Springtime brings with it sunshine and warm breezes, beckoning us out of our homes after a long winter spent inside. We suddenly find ourselves drawn outside, intent on beautifying our backyards in preparation for a summer spent outdoors.
Many homeowners find themselves looking over their vinyl siding with disgust. That green grime that crawls over your house like a plague, overshadowing all the hard work you have put into your landscape. If your backyard also hosts trees and vegetation, your siding may be especially dirty. In many environments, it is simply unavoidable. Dirt, grime, and mildew are going to build upon your siding, and while it may not seem worth the hassle, not only is this debris damaging to the vinyl, its filthy appearance can also adversely affect the value of your home.
For many, the first solution they imagine for this grime is to blast it away with a pressure washer. We’ve all watched those oh-so-satisfying videos of grime being washed away one neat line at a time. Yet even though it looks like a quick and easy solution, it seems no one can agree on one important detail. Is it safe to pressure wash a house with vinyl siding?
The thing is you can pressure wash just about any hard surface. Trust me, I’ve tried using a pressure washer on anything outside that will hold still long enough. From concrete walks to moldy fences, kids’ outdoor toys, truly the only limit is the length of your water hose. Obviously vinyl is hard, right? But is it really when compared to say, a concrete sidewalk?
Essentially, yes, vinyl siding can be safely pressure washed, and it’s a great way to restore the beauty of your home. However, before you run out and rent a 3000 PSI gas-guzzling behemoth and lay waste to any spec of dirt or mildew within a hundred yards of your home, there are a few things to take into consideration.
A pressure washer connects to your garden hose, compresses water, and forces it through a wand connected to the pressure washer by a second hose. Most commercial pressure washers, including those typically available to rent by the day, have a higher PSI than those targeted for personal use at your local home improvement store.
So where do conflicting opinions come from? Like any machine, the inexperienced operations can lead to trouble. You can easily trap water underneath the vinyl siding, which will allow mold and mildew to thrive. You could cause damage to your windows, screens, trim, gutters, roofs, or exacerbate existing damage. And yes, it is possible to literally blast a hole through your siding.
With these risks, the average homeowner needs to look to a licensed professional pressure washing company in Florence SC for this task. If you are on a budget, you can always give your vinyl siding a good scrubbing with a detergent solution and a garden hose, and for standard grime, you’ll find the results will be comparable to pressure washing.