Spring Cleaning Your Home’s Exterior: What Every Homeowner Should Know

Feeling the itch to get outside and start cleaning your home and property? You’re not alone! It's nearly spring, which means, for many of us, it’s time to wipe away winter’s mess and give our houses a well-deserved makeover. Before the next warmish day has you reaching for your bucket and sponge, here are a few home cleaning tips to make the job easier and save you some money.

Home cleaning tips you should know

• Soft washing is the #1 recommended way to wash your home exterior
• Perform a little maintenance first
• Use soft wash’s low pressure on most surfaces
• Use high pressure on driveways, walkways, patios & concrete retaining walls
• Hire a professional for worry-free, thorough home cleaning

The signs of winter are all over your house, stuck to the siding and littering the walkways, roof and gutters. It’s going to feel good to get that all cleaned up and renew your home’s curb appeal. A little organisation and use of recommended techniques is your best bet for a beautiful-looking home exterior this spring.

Soft washing

Soft washing is widely recognised as the best option for home cleaning because it’s effective and safe, for everything. The technique uses low pressure, soft brushes, and biodegradable, environmentally friendly cleaning solutions. The pressure is low enough it won’t damage surfaces or void shingle warranties. The solution does most of the work which makes cleaning fast and easy.

Maintenance

Before cleaning, take stock of the condition of your house. Look for cracked or warping siding, loose nails, signs of rot, or crumbling mortar. At roof level check for damaged or missing shingles, sagging (ponding water on flat roofs), and moss. Check gutters and downspouts. And do an all-over inspection for signs of infestation by insects, rodents, birds, squirrels, racoons, or other animals.

Make repairs where necessary so they don’t continue to grow and become more expensive to fix. Clean gutters and remove debris from the roof. Rake up leaves, sticks and debris from around the base of your house to minimise fire hazards and easily-sourced nesting material.

Low pressure

Low pressure is equal to what you get from a garden hose. It’s what’s used in the soft washing method and is safe for all surfaces, including windows. It’s important to use low pressure on most surfaces of your house to avoid damaging them.

High pressure

Pressure washers and power washers use high pressure. It’s perfect for cleaning durable and hard surfaces like decks, driveways, sidewalks and concrete retaining walls. High pressure cleaning removes oil, grease, moss, algae and dirt. It’s also a great way to prep surfaces for painting, sealing, staining and refinishing.

Hire a professional

Many homeowners enjoy pressure washing the durable surfaces around their home because it’s satisfying to see how good they look afterwards. But home cleaning an entire house is another story. It's a lot of work, requires special equipment, and takes up a lot of time. Not to mention it’s also dangerous working at the heights required for things like gutters, roofs and multi-storey windows.

This is the time it pays to hire a professional. They come, they clean, they finish quickly. They even clean up afterwards so it’s like they were never there--except that your house now looks amazing.

Your time and health is valuable. Call a soft washing expert to clean your home exterior this spring. You’ll be glad you did.

2 Angels Home Services’ professional soft wash cleaning is a safe, affordable, long-lasting solution to keep your house and grounds looking great. For a free, no obligation quote, call 604-825-1712.