Power washing and when is it necessary
When people think of “power” washing they think of large, powerful, loud machines that are used to clean big commercial buildings or even bridges.
Power washing is necessary for a lot more reasons then just to clean the surfaces of large buildings.
WC Painting uses our power washers for many reasons including large commercial buildings. More often than not we use our machines to clean the exterior of the homes that we are preparing to paint.
This helps us to identify any potential loose and failing paint. At the same time it cleans the surfaces of dirt and debris. As a service to our customers. we also use our power washer to clean concrete foundations, walkways, decks, concrete pools, patios, outdoor furniture, garage floors, and stair systems.
One of the most important uses that we have for our power washer is to remove mold or mildew. The presence of mold or mildew can damage exterior paint products used on the exterior of homes. Many homeowners do not realize that the green and black speckles and the black discoloration they see on their home is actually a living organism damaging the paint that is applied to the wood surfaces of their homes. As the mold forms and grows on the surface it is actually helping to speed up the breakdown of the paint that will inevitably lead to failure and peeling.
With the use of our chemical injectors on our machines we spray the entire surfaces of the homes we are preparing to paint with a TSP, soap/bleach solution.
This chemical combination kills mildew and mold that damages exterior paint products. This combination together with a brightener can be used to remove mildew from vinyl sided homes as well leaving you with a bright, clean, and vibrant look to your siding.
WC Painting Services uses our power washers to assist during the cleaning process of our preparation system. We do not recommend that power washers be used to strip or remove peeling paint off of the siding and trim of a home. Many homeowners and painting contractors alike use power washers to force the paint off of the home. What they are actually doing is forcing the water into the cracks, crevices, and also under the siding. Although many contractors feel that this saves them time by removing paint it is much more detrimental to the surfaces then helpful.
One of the biggest reasons paint peels off of the surfaces of your home is due to the existence of moisture. Moisture gets trapped within the surfaces of your home and through evaporation makes its way through the paint causing the
paint to peel. This can happen from water being forced under the surfaces and also simply from painting over wet wood.
Every piece of wood has natural moisture content. Increasing that level of moisture content within the wood with the use of a power washer will only prove to be damaging. The existence of moisture trapped under the paint will cause the wood to rot.
WC Painting respects the power of these machines and understands that if not used properly it could cause both immediate damage as well as long term rot damage that will not be evident for years down the road. So the next time you see little green or black spots on your siding or trim simply contact WC painting and we will send someone out to identify what it is and explain how we can help to kill this growth.
