House Washing 101: 6 mistakes Home Owners make
House Washing 101: 6 mistakes Home Owners make when Power Washing their home and How to Avoid them
House washing your own home – most of us can clean our own home – even Bunnings or Masters sell relatively inexpensive power washing equipment. So what could possibly go wrong?
Well, quite a lot actually!
Here’s our top 6 mistakes home owners make when high pressure cleaning their own home and how to avoid them. (You won’t believe Mistake #6).
Mistake #1: Washing your home with cold water
The cheap power washing equipment you buy at your local hardware store gives you a high-pressure clean with cold water.
This means you never really address the root cause of mould and mildew that appears on the surface of your home. Imagine if you only ever washed your dishes at home in the kitchen sink with cold water – well it’s the same with your house! Check out the video below where hot water is used to clean bricks on a garden / retaining wall. Also don’t miss Mistake #6 on long-lasting mould removal issues!
How to avoid this mistake? You need a hot-water wash. This will not only give you that good-as-new look; but it will also kill harmful bacteria that cause the mould in the first place.
And the results will last for longer.
So you can go and buy commercial-grade equipment (worth over $15,000) that enables your home to be washed with hot water at 100 degrees celsius. Or you can hire a professional!
Washing with hot water helps remove mould, grime and mildew that’s built up over the years far more effectively than any cold wash ever will. Get further detail on our home washing service here.
Mistake #2. Ruining your polished wood deck, pavers or other surface because you used the wrong cleaning agent
When surfaces like polished wood; marble; stone; concrete; bricks and pavers are concerned, how do you know which cleaning agent to use?
We recommend using a eco-friendly cleaning agent that is also perfectly suited to your surface.
How do I know which cleaning agent to use on which surface?
We’ve been professionally trained in what agent is safest and most effective to use on every different type of surface we could possibly encounter in your home! Sometimes our 100 degrees celsius water is all that’s needed to effectively wash your home but other times you need a specific cleaning agent to kill bacteria and remove mould and mildew for good.
We recommend you use SoSafe® chemical cleaners – these are individually tailored to your home surfaces. Their website will tell you which one is most appropriate on which surface, in what quantities. Not only are they more effective than any normal wash and safe to use for any given surface; but they are environmentally friendly too!
Mistake #3. Bye-bye colour on your roof tiles, driveway or other home exterior surface
Just like you need to use the right agent that’s best suited to the surface of your home, you also need to clean at the right pressure to make sure, for example, you don’t just wash all the colour off your roof tiles or driveway!
We recommend you use a hot water wash between 2,000 and 4,000 PSI depending on the type of surface and type of clean you are doing. As an example, if you are just removing mould from your roof tiles without re-sealing; you should use a lot lower pressure (closer to 2,000 PSI on your machine) than if you want to effectively remove mould and re-colour seal (4,000 PSI on your machine + hot water).
Would you know what to do? Possibly not? The home washing experts at Astute Asset Management are here to help.
Call us anytime on 07 5609 6698 for your FREE professional house washing quote.
Mistake #4. Missing the hard-to-reach places when house washing
When you do it yourself, let’s face it – it’s pretty hard to reach some areas. Could you reach the balcony on the first or second floor to clean it properly, for example?
And what about the cracks between the pavers in your garden or brick garden wall? Or the cracks between the wood on your outdoor deck or patio? Could you really clean your garden entertaining area as effectively as shown in our photo on the left?
A lot of mistakes people make is not thinking the job through until you’re in that danger zone on your ladder. Don’t be Molly Meldrum! Think through all the necessary requirements before you start the job like:-
- Have I cleared away all the debris or furniture that could get in my way?
- Have I got a safe ladder to use and plenty of space for my cleaning equipment AND my grip to hold on?
- Have I got the right equipment to reach all the areas of my home I need to clean?
- If you don’t, you might think about hiring some equipment to do the job for you
- Am I able to get into all the places where mould and mildew reside like in-between wooden planks on my deck; or bricks on my garden wall?
If you can’t answer all these questions confidently, we recommend getting the professional house cleaning experts in. They come with all the specialist equipment you need to clean those hard to reach places. Also, they’ll give you peace of mind as hubby won’t be dangerously up on that ladder. Phew. I can hear your sigh of relief already.
Mistake #5. Not being insured for accidents or mistakes when house washing
The Australian Bureau of Statistics notes that 2,301 deaths a year are caused by a fall. You don’t want to be part of next year’s statistic. Also, can you answer this question – “Am I insured if something goes wrong?”
If you are asking yourself what could possibly go wrong on a house cleaning job, we can tell you. Because we’ve seen it.
- Personal injury caused by:
- Falling off ladders
- Not thinking and having a ladder fall or close inappropriately on you
- Water bucket falling at a height
- Ruining house surfaces caused by:
- Thinking ‘one solution suits all’ and cleaning with the wrong product
All we’re saying is please be careful before house washing! Think it through before you start the job.
Sometimes you think “I can do it myself” to save a dollar or two, but it can end up costing you $1,000s if you need to replace the surface you were cleaning; or worse have to go to hospital.
Mistake #6. Thinking you can do a house wash once and not worry about it for another 6-12 months
Have you ever wondered why, after giving your driveway a high pressure wash with your cold water equipment; the mould and mildew appears a week later?
It happens because you haven’t attacked the root cause of that mould and mildew – the bacteria. Harmful bacteria can breed in the porous hard surfaces of your home like in the pavers or concrete on your driveway. You don’t see it – but it’s there.
And it’s this bacteria that causes dark mould and mildew on driveways; or white spots on brick walls. To kill that bacteria, you need to use a hot water wash as described in Mistake #1. If you wash with hot water and the right eco-friendly chemicals, there’s no need to re-do the high pressure clean once ever 6 months or year – try once every 4 years. Wouldn’t that be great?!
For more information see our page on House Washing – the professional way to high pressure clean your home or Concrete Cleaning Gold Coast
Call us anytime on 07 5609 6698 for your FREE professional house washing quote.