EXPLAINED: Roof Wash and House Wash

Lakeshore Exterior Cleaning cleans houses, sidewalks, buildings, drivewalks, garages, fences, pools and their enclosures, and other buildings, for residences and commercial buildings. Soft washing with a pressure washer is so much faster, more effective, and cleaner than cleaning by hand. To soft wash means to use a pressure washer with a lower pressure spray pattern of water. It’s the chemical and soap solution combined with the water that cleans the dirt from the building, not the pressure from the water. Higher water pressure becomes important when we clean driveways, sidewalks, and other concrete surfaces.

A roof wash uses a stronger formula of surfactant and sodium hypochlorite with a medium to soft water pressure. The objective is to cover the roof with sufficient solution so that it stays on the roof’s surface long enough to kill the organic materials’ root system growing in the roof material, which is feeding the organic material, including moss and mold. The solution is then left to do its work. It is washed off by the rain and wind and snow as time goes by. It is not unusual to have a second application applied later in the year, especially if the growth is dense. Application of the chemical and surfactant solution is made from a ladder, but sometimes from the roof, depending on safety issues involving the pitch of the roof, and ease of getting on the roof.

The plants and vegetation below and close to the side of the roof is sprayed repeatedly to prepare it for any solution that may fall from the roof, thus protecting all plant materials under the eaves. Then again this area is sprayed after the application for remove any solution that may have fallen.

A house wash begins by spraying clean water onto one side of the house until saturated. The next step is application of another more mild surfactant and sodium hypochlorite solution. This solution is left to dwell for 15-20 minutes, while the next side is saturated, and an application of solution is applied. The technician returns back to the first wall and begins the rinse process, from the top down, to remove all dirt and all solution. This alternating procedure continues until all the house is washed. Plants and vegetation are also rinsed.

Our services also include driveways, sidewalks and other concrete surfaces. Here we apply a cleaning solution and then use a “surface cleaner,” a round machine that spins the water in a high pressure fashion to clean dirt.

We also wash and detail RV’s, boats, golf carts, other vehicles, and cemetery stones. Please contact us for further details.