Pressure washing, sometimes called power washing, is often touted as the ultimate method in most building exterior cleaning jobs. Whether it is your office building or your home, you may have only ever heard about pressure washing as a way to get your building’s driveway, parking, siding, or roof cleaned.
However, there are many drawbacks to using pressure washing to clean your building. Due to the fact that it uses a highly pressured stream of water — usually 2,000 to 3,200 psi, or pounds per square inch — pressure washing can have a very damaging effect on certain surfaces. It can partially or entirely strip your paint, damage nearby plants, rip apart any delicate or previously damaged parts of your property like a deck in disrepair or old asphalt, and, of course, it can be disastrous if used on or nearby glass.
With so many drawbacks to pressure washing, it can be a good idea to look into alternatives if you are concerned about your property not being one that can hold up to power washing.
One alternative that we offer is soft washing. Soft washing is a gentler solution than power washing. It employs a specially formulated combination of cleaning solutions that take care of common organic contaminants at the source. These cleaning solutions bind with things like lichen, mildew, moss, and more, making these organic materials easier to clean away in their entirety without having to blast your property with high-pressured water.
Although pressure washing can be used safely on many surfaces, if you have any reservations about the risks, we recommend giving soft washing a try.