When deciding to do a fresh paint job on the exterior of your home, it is important to clean the exterior of your home extremely well before applying any paint to its surface. Power washing is a simple and efficient way to clean the outside of your home fairly well. Though proper care must be taken when pressure washing in order to prevent damage to your home’s siding.
The idea of pressure washing is simply to remove dirt and debris from the exterior of your home, nothing more. If you notice that paint is being stripped of your home you are using too much pressure and should change the method you are using.
Protect Your Landscaping
If you have any objects or plants that are obstructing the wall you are wishing to clean, cover them with a protective sheet of plastic to protect them from being damaged by the pressure washers high powered stream. These may include plants, shrubs or utilities like your air-conditioning condenser.
Pre-spray Off Large Debris
This step is an important step to get a good cleaning on your home or building. To begin, you will want to spray off the siding with relatively low water pressure and just water. Working your way down from the top of the structure down, removing most visible debris such as nests, leaves and dirt. Once this step is complete, let the siding dry.
Bleach Mildew Areas
As stated before, never put bleach into your pressure washer was it can damage the internals. Though if your property has mildew staining its exterior, use a mixture of 1 part bleach to 10 parts water. Use a sponge to apply it to the effected areas and let dry.
Use Cleaning Solutions and Pressured Water
You will want to continue onto this step only when the side you are cleaning is not in direct sunlight and low winds.
Pour the cleaning solution into the tank of your pressure washer and work from the bottom up, low pressure and wide sprayer. Reference your pressure washers manual to determine the right setting when using a cleaning solution.
Spray from left to right, moving upward while trying top maintain a downward angle while cleaning. If necessary you might want to use a step ladder to reach higher up places to maintain the correct angle.
Rinse
Allow the cleaning solution to work its magic it’s time to rinse off the siding. To rinse the siding you will want to increase the pressure of your power washer and set it to aa wide spray angle. But, always remember to keep on mind that siding is delicate when coming into contact with a high powered pressure washer and you want to be careful to maintain the correct distance and angle of spray.
Once you rinse the cleaning solution from the exterior of the home or building, let it dry for at least two days before painting or until any bare wood is completely dry.
Cleaning your home isn’t an extremely difficult task, though if you don’t have the time or ability to take on the chore your self before painting put home. Consider hiring a professional company like Signature Painting Inc. to get the job done for you the right way on your time frame. Call us today to learn about our commercial and residential cleaning and painting solutions.