Siding is one of the best materials for your home. It is generally easy to maintain, improves the insulation of your house, and looks good!
However, over time your siding will start to get dirty. This can be fume related if you have a lot of passing traffic. Or, it can be a green mold that occurs because one part of your home doesn’t get enough sunshine.
Whatever the reason, you need to pressure wash your siding on a regular basis. It will help to maintain the value of your home and extend the life of the siding, which will help your wallet!
The following description is done with Vinyl cladding in mind but the same basic process can be used on any type of cladding.
Cleaning The Siding
Even if you have a pressure washer it is worth considering hiring one, professional grade pressure washers are generally more powerful and will shift the dirt faster; potentially saving you money!
- Cover Up
Step one is to cover the plants and other items at the bottom of the wall you’re about to pressure wash. Cleaning the siding means debris will come down, it will be much easier to clean it all up if the debris lands on a plastic sheet.
If not, you can spend as long cleaning the ground as you do pressure washing in the first place.
- Spot Checking
You now want to look carefully across all the siding any spot any difficult spots. Mildew counts as difficult but there can be there funny stains or even bird droppings that need a drop of bleach in a water solution.
Wipe a little solution on the affected area and then rinse it off, the spot should go.
If the spots are up high you may want to use a ladder. If you do need to it is important to be careful and position the ladder securely, getting a friend to hold it for you is a good idea.
You should also note that if there are a lot of mildew spots you may be better to use an old brush and run the bleach solution across the walls.
- Get A Siphon Tube
Connect your siphon tube to your pump and place the filter end in a container of detergent. This will mix the detergent with the water when you turn the pressure washer on. You can then slowly move across the house, starting from the bottom and working your way up.
Leave the solution on for several minutes to let it do its work.
- Rinsing
You’re now ready to rinse. Remove the siphon tube and use the pressure washer by itself. Simply direct the spray at the top of the house and work your way down each wall.
Providing you’re slow and methodical the dirt will simply wash off, leaving you with siding that looks like new!
All you have to do then is pick up the plastic sheets and admire your handiwork.
