Everything that goes into a real pressure washing job, from reading your home's surfaces to the exact chemicals and pressure settings we use on each one.
Get a Free Quote (816) 539-5496Kansas City gets hot, humid summers and wet, freezing winters, and that swing is hard on a house. Humidity feeds algae and mold on siding and roofs. Freeze and thaw cycles push dirt and grime deeper into concrete pores every winter. Add in pollen season and heavy tree cover in neighborhoods like Brookside and Waldo, and most homes here need a wash at least once a year just to keep up.
Every job starts with a walk around the property. We look at what the siding is made of, how old the concrete is, whether there's algae staining on the north side of the roof, and where your plants and outdoor electrical are. This walk decides the pressure, the chemical mix, and the order we work in. No two homes get the exact same treatment.
Concrete and brick can take real pressure, so those areas run up to 4,000 PSI, our equipment's full rated output. Vinyl siding and painted wood are softer and get dropped below 1,500 PSI, or handled with a soft wash instead of pressure at all. Roofing shingles almost never see direct pressure since it can strip the granules right off. Wood decking sits somewhere in the middle, usually under 1,200 PSI with a wide fan tip so we're not carving lines into the grain.
For algae, mold, and mildew, our soft wash mix is mostly water with a small percentage of sodium hypochlorite, the same active ingredient used in pool cleaners, plus a surfactant that helps the solution cling to a vertical wall instead of sliding straight off. On concrete with oil or grease stains, we pre-treat with a degreaser before we ever turn the pressure washer on, since pressure alone just spreads oil around instead of lifting it.
First we walk the property and take photos. Second, we soak nearby plants and grass with plain water and cover anything electrical. Third, we pre-treat any heavy stains. Fourth, we wash surface by surface, starting with the least sensitive areas like concrete and working toward siding and roofing. Fifth, soft wash chemical goes on and gets five to ten minutes to dwell. Sixth, everything gets a full rinse. Last, we walk the property with you to make sure you're happy with the result.
The most common one is zebra striping on concrete from holding a wand too long in one spot. After that comes stripped paint and dented wood siding from too much pressure, cracked mortar joints on old brick, and water forced up behind siding panels that leads to mold growing where nobody can see it. A pressure washer is a simple tool that's easy to use wrong.
Most Kansas City homes do fine with one wash a year. Homes shaded by big trees, or sitting close to a creek or wooded area, usually need it every six to nine months since algae grows faster in constant shade and moisture. South and west facing walls that get more direct sun tend to stay cleaner longer than north facing ones.
Our trucks carry gas powered pressure washers with adjustable GPM and PSI, a hot water unit for grease heavy jobs like garage floors, a rotating surface cleaner for driveways and patios, and a downstream injector setup for applying soft wash chemical evenly across siding and roofing. Different nozzle tips get swapped in depending on the surface, from a narrow zero degree tip for stubborn concrete stains to a wide sixty five degree fan tip for anything softer.
A downstream injector lets us apply soft wash chemical to second story siding and gutters from the ground, using the water stream itself to carry the solution up rather than climbing a ladder with a hose. This gets even coverage across the whole wall and keeps our crew safer than working from height whenever the job allows for it.
A lot of Kansas City's older neighborhoods have original wood siding, aging mortar, and architectural trim that a newer vinyl sided home simply doesn't have to worry about. We drop pressure further and lean more on chemical dwell time and hand work for these homes, since older materials are more vulnerable to the kind of damage a generic wash setting can cause.
Square footage, number of stories, how much buildup has accumulated, how many separate surfaces need treatment, and how accessible the property is all factor into pricing. A single story home with easy driveway access costs less to service than a two story home with a locked side gate and a heavily wooded, algae covered north wall.
Moving vehicles off the driveway, bringing in patio furniture or cushions that could get wet, and making sure windows and doors are closed all help the visit go faster. We'll handle covering anything electrical and pulling landscaping away from the house ourselves.
Surfaces often look a shade darker while still wet and lighten up as they dry over the next few hours. Concrete is generally safe to walk on right away, while we recommend giving wood decking a day before heavy foot traffic, especially if a stain or sealant is going on afterward.
Pressure washing relies on water pressure alone and is meant for tough surfaces like concrete and brick. Soft washing uses low pressure with a cleaning solution and is meant for surfaces that pressure alone would damage, like siding, stucco, and roofing.
It can, if the wrong pressure or technique is used on the wrong surface. That's why we adjust pressure and method by surface instead of running one setting for the whole exterior.
Once it's rinsed and dried, yes. We also pre soak landscaping with plain water before applying anything, which dilutes any overspray so it won't burn your plants.
