How Often Does My Home Need Pressure Washing?
How Often Do I Need Orlando Pressure Washing
As a homeowner, you know that the exterior of your home is your first defense against the great outdoors. There’s a lot to protect against. There’s the wind, rain and sun. There’s dirt and grime. And then there are insects and plants. Before long these things can really start to take their toll.
It’s important to know that your exterior can protect you from a lot, but you should give it a hand every now and then. A little bit can go a long way and that’s why it’s often recommended that you give your exterior a good pressure wash. Not only does it make your home look new and fresh, it’s a great form of preventative care.
However, when it comes to the question of how often you should pressure wash the exterior of your home, a lot of homeowners just don’t know. If you don’t pressure wash it enough, not only will your home begin to look dirty, but degradation will set in much more quickly.
How often you should clean the exterior of your home depends on four factors. But before we get in to that, why do you need to pressure wash your home in the first place?
Why Should I Pressure Wash My Home?
Pressure washing your home is an important step to keeping your home in good shape and good appearance. Over time the exterior of your home will gain a build-up of dirt, dust, mildew, mold and fungi. This build up can make your home look old and neglected, and speed up the process of breakdown and weathering in the materials. Your paint will prematurely fail, staining can occur on siding and gutters, and lastly roots can grow causing splits and cracks.
Pressure washing is a way to blast away the accumulated grime and prevent these issues so you don’t end up spending all of your available time on scrubbing your home spotless. Pressure washing provides a steady stream of water capable of doing all the heavy work necessary in a decent amount of time. It removes irritants that can grind at your surface via weathering. It leaves the outside of your home looking freshly cleaned and cared for.
In addition, aside from helping homeowners cut down on the need to repaint, pressure washing can help prepare a house’s surface for repainting by blasting away peeling paint and paint chips. As you can see, pressure washing is the best way to give your home a thorough cleaning. Now let’s get back to when you should do it.
Contributing Factors
Something to think about when deciding when to pressure wash your home is where your home is or, in other words, the environment and climate in which you live. Leafy trees that grow on your property can lead to an increased need for more frequent washings. Living where there is a lot of airborne dust and dirt like by major roadways or construction work is also a cause for more frequent washings. Humid environments are at risk for increased mildew and mold growth, while places with heavy winds bring more dirt and leaves into the equation. It’s important to take these types of things in to consideration when deciding your pressure washing schedule. If you aren’t sure what specifically it is you have to account for be sure to contact your local Orlando, FL pressure washingprofessionals.
Another issue to consider is what the weather is going to be like around the time you’re planning on pressure washing. Timing is everything and weather plays an important factor in that. The best time for your home to be pressure washed is when the weather is mild and sunny. You don’t want high winds blowing leaves and debris right back at your home and undoing your work. You also don’t want to be out working on your home in particularly cold weather. Keeping that in mind, let’s move on to the four things to go by when deciding how often to pressure wash your Orlando home.
When it’s dirty
What’s the easiest way for a homeowner to tell when the exterior of their house needs to be cleaned? That may seem like a trick question, but the answer is legitimately: when it looks dirty. If your home looks dirty, in the sense that you can see it from a distance, or you can walk up to your home and run a finger over the siding only to pull that finger back covered in dirt, then it’s probably time for you to get it cleaned. Dust your finger off and head to the phone to call the professionals. If it’s to a point where you notice the dirt yourself, you can bet that it’s probably already affecting your home in a negative way.
As previously stated, if you live in an area with airborne dirt, like on a dirt road, or in places with high winds and airborne objects, your home will get dirty quicker and you’ll want to be sure your home’s exterior has frequent cleanings.
Rainfall
The amount of rainfall in your area is another thing to keep an eye on when deciding when to pressure wash. When you wash your car, you keep an eye on the rain. The same concept applies to your home. Water falling from the sky may seem like a free and easy way to have your home’s dirty exterior cleaned but that’s not the case. It may clean excess dirt and substances off of your home, but it’s not enough to remove all of it. Also that’s not accounting for whatever may be brought to your home with the process of rain. If you’re getting heavy rainfall, you’ll want to have your house cleaned.
Humidity levels
Humidity is never really looked at as a good thing. In the case of your home, it definitely shouldn’t be. Humid weather attracts mold and mildew, creating perfect growing conditions on your home. We all know mold and mildew growth isn’t good either, for both your home and the safety of your family living within it (especially with allergies). Not to mention that these growths can stain and damage your home while also making it look dirty. So keep an eye on humidity and when it happens, get a professional pressure washer to clean your home and ensure that the mold and mildew are terminated.
Once a year
Finally, as a general rule, you should get your home pressure washed at least once a year. When in doubt about when to do it, doing it annually is absolutely better than nothing. A good practice to help you remember is to do it once a year during your spring cleaning time. As you clean the inside of your home, the outside will be done as well, giving you a nice preventative clean inside and out. With the proper tools and chemicals, thanks to your Orlando pressure washing experts your home can look brand new, like it’s never had a trouble spot in its life.
You can’t go wrong by pressure washing annually
If you read this and you still aren’t sure, that’s totally fine. Contact us and we’ll do what we can to answer your questions. We’re more than happy to help you figure out a schedule that works for you and your home. If you are interested in a free quote from our Orlando pressure washing company, contact us here or call us today at 407.256.8610.