How To Pressure Wash Your House Before Exterior Painting In Ottawa, Ontario

Before painting the exterior of your home in Ottawa, Ontario, you must clean the siding and clean it well.
A pressure washer offers a quick and easy way to get the job done, but it must be used properly to avoid damaging the siding and causes other problems.
You have a house to paint; you don’t need any additional problems!

Why Is It Important To Clean?

While there are many invaluable benefits of cleaning the exterior of your home before painting, one thing should be very clear: a clean surface means that your exterior paint will last longer.

Considering how difficult and expensive it is to paint house exteriors, it is a good idea to get it right the first time.
Wouldn’t you prefer to paint your house every 7 years instead of every 3 or 4 years? Invest the extra time in thorough cleaning of the siding to increase your paint job’s durability.

Why Use A Pressure Washer?

There are definitely advantages to cleaning your house by hand before painting. But it is incredibly difficult and time consuming to wash an entire house by hand.
A pressure washer makes the job much easier.

What Tools Will You Need?

Pressure washers are available in gas and electric-powered models. Since you want to treat your siding gently, you won’t need a high-powered gas washer; an electric one will suffice.
If you have a two-story house, a gas pressure washer equipped with a special nozzle will allow you to clean the upper areas while staying on solid ground.

As for the cleaning solution, use one designed for high-pressure cleaners, and more particularly for house siding.
Unless you have mold and mildew on your siding, don’t use bleach or bleach solutions, as they may damage the pressure washer. They could also kill your plants.

Wash, Do Not Strip

The main point of washing your siding house before painting is to wash it, not to strip the paint.
Most pressure washers are indeed strong enough to remove paint, but stripping should be a separate step done with a scraper, sander and heat gun after the washing process.

Besides the dangers listed below, pressure washing simply isn’t the most effective way to remove paint. On the one hand, to remove the paint, you need to flood the base surface with massive amounts of water. If you have a wood siding, you want to minimize the contact of raw wood with water.

Pressure washing coating is frowned upon because of these two very real dangers:

How to Wash Your House in 3 Steps

• Get rid of major loose surface debris: Rinse the siding with clear water (no cleaning solution), working from top to bottom. Your goal is to get rid of the loose surface debris: insect nests, leaves and most of the dirt. Let the siding dry.

• Use a Cleaning solution: Complete this step when the siding is not directly exposed to the sun. Fill the tank of your pressure washer with a cleaning solution. Spray the siding with this mixture, working from the bottom up. Let the solution act for about 10 minutes, then rinse with fresh water from top to bottom.

• Second freshwater spray: If a few weeks pass before you can paint, I recommend additional cleaning with clean water just before painting. It is surprising how quickly spiders can move back in after cleaning.

Need Help with That?

If you need help with cleaning, painting or staining your home exterior, our professional team at Millers Painting would love to help.

We offer high-quality exterior painting, staining and refinishing services in Kanata, Nepean, Barrhaven and Westboro areas of Ottawa, Ontario.

To give a try, book a FREE estimate or call us on 613-979-5435.

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