House Washing & Soft Washing in Everett, WA

The material decides the method

There is no single correct way to wash a house, because "siding" covers materials with completely different tolerances. Getting this wrong is what produces the horror stories.

Vinyl

Forgiving, but it laps. Water driven upward under a lap has nowhere to go. Low pressure and a downward working direction, always.

Cedar and natural wood

The one that punishes mistakes. Too strong a solution raises the grain and strips colour; too much pressure furs the surface permanently. Weaker mix, gentler dwell, thorough rinse.

Fiber cement (HardiePlank and similar)

Durable face, vulnerable edges and cut ends. The factory finish handles cleaning well; the joints are where water finds its way in.

Stucco and EIFS

Porous and absorbent. Pre-wetting matters more here than anywhere else, or the surface drinks cleaning solution and streaks as it dries.

Brick and masonry

Tolerates more, but the mortar joints do not. Old or soft mortar can be washed straight out of a wall.

How we work the house

Windows and doors get checked and closed. Plants and beds get pre-wetted — a soaked plant absorbs far less of anything that lands on it — and anything delicate gets covered. Exterior fixtures, outlets and light fittings get attention before rather than after.

Then we work the walls top down in sections, applying at low pressure, letting the solution do the work, and rinsing before it dries anywhere. Working in sections is not fussiness: solution that dries on a wall is what leaves the streaks people associate with a bad wash. On a hot bright day the sections get smaller.

Soffits, fascia, and the underside of eaves get the same treatment. They are where the worst of the growth usually is, and they are the part most companies skip because you cannot see them from the street.

What house washing will not fix

Worth being straight about. Washing removes what is growing on the surface. It does not restore faded paint, it does not re-pigment sun-bleached vinyl, and it will not hide chalking — the powdery residue on older painted or vinyl surfaces where the finish itself has broken down. If your siding chalks heavily, cleaning it will make it look better and more uniform, but the underlying finish is at the end of its life.

Oxidised vinyl behaves similarly. A wash takes the biological growth off and evens the appearance considerably; it cannot put the gloss back into a surface that has lost it. We would rather tell you that up front than have you expecting a repaint for the price of a wash.

What drives the price

Square footage of wall, number of storeys, and how much of the house we can reach cleanly. Siding material shifts it, because cedar and stucco need more care and more time than vinyl. Heavy growth on a shaded elevation adds dwell time.

Landscaping close to the walls is a real factor too — mature beds tight against the house take longer to protect properly, and we would rather spend that time than replace your plants.

Questions we get asked