Soft Washing, Pressure Washing or Brush Washing Your Homes Exterior?

Each method that we are going to talk about will leave you with a clean house, but there are some considerations that you may not have thought of. A home or commercial property may just be the biggest financial investment you have ever made and it's important to clean the exterior regularly, safely and efficiently. Read along and find out why most professional companies choose to soft wash when it comes to many exterior surfaces.

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Soft Washing has become the most popular way to clean and there is a very good reason for that. Other cleaning methods just don't get your surface as clean, plus they tend to get dirty faster.

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Brush Washing - Good for many things but will it actually give your property the best results?

Do it your selfers' and cleaning companies have been utilizing a brush and a bucket of soap for a very long time. This was very likely the preferred way to wash a house or a building even before pressure washers were invented. Since all the tools needed were readily available, anybody and their dog could fill up a bucket, add soap and start cleaning. The problem is that this way of cleaning relies on elbow grease, it's very easy to miss spots and is inherently slow. Another item to note is as land gets more and more expensive people are building vertical, so structures are getting taller and the idea of reaching 2,3 or 4 levels in the air with a stick just doesn't cut it anymore. Not to mention it's so hard on the body to perform this repetitive motion which will eventually ruin your back and shoulders and will have you calling the chiropractor in no time. Since being efficient is so difficult with bush washing, the areas that get missed will get hit by rain and drag down the organic growth and cause the lower areas to become dirty much earlier than they should be. Brush washing has a place in exterior cleaning, it's just that large buildings or homes need a more effective method to achieve better results. If you have a small area that you need to quickly clean then brushing makes sense. For large areas we highly recommend soft washing which we will talk about more shortly.

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Pressure Washing - Works great and very fast but does the high pressure do damage?

This has been a great way to clean surfaces for a long time and has been the preferred method up until the last 10 or 15 years as soft washing has become more and more popular. Pressure washers are very accessible these days and it's safe to say that most all exterior cleaning companies will have at least 1 or 2 of them on hand at all times. Even home owners purchase pressure washers to clean up around their home and while the method produces great results and gets the work done quick, we wonder if the surface you clean will wear out faster than it's expected life? Well, the answer is yes it will wear out faster with high pressure. Year after year of applying high pressure to surfaces such as vinyl siding, hardy board, stucco etc will ultimately cause pre mature wear to the surface and since you have only removed what is growing on the surface instead of killing the growth, it will allow the organic growth to come back sooner than if you were to apply the proper detergent, kill what is growing and then remove it with a high flow, low pressure rinse.

Many pressure washing companies will tell you what you want to hear and say that they idle down the machine or know exactly how much pressure is needed to do the work. With this approach there is a few obvious things that could go wrong.

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• ‍What if the regular worker is away that day and assigns your property to "the new person" - This happens all the time as the turnover rate for most washing companies is very high.

• What if the growth on the siding is stained very bad and the operator decides to lean in a little more to get the job done faster?

• What if they slip or trip and the end of the pressure washing gun hits the siding? All you are going to get is an excuse and an apology but your property will forever look bad.

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This list of the things that could go wrong is long and this is why we suggest to leave pressure washing and the use of high pressure to materials like brick, concrete and other surfaces that can handle the extra PSI.

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Soft Washing - Works great, reduces water consumption and never misses a spot.

When you are soft washing you are essentially taking the proper detergent for the type of stain or growth that you are cleaning, applying it to the surface, letting it dwell then gently rinsing and removing both the detergent and the stain. Unlike high pressure pumps that are used with pressure washers, the pump on a soft wash unit is designed for "high volume & low pressure. In fact, most units will not even exceed 300-400 psi. That's why with this technique you will be able to spray the proper cleaner on to a surface that most poles or ladders could not reach plus you are applying the proper soap to the area that you are working on so you will maximize the positive results. Soft washing produces excellent results when washing vinyl siding, vinyl decks and pretty much any outdoor structure. It also works great on stucco or dryvit, in fact, it's the only method that will produce good results. Seriously, right now, go outside and try to brush or even pressure wash your stucco home. We promise that it wont work and the truth is that if you use high pressure you will take 2-3 years of life off the surface after only a few minutes of performing the task.

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Its your choice to make regarding how you maintain your property

Since it's you property and your paying for the work to be done then we feel it's a good idea to know what process the contractor will be using to clean your place. At Big Shot Pressure Washing we service the entire Fraser Valley & Lower Mainland with our main service area including Abbotsford, Mission, Aldergrove, Langley, Surrey, White Rock & Maple Ridge. We would love to have the chance to Brush Wash, Pressure Wash or Soft Wash for you and each time we perform work we will first take a look at the type of surface to be cleaned and then determine the safest and most effective method to be used. Give us a call or email us. You can also reach us through our website as we are always happy to help.

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office@bigshotpressurewashing.com

604-855-8391 (Office)

https://www.bigshotpressurewashing.com/contact