power washing the outside of your house

[southerner]

Anyone ever rented a power washer and done it themselves?

Anyone own a power washer?

Do you hire someone else to power wash your house? How often do you have it done? Mind telling me how much you pay and how big your house is, if you pay to have it done.

Maybe some of you have never even had this done before?

Our house is in bad need of a bath and has been for awhile :o I'm talking deep cleaning (roofs, gutters, walkways, brick on the sides, windows,etc.)

[AHammer]

my dad owns a powerwasher so we borrow his. we have only used it on the walkways, but my dad's used it on the vinyl siding at our lakehouse, and it works beautifully. Check out the rental price vs. buying it, depending on how often you plan to do it, it might be worth buying one. they're really super easy to operate, but a little heavy. i don't know how you'll do the roof unless they make some with really long cords.

as for hiring someone, i wouldn't do that, just because it's pretty simple and I'd hate to pay labor on something I could handle myself.

hope that helps a little. good luck!

[vjel]

we own a power wash and dh does it himself. I think it was about $300 from Costco. In the long run, it's prob worth it to just buy one if you can swing it. He prob. only really cleans the house about twice a year, once after the winter and once before fall. He doesn't do the roof but does the brick, siding, sidewalks, windows, front door, etc.

[MrsBeckyLP]

My dad also owns one, and we plan on borrowing it very soon. He's used in on their white vinyl siding and boat, and it works wonders. I wouldn't pay someone to do it either; I'm sure you could handle it!

[fuzzy]

Power washing is pretty easy -- I do our decks all the time.

Somewhat OT, but our home inspector told us not to power wash our vinyl siding. He said its a common mistake people make and that it can actually "push" water underneath the siding and cause water damage. I haven't heard anyone else give that advice, but I thought I'd pass it along.

[Maggie8202]

We have 2 power washers. A smaller one and a commercial size. My husband loves to powerwash everthing!! Our house is brick and it works well.

[Kimberland30]

ITA with everyone else. We bought a pressure washer last year from HD for about $350 and LOVE it. We've used it on our house, boat and cars.

It's very simple to operate, but you'll get VERY wet doing it (well, I did). :) It was fun doing it on a very hot day though.

[Sabrina]

Somewhat OT, but our home inspector told us not to power wash our vinyl siding. He said its a common mistake people make and that it can actually "push" water underneath the siding and cause water damage. I haven't heard anyone else give that advice, but I thought I'd pass it along.

I was going to post this, too. I read it somewhere recently. We have vinyl siding that needs a wash job, too. Our home inspector told us to use soap and water. Not too excited about using a sponge to clean our house!! :eek: Lol. How else would you do it?

[MrsBeckyLP]

our home inspector told us not to power wash our vinyl siding. He said its a common mistake people make and that it can actually "push" water underneath the siding and cause water damage. I haven't heard anyone else give that advice, but I thought I'd pass it along.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[AHammer]

Power washing is pretty easy -- I do our decks all the time.

Somewhat OT, but our home inspector told us not to power wash our vinyl siding. He said its a common mistake people make and that it can actually "push" water underneath the siding and cause water damage. I haven't heard anyone else give that advice, but I thought I'd pass it along.

That's really interesting. My dad does it b/c the company that installed the siding recommended the power washer cleaning method. It has been about 5 years, though, so maybe that's more recent advice. i'll definitely tell my dad! Maybe if we spray at a downward angle it would roll off a little more instead of being pushed in.

[colz85]

We power washed our house last summer, and it was AMAZING. We have vinyl siding, and haven't noticed any water stains or indications of problems. BUT...our house is 80 years old, and the siding was installed over the original clapboards. I think you just have to be careful about the angle you point the water stream. We were definitely happy with the results.

[fuzzy]

Maybe if we spray at a downward angle it would roll off a little more instead of being pushed in.

For some reason, I was on a mission yesterday to find out whether or not this was crummy adivce or not...

And according to the vast majority of internet sites I can find, the angle makes the difference. If you powerswash from a downward angle, The Internet says it will be ok. But if you wash from the ground looking up, you could be in some trouble. So the don't powerwash advice is probably just his stock advice since most people aren't going to go climbing around on a ladder or scaffolding to do it correctly.

[AHammer]

For some reason, I was on a mission yesterday to find out whether or not this was crummy adivce or not...

And according to the vast majority of internet sites I can find, the angle makes the difference. If you powerswash from a downward angle, The Internet says it will be ok. But if you wash from the ground looking up, you could be in some trouble. So the don't powerwash advice is probably just his stock advice since most people aren't going to go climbing around on a ladder or scaffolding to do it correctly.

I definitely agree! I know my dad's always done it from the ground... i'll have to tell him about this.

[KristyK]

Wanted to chime in for a second. Our friend has one and came and did our siding, DH did the sidewalks and patio. Everything looked brand new! In fact today when the appraiser came over he asked if we'd just had the siding installed because it looked brand new! :D Hopefully that makes our house appraise at what we need it at! lol