Contractor Tips Blog

Nov
8

Make Your Siding Sparkle for Curb Appeal

Does your home look dull or rundown due to dirty siding? Mildew, dirt, pollen and other substances can stick to your siding, detracting from the beauty of your home. To make your home look beautiful and inviting, clean your siding and improve your curb appeal with pressure washing. It is a quick way to improve the beauty and value of your home, if you use the right tools and techniques.

Safely Cleaning Siding

Pressure washing can be used to clean most types of siding, but it is important to know the right methods. Too high of pressure or the wrong technique and you may damage the siding or loosen shingles. It is important to avoid certain problems, such as:

  • Getting water inside vents that can lead to water or mold damage
  • Lifting shingles
  • High pressure that can dent or pierce vinyl siding
  • Splintering wood siding or shingles
  • Removing paint from too high of pressure or too close of stream
  • Damage to soffits or fascia boards

While pressure washing can remove the dirt and mildew on your home, it can also cause thousands of dollars in damage if not done correctly. To make your siding look like new, it is best to hire a professional pressure washing service that has the right equipment, cleaners and experience to carefully and effectively clean your siding without doing any damage.

In just a few hours, your home’s siding can look fresh and new again. Contact a local pressure washing service to make your siding sparkle and improve your curb appeal. It can add value to your home and protect your siding from damage, making it a worthwhile investment to maintain your home.

Posted on behalf of:
Impact Pressure Washing
105 Commerce Drive
Fayetteville, GA 30214
(678) 697-7127

Aug
23

Improve Curb Appeal Immediately by Pressure Washing your House

If you are planning to sell your home, host a large reunion or simply want to spruce up the curb appeal of your home, pressure washing is the way to go! Years of dirt and grime could be holding your home’s beauty back. Pressure washing has many benefits, especially if done every few years.

Remove Algae and Mildew

Most pressure washing solutions contain chemicals such as mildewcides and rinsing agents that clean mildew and algae off your home and then be rinsed off in a matter of a few hours.  Feel good knowing your home is clean and sanitized.

Brighten Exterior Paint Colors

Years of dirt and grime can make a home look less vibrant and dull.  Pressure washing allows the color to shine through again for way less than it would cost to repaint.

Safe For Your Home

Most pressure washing companies offer a low pressure wash that can safely clean most exteriors such as wood, vinyl siding, stucco and brick surfaces. They have the techniques and cleaners that can easily wash those hard-to-reach areas.

Do It Yourself

It is also possible to rent a pressure washer from a local home improvement store. They usually charge by the day at reasonable prices. However, you’ll have to read up on the rinses you may want to use to spray on your home to be able to clean it properly. You can also use it to clean your driveway or gutters.  Once you get a clean spot, its hard to quit!

Overall, pressure washing is a much less expensive way to bring back he beauty of your home.  Consider hiring a professional or renting the equipment for your next home project.

Posted on behalf of:
JB Power Clean
Sherrills Ford, NC 28673
(704) 658-5896

May
20

Soft Washing Your Home

Many homeowners new to power washing mistakenly think that a professional cleaner can only do a good job cleaning their home’s exterior if they use very high pressure. But that’s not the case at all. Usually when you hire a contractor, the company will use a technique called soft washing. 

Soft washing streams water at a fairly low pressure rate of less than 1000 PSI, or pounds per square inch. With very high pressure washing, you risk damaging siding or even breaking windows, therefore high pressure, generally upwards of 3500 PSI, is reserved for industrial type jobs such as stripping paint off vehicles and, even then, it must be done in a controlled environment to minimize the risk of property damage or physical injury. 

What to expect when your home is soft washed? Well, it a relatively simple process whereby the side of the building being cleaned is first wetted down with a liquid detergent. Professional cleaners usually have a range of products, depending on the substance being eliminated – algae, mildew, paint or dirt, for example. The product will also be environmentally safe, so plants and animals will not be harmed. 

Once the detergent is applied, it is allowed to sit for a minute and then the pressure washing professional will start the rinsing process, beginning at the top of the building and working on down, saturating the surface and washing away the debris. Your home is left in a like new state, and there is no mildew – nor any damage – to be found. 

All this being said, however, it is always a good idea to ask a lot of questions and make sure you know what chemical, if any, is being put on your siding. A true professional will never take offense.

Mar
6

Low Pressure Exterior Washing For Painted Houses and Businesses

If you have ever had your home or office exterior pressure washed, you probably know what a conventional pressure washer does to paint.  Pressure washers have their place, but cleaning a painted home or office building is not one of them. 

A conventional pressure washer cleans using a stream of water that has been pressurized to between 2,000psi and 5,000 psi to blast away dirt and debris.  In comparison, the water coming out of a spray nozzle on a garden hose is about 50 psi.  This high pressure water does the job on dirt, but also does a number on the surface being cleaned. 

This is particularly true with paint.  When you pressure wash a painted house or office building, any loose paint or caulk is stripped away.  If you accidently get too close to the house with the pressure washer’s wand or use the wrong tip, even good paint will be stripped off.  As a result, you have no choice but repaint the whole house or office building. 

Low pressure washing is a much better alternative for cleaning the exterior of painted homes and buildings.  Low pressure washing uses effective, biodegradable, environmentally safe chemicals to clean the dirt, mold, mildew, and other debris from the outside of your home or building without harming the existing paint.  The surface is then rinsed with a high volume of low pressure water to safely clean the home or business.

With low pressure washing, all you get is clean.  Unlike conventional pressure washing, there is no danger of any damage to the paint or the underlying surface.  For a clean, great looking painted home or commercial building call your Cumming GA pressure washing contractor.

Mar
6

Pressure Washing with Low Pressure

Most people who need to clean the outside of their home, a driveway, basement or have any other large outdoor cleaning project use a pressure washer that cleans by blasting away dirt and debris by using water that has been pressurized up to 5,000 psi or more. 

You can buy or rent a pressure washer and do the job yourself or hire a professional pressure washer.  In either case, however, it is easy to do a lot of damage to your home or commercial building with an ordinary pressure washer.  Water under very high pressure can very quickly damage siding, concrete, bricks, mortar, and stucco.  It can drive water underneath siding and shingles and can damage the glazing or seals around window panes, causing the window to leak.

Inflicting damage with a pressure washer is most common with inexperienced homeowners, but even a professional can create a lot of damage before realizing it.  To get good results with a pressure washer without causing damage you have use the right tip on the spray wand and use the least amount of pressure needed to get the job done. 

Even then, sometimes damage is inevitable. For example, if you are washing bricks with soft mortar, the amount of pressure needed to clean the brick could severely damage the mortar. 

Fortunately, there is a better way to clean large outdoor surfaces.  Low pressure washing uses environmentally safe chemicals to clean the surface, followed by a large volume of low pressure water to rinse away the cleaning solution along with the dirt and debris.  Low pressure washing techniques are safe for all surfaces and avoid the problems inherent with high powered pressure washers.

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