It’s time for a little home improvement on the exterior of the home. Which should you choose? Should you get a pressure washer or a power washer? Should you hire a professional? Here are some ideas to keep in mind when thinking about cleaning the exterior of your home.
What is a pressure washer?
Even with a power sprayer on a water hose, it is not going to do a lot when it comes to removing dirt, grime or other items from the exterior of a home or off of the concrete of driveways and sidewalks. For this, some people rent (or purchase) a pressure washer or hire a professional.
There are some benefits to this; it does improve curb appeal. When going for a refinance or if it’s time to sell, cleaning the outside will improve the odds of a favorable outcome. There is a problem, of course. These machines use cold water, and that isn’t always enough to get rid of the grime.
What is a power washer?
These are mostly industrial equipment. They are more at home in a warehouse setting or some other location where a lot of stuff needs cleaned frequently. Power washers use hot water to clean, which does tend to dissolve a lot more of the accumulated ick that can coat the sides of any home or cover up bricks, walkways and sidewalks.
Again, there is a downside. Unless you’re planning on stuccoing your home again afterwards, it’s best not to use it on that sort of surface. Concrete is fine, but softer building materials may not withstand the heat and pressure at the same time.
There is another problem to consider. Neither of these is particularly safe to use by an untrained homeowner. Your better off to hire a professional! A great deal of attention has to be paid to the PSI, or pounds per square inch, of pressure. Keep in mind that dentists now use miniature pressure drills to prepare a cavity to be filled. If it can cut through tooth material, what would it do to a misplaced finger?
There is also another critical thing that is being missed with both of these types of washer. If you’ve been paying attention to the hand washing recommendations to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 and other illnesses, you may realize what that is.
Truly cleaned surfaces, whether it’s the skin on our hands or the walls and pathways outside our homes require soap. Instead of using a pressure or power washer, it is wiser to use soft washing. Does that mean you need to go outside with a rag and a bucket of soapy water? Nope, it does not.
You’ll still be using a pressure washer, but with greatly reduced PSI. Typically the amount is less than five hundred PSI, making it much safer. A wider, soft washing nozzle is attached to the hose and appropriate cleansers are added to the tank. This is safer, cleaner and a much wiser choice. It’s also a wiser choice to hire a professional company to get the job done and get it done correctly the first time.
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