There are lots of good uses for pressure washing but the important questions we’ll answer here are whether it makes sense to do the pressure washing yourself? and if you’ll be doing it, should you buy or rent a pressure washer.
WHEN to Use a Pressure Washer
Pressure washing, also called power washing, is most often used to clean surfaces prior to painting a house with wood siding or to clean large exterior surfaces like a driveway, sidewalks, the deck before you stain it or vinyl siding. It’s important to make sure that surfaces you plan to clean will not be damaged by the pressure.
For example, the power of a pressure washer will strip off loose paint so unless you’re planning to paint your home, you don’t want to pressure wash it. This was a hard lesson for me to learn when I owned a handyman business as I got to cover the cost of painting the back walls of two customer's homes, due to carelessness by my technicians.
Here are the most common ways a pressure washer is used for home maintenance. It's possible but risky to pressure wash brick and masonry, using a low setting of 500 to 1,000 PSI. Very old brick houses are not recommended and if you're unsure, hire a professional.
- Washing your home’s siding when the material is vinyl, metal and some types of masonry BUT NOT wood, hardboard, brick or stucco siding which can be easily damaged by the pressure.
- Carefully repairing wood siding and trim for painting, by removing all loose paint.
- Preparing wood decks and porches for a new coat of stain and/or sealer.
- Cleaning composite decks, railings and stairs which don’t have to be painted.
- Cleaning outdoor furniture which is meant to get wet.
- Cleaning your roof, especially when you’ve got moss and lichens growing there.
- Cleaning concrete driveways and sidewalks.
Special Note: If your home was built prior to 1978, it may have been painted with lead paint and special rules must be followed in how you deal with lead paint.
WHY Use a Pressure Washer
Using a pressure washer will save you time when done right. The added pressure over what your garden hose can deliver, helps separate the dirt from the surface where it has attached itself. You’ll also want to use a pressure washer that allows mixing detergent or chemicals into the spray. This helps remove the dirt or living creatures which attach themselves to building materials. While much of the hard work will be done by the pressure washer, there are instances where you will need to scrub mildew first, typically because it has been left too long (multiple years).
WHO: Do-It-Yourself or Hire a Pro?
While there are hundreds of articles and videos online that offer tips on “how to” pressure wash your house” … few people stop to consider whether it makes sense to do it themselves. Where it makes sense to own a lawn mower that you use every 1 to 2 weeks, does it make sense to buy a pressure washer that you only use 1 or 2 times a year. You’ll need room to store it (about the same size as a small lawn mower), you’ll need to maintain the motor and you’ll need to drain the water so it doesn’t freeze over the winter.
Operating a pressure washer takes time to learn – which tip to use for each application, how to maneuver an electric pressure washer with both garden hose and electrical cords attached and the right detergent and/or chemicals to get your home or deck clean. There are adjustable extension handles you can use for most 2-story homes but a ladder will be needed for 3-story houses. Home owners who don’t spend lots of time on ladders, will have difficulty operating this equipment safely and should call a professional.
You’ll need to learn how close to hold the nozzle from the house or deck, to get it clean without causing damage. With decks, you need to learn to keep the nozzle moving in a uniform pattern to avoid streaks due to differing pressure. Most important, you need to learn how to avoid directing water where it can cause hidden water damage. This requires working from the top down, as your roofing shingles and siding are designed to shed rain water. With vinyl siding you also don’t want to point the wand towards the seams where the siding panels overlap.
Safety is key when doing any type of home maintenance, and more so where water is involved. When using a pressure washer, you should always wear safety glasses and keep the wand and water away from yourself, as well as electrical fixtures and wires around your home.
A pressure washer is just one tool you'll use when completing projects on your spring home maintenance checklist. Review the list and prioritize what's most important like home safety, addressing water damage and saving energy.
Your house cleaning service is good to everyone. Thank you for sharing such this information.
Well, this is truly an awesome post on cleaning vinyl siding through pressure washing. Tips are very helpful while so I will definitely follow all of them.
I thought there were no useful tips I could find that I could use in my real life. But I was wrong and I really wanted to experience renting a place. I agree with your claim as it will protect our cars.
Thank you for putting this together. It’s vital that homeowners know when to use a power washer and also when it’s good to leave this work to professionals. Great info!
I really like your post and appreciate your work regarding this article. This article is so helpful for me and must say you did great work.
If you like the tips here, please share with your pressure washing customers …
I like how you mentioned that a pressure washer is really good to use on vinyl or metal siding on your home. My wife and I have noticed that the outside of our house is getting pretty dirty and we would love to clean it up a bit. I’ll have to look around for a good pressure washer that we could use to get all of the gunk off.
Thankls fro hel[png me to understand that it is important to find a pressure washer that allows the use of detergents or chemicals to help clean up even easier. On the house that my husband and I are trying to sell, there is a lot of buildup of dirt from the field behind our house, and we have been looking for the best way to remove it. We will be sure to look into finding someone that can help us power wash our house in the best way possible!
Residential pressure washing by the pros ensures that no crack or crevice is overlooked and nothing gets damaged in the process. Thanks for the tips!
That is something I should remember when I need something pressure washed. It would be good to call a professional since I don’t spend a lot of time on ladders. I will have to start looking for someone who could do some pressure washing for me soon.
Soft wash systems are a great choice for roof washing and window washing since high-pressure washing can strip asphalt shingles and shatter a window. Great tips, thanks!
Hey Tina, thanks for sharing this informative article. The definition you had given here is so clear. After reading this post, i am thinking that it’s the time to buy a pressure washer for using in my lawn. Thanks again. Keep posting this type of helpful articles. :)
Nancy, Wait … a minute. I can’t imagine why you would use a pressure washer for your lawn. Grass is too delicate & will be ruined with too much pressure. Pressure washers are for vinyl houses, lawn furniture, sidewalks & driveways … things that are hard & will benefit from more pressure (but always test to make sure you’re not using too much pressure).
It’s great to know that this process will be able to ensure you that any dirt or animal attached to the surface will be removed completely. I will share this information with a friend of mine to get their deck cleaned. This is because I almost slipped there when I visited to watch their kids for them while they go on a date night.
This is so informative glad I was able to find this article
Pressure washers (aka power washers) are so much fun to use— and show such dramatic and quick results— that you’ll be begging to clean your neighbors’ siding, driveways and cars once you’ve finished your own. You can rent or buy a pressure washer to clean nearly any outdoor item. By following the tips in this article, you’ll learn how to use pressure washers safely and efficiently.
Pressure washers, whether they’re powered by electric motors or gas engines, run a pump that pressurizes the water from your garden hose to 1,000 lbs. or more, then forces it out through a spray wand. The higher the pressure (measured in pounds per square inch—psi), the tougher the cleaning jobs they can tackle. Both types require a steady, uninterrupted supply of water (in gallons per minute—gpm). For occasional use, most homeowners will find that a washer with a pressure range of 1,300 to 2,400 psi works best.
Thanks for the advice Joshua, and especially the need to have an uninterrupted supply of water. It reminded me that pressure washers are touchy when your water supply is a well. With my handyman business, we had to leave a job after the homeowner insisted on running her washing machine while we were trying to pressure wash her home … on a well. It didn’t work!
Hi
You have shared really valuable information with us. This is one of the best posts I’ve found on pressure washing. Thanks for sharing.
Yes, pressure washing does a great job but you have to know what you’re doing …
Hello Tina, Safety is very important but so is having fun. I have been using pressure washers for a number of years. Started off cleaning the outside of the property and even used them on the car!
Also, very useful in the Spring to clear away all the Winter debris that has accumulated.
Andrew, Sounds like you’ve got some good ideas about homeowners can use a pressure washer. If you’d like to contribute an article to be published here, email me at [email protected]. Thanks
Hello,
Very valuable information shared by you. This is one of the best post over the vinyl siding that how to clean it with pressure and what instruction we have to follow when to clean the vinyl siding by pressure…Thanks a lot for this important information…:)
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Vinyl siding
Please take a moment and visit our roof cleaning web page. http://qualityprowash.com/RoofCleaning.aspx While I do appreciate what you are doing, please understand that roof cleaning should never ever be performed using any kind of pressure whatsoever. Using pressure to clean asphalt shingle roofs will cause serious and permanent damage! The method for this can be found at http://www.asphaltroofing.org/pdf/tb_217.pdf This is wwhat ARMA (Asphlat Roofing Manufactoring Association) reccomends for cleaning. I am only trying to help. Our business see’s the damage daily from uninformed homeowners as well as uninformed contractors. Again I am only trying to help so if you need anything please dont hesitate to call or contact me.
Thanks,
Travis Dawkins
QualityProWash, LLC
http://www.QualityProWash.com
334-652-1878
Travis, I agree that using a pressure washer for any project takes skill, and there will always be controversy among contractors as to when you should use a pressure washer. However, your own website offers a special that includes “Low-Pressure Roof Cleaning” and that’s part of the skill, knowing which nozzle to use so you don’t damage roof shingles, deck boards, etc.
I realize that the chemicals are a major part of the value you deliver & most people (my own handyman technicians) won’t share this information. I’d love someone like yourself to contribute an article about … Pressure Washing Chemical Do’s and Don’ts because no matter what we say, homeowners think this is a job they can handle (funny discussion with my dentist who said he likes pressure washing his house every few years).