How Does Power Washing Damage Your Home

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While you may want to get your home’s exterior clean and looking like new, you understandably don’t want to damage your siding or surrounding landscape. This is why you should hire professionals who specialize in soft washing, a gentler approach to power washing that isn’t as risky and that’s safe on soft surfaces.

Here’s how traditional power washing can damage your home, and why it should be handled by an expert who can do it the proper way.

Power washing can…

1. Damage Siding or Knock it Loose
Your siding doesn’t hold up well when power washed incorrectly, as it’s not completely waterproof. When done by someone who is inexperienced, power washing can damage vinyl siding or make it come loose. The result? Expensive, unnecessary repairs on your house. Did you know even brick can be damaged? That’s because high pressure water can blast away mortar that’s decades old.

2. Allow Water to Get Into Your Walls
Water can get into and behind your walls when your house is pressure washed incorrectly. Commercial pressure washers typically use pressures between 1500 psi and 3300 psi. However, when you launch water with that much pressure, it easily gets behind asphalt, wood -- even concrete.
Got a wood frame home with wood siding? There is a high chance that water can get into the siding, then soak through flooring, wall cavities, wiring, plaster and insulation.


3. Cause Window Damage
The seals around your windows may leak, and then result in rotting of your wood frames. Those powerful blasts of water can break the double pane, which can result in fog between both layers of glass. If you have screens, those can be shredded and destroyed.
4. Remove Paint
Too much pressure chips away at your paint, which is a safety issue if your home has lead paint. Those paint chips can get into the soil or play areas where kids can then play with it and eat it.
5. Allow Water to Get Into Your House or Attic
When using a powerful pressure washer on your home, this forces water through window and door seals. Then, that water can soak your hardwood floors, carpet and furniture. You may see water damage in your attic too because water can get underneath your shingles.
There’s no doubt that pressure washing is an extremely effective way of cleaning the exterior of your house. But if done improperly by yourself or an inexperienced company, it can result in costly disasters. You may want to save money by renting a power washer for a DIY job, but it’s likely you could do far more costly damage on your own than if you just hired a professional in the first place.

Contact Clearview Washing

When you hire our professionals, you can rest easy knowing we use a soft wash approach that won’t damage your exteriors, but will remove built-up dirt and grime quickly. We use less than 500 psi for our soft washing, rinsing and cleaning applications, safe on all soft surfaces such as cedar shake siding, wood siding, vinyl siding, stucco, plants, outdoor furniture, and screens.

To book your soft wash appointment, contact us today at 732-462-1187.