Pressure washing and soft washing are similar, but they are also different. Pressure washing typically uses high pressure between 2500-3500psi while the psi in softwashing is much less.
What is Soft Washing?
Most stains have a cleaner that will effectively remove it. Softwashing uses specialized detergents to clean your home instead of harmful pressure. Treating your home siding, roof, fence, deck, etc. with soft washing is like using your home hose except with a slightly stronger spray – the mix of safe, biodegradable solutions guarantee that the bacteria that create buildup are not just partly swept away, but eliminated entirely.
Soft washing consumes just one-third of the water that pressure or power washing does, and lasts quite a bit longer since the solution is stronger, and does not deteriorate or harm the surface like pressure or power washing frequently can.
Your roof should only be cleaned by softwashing so that the roofing materials are not damaged by high pressure. If your home exterior has vinyl siding or is made of concrete or stucco, softwashing will kill the mold and algae while lessening the risk for damage from high pressure washing and lessen the chance that oxidation will be removed. Here at Brightway Pro Wash, we only use special nozzles to effectively keep the pressure very low. We keep all landscaping watered down before, during, and after cleaning to help protect it against damage from chemicals.
For most exterior surfaces, softwashing is the way to go!
What is Pressure Washing?
Pressure washing uses high pressure water to blast away dirt, but it doesn’t perform as well against moss, mold or other stubborn substances. Instead, it is a good solution to use for prepaint preparation, standard cleaning on strong surfaces, as well as stripping surface areas down to basic components.
Pressure washing is used when your home’s exterior is brick or stone, or used to clean the surface of a driveway with a surface cleaner, which will remove most stains.
Using a pressure washer to clean your home can be not only dangerous to your property, but to the user as well as serious injuries can occur if the user is not experienced. Additionally, using high pressure on siding can cause problems in the future as the water is forced behind the siding possibly causing water damage. With pressure washing, it is best to avoid soft surfaces as it creates erosion and strips away materials that might be loose due to aging such as oxidation. If your siding has oxidation, this can be disturbed using too high of pressure and will result in a discolor look to your siding. This is particularly prevalent when untrained pressure washers – who can cause serious damage to a roof or other surfaces, especially if the surface is older. This is why not to use those $99 Craigslist jobbers.
Be sure to ask any business you are considering if they will be pressure washing or softwashing before hiring.
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