Cleaning Using a Garden Hose
After finishing the preparation process, you can begin soft cleaning. This method involves using a garden hose for certain materials. Find a nozzle with multiple settings from which you can choose.
A good nozzle allows you to use just enough pressure without damaging the materials. Then, thoroughly spray and clean more fragile architectural structures in the following order:
- Roof
- Gutters
- Painted wood structures and borders
- Windows
You can use more cleaning solutions as needed to achieve the desired cleanliness level.
Remember to double-check that the cleaning solution used doesn’t damage or erode the materials on which you use it.
Using a Pressure Washer to Clean
Finally, use a pressure washer to clean more durable surfaces, such as driveways, sidewalks, concrete structures, and vinyl siding. Avoid using a pressure washer on the following materials:
- Stucco
- Brick
- Glass
Even certain types of vinyl siding can sustain damage from high-pressure washing methods. Many homeowners leave this and other steps to a cleaning professional to circumvent costly mistakes and unattractive consequences. While you can easily tackle many tasks involved in washing your home’s exterior, others can lead to expensive damage and even injuries.
Washing the House Exterior: Why Must You Do It?
Many homeowners mistakenly believe that exterior washing and cleaning only improve their property’s curb appeal or prevent HOA violations. While washing your home’s exterior consumes time and energy, it preserves the integrity of your home’s structure. Discover some of the benefits below.
Preventing House Damage
Your home’s exterior is your family’s first line of defense from the elements. Each exterior surface remains exposed to harsh outdoor elements throughout the year. Moisture, sunlight, heat, and wind cause constant wear and tear.
When rain falls, it soaks into each exposed surface. As a result, dirt, leaves, and other debris stick to the wet surfaces. When the sun comes out, it rapidly evaporates all moisture.
This cakes debris onto each surface while overdrying the materials. The process repeats day after day, weakening the building’s structural materials. Washing the house exterior prevents this damage with protective cleaning solutions.
Routine Exterior Washing Maintenance Saves Your Money in the Long Run
Without exterior maintenance, your paint, siding materials, and roof shingles require more repairs, reapplication, and replacement services. Wear and tear from weather becomes more obvious. Homeowners make their houses look new for years with an exterior maintenance routine.
House Exterior Cleaning Removes Health and Safety Risks
When debris becomes trapped on your roof and siding, it attracts mold in places that stay moist and receive little sunlight. The decaying matter can cause the materials to rot. Additionally, mold growth poses serious respiratory health risks.
As the mold spreads, spores could reach your interior, which increases associated health risks.
Cleaning The House’s Exterior is a Needful Preparation for Refinishing your Home
If you want an exterior coat of paint or wood stain, you can prepare each surface with a cleansing power washing service. It’ll remove old paint and dirt.
Tools You’ll Need When Washing Your House Exterior
When you embark upon the strenuous task of washing your house, you’ll need to purchase several tools. This equipment helps ensure your safety and a thorough job. Before you start, make sure you have the following:
- A ladder to access high places such as gutters and the rooftop
- Personal protection equipment, including gloves, goggles, masks, and a pair of durable, waterproof boots that grip slippery surfaces
- Disposable bags or plastic buckets in which you can deposit debris
- Garden hose
- Tools like rags, squeegees, multi-setting nozzles, scrapers, scoops, and other items for efficient cleaning
- Brushes with soft and hard bristles to remove stubborn moss and buildup
- A pressure washer
- An assistant to ensure your safety when working on the roof or with a ladder
- Soaps and other cleaning products that are safe both for each surface material and the surrounding environment
While you can purchase most items at home improvement stores, use caution when selecting them. Research which ingredients can harm the surface materials, and make certain you use proper cleaning methods for each surface.
Otherwise, you could cause more damage than the wear and tear you want to combat. For example, some surfaces can’t handle abrasive tools or cleaning solutions and could decay further from harsh solutions. Other solutions aren’t strong enough to deeply clean certain surfaces.
Always put safety first throughout the process. While this seems obvious, losing focus for a moment on the roof or ladder has dire consequences.
Cost of DIY vs. Professional Exterior House Cleaning
Like many homeowners, you may feel tempted to take on this enormous job alone. After all, why pay a professional cleaner when you could do it for free? But unless you already have quick, cost-effective access to the equipment listed above, you could pay more out of pocket for a DIY job.
Once you purchase all the necessary equipment, you’ll rack up a total between $1,500 and $2,000. That only includes the financial burden. You also need storage space for this equipment, plenty of time and energy, and good weather to finish each task.
If you make a mistake, you could incur additional costs to offset avoidable damage and injuries. Meanwhile, the most professional exterior house cleaning services cost between $500 and $1,500, depending on each area’s size. Professional cleaning services offer a safe, cost-effective, and more reliable method of keeping your home’s exterior clean.
Plus, you also free up your own energy and time. Spend those invaluable resources on the friends and family who deserve them.
Contact the Evergreen Cleaning Team
Our team at Evergreen Window Cleaning provides quality services informed by professional experience. When it’s time to wash your house exterior, choose us for comprehensive services in Shoreline, WA, and surrounding areas. Call us to get a free quote today!
Contact us via our convenient online form or call our team.
