What is soft washing and does my home need it?
Soft washing, wait what? OK, let’s go back a step. Typically there are three ways you can remove built up grime on the exterior of your home. First, power washing, which pretty much blasts hot water at a hard surface to clean it; secondly pressure washing, which doesn’t use hot water, but still blasts water at hard surfaces and we typically recommend it for hard surfaces with groves (like decking). And finally softwashing.
Soft washing utilizes a pressure washer pumping water at a much lower pressure per square inch (PSI). We change the tip of the pressure washer to widen the spray and lower the pressure to apply a biodegradable cleaning solution to safely remove grime and organic growth from the exterior of your home.
Benefits of softwashing
We firmly believe soft washing is the best method for removing moss, lichen and algae from softer surfaces like roofs, sidings, stucco and dryvit. Pressure washers can damage these softer surfaces and void their warranties (and who wants that?!)
Soft washing treats the root cause of the organic growth and kills the spores, without damaging your home or the environment. It also uses less water, is safe for all building materials, gives long lasting results and doesn’t damage the exterior surfaces of your home.
Why might your home need it?
All external surfaces parts of your home must be kept clean since they are exposed to the environment. We also recommend that this cleaning is done as part of your regular home maintenance cycle.
Whenever we clean residential properties, including bricks or stones we will always recommend soft washing. Many people will often cause unintended damage to stone or brick through the use of unsuitable pressure settings. More pressure is not necessarily better in this case! Bricks and stone add so much natural beauty to your home. Why not keep them maintained, so they continue to do that for years to come.
Soft washing combines water with a cleaning agent, so all surfaces are being cleaned and treated simultaneously by removing any organic growth living on them. The cleaning agent soaks into the brick or stone, kills the microorganisms inside and then the cleaning agent is rinsed away using the soft pressure tip or a rinse tip. You can slow and even prevent erosion with yearly cleaning, which will help prevent the organic growth from taking hold of your home.
What to expect from the process
Soft washing will give your home a deep clean, obviously the aesthetics will be obvious. But your health can also be impacted by long-term build up of organic growth. A garden house and scrubbing brush will be a tedious cleaning process.
The exact type of wash will depend on your home, it’s materials and surroundings but feel confident that a soft wash will deliver the results you’re looking for.
