Most homeowners like to leave certain jobs to the pros, while others take a more “ambitious” approach to the projects done on their homes.
We get it, it can be a fun and proud moment when you can conquer a task and make a definite change in the curb appeal of your home from the road. No question.
But when it comes to pressure washing your home, I would certainly recommend (at least) the idea of letting a pro handle it. Mainly, because you can do serious damage to your siding and [wood especially] if you use the wrong chemical or the wrong pressure, both of which are very easy to do.
BUT…
If you really want to embark, let me walk you through it.
First and foremost you need your machine.
1. Buy or Rent a Pressure Washer
Most hardware store pressure washing machines are going to feed from 1.2 GPM (gallons per minute) up to 4 GPM from your water source, and most faucets don’t feed more than 3.5 GPM.
A professional grade machine will feed from 5 GPM to 15 GPM. (With big tanks that buffer the outlet and allow a faster feed)
As you may have noticed that I did not mention PSI at all, (which is usually the first thing mentioned when individuals talk about the power of their washer or when buying one as well.) This is because PSI is irrelevant when we are talking about house washing, and sometimes we don’t use PSI more than that of a garden hose to get everything clean.
TIP: When purchasing or renting a washer, buy the one with the most GPM that you can afford. This is going to cut down on rinse speed tremendously, and rinse speed equals time, and that equals your weekend, or how long you have to be strapped to this mini Niagara Falls.
After you have secured your washer, check that it indeed has a soap injector. The soap injector will be located right next to where the hose comes from the pump and out to your gun.
FYI: If there is no soap injector on the machine, this project is going to be very difficult. Without it, you won’t be able to get soap on the house unless you use a garden sprayer.
So with that being said, let’s dive into chemicals.
2. The Backyard Chemist
Simply put, I would go to Home Depot and grab about 5-10 gallons of outdoor bleach from the soap aisle, along with a 48 oz canister of Dawn dish liquid.
We are going to add about 1/2 cup of Dawn per gallon of bleach and mix well. Dawn is going to serve as our surfactant.
Dawn isn’t an actual surfactant or wetting agent, but it can act like one in this instance, for keeping the bleach on the siding wet, thus allowing it to penetrate and kill the algae that you’re wanting to remove.
When using Dawn as a surfactant, DO NOT let it dry on your windows, it will streak them to high heaven and you’ll be looking through a fog. So you are going to have to keep everything wet the whole time you’re spraying, fun…
3. Getting Started
After you have mixed your chemicals and gassed up your washer, you are ready to get started.
Connect your washer up to a water source according to the directions provided to you, and place your soap injector in your soap.
Make sure you have the chemical tip on the end of your gun, without it, the machine will not pull soap.
I recommend starting every wash job at the dirtiest portion, especially if we are working with a limited level of equipment and solution, this way you will know very quickly as to whether you are going be effective. If not, you don’t waste your weekend trying.
Start the washer according to the directions on the machine, and begin to spray your mix on the affected area.
Allow this mixture to sit or (dwell) on the house for five to ten minutes (remember if you’re in direct sunlight then you’re going to need to keep spraying and keep it wet with solution.)
After the mix has had time to dwell, take your soap injector out of your soap, change your tips on your gun from a chemical tip to a rinse tip and start from the highest point and rinse down.
If you have any wasp nests or dirt dobbers built up high, this may be a lost cause as most consumer grade washers cannot spray water at the rate needed to remove these effectively.
And that should do it!
If you follow the operating procedures on your washer and use the above advice while washing, your home should come out looking 5x better than it did before you started.
Happy Washing!
Post written by a roofing and pressure washing company from Nashville.
