Finished pressure washing a customers driveway, now they want to repaint the house so they called me for a house wash. Would like to know if I should only softwash it or pressure wash it too.
My concern is the dirt, dust, webs, mud daubers… the stuff that’s not affected by SH.
OR should I just softwash it and let the surfactant lift away the dirt, dust, webs, and mud dauber.
So when you soft wash a house you don’t clean the dirt, debris and other stuff from the house??
Soft washing is plenty for paint prep. You should be getting for and webs off anyway.
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SH definitely helps break down those things
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Depends what’s it’s built from and why it’s getting painted, if it’s a wooden house with chipping paint I wouldn’t hesitate to pressure wash it, most painters I know request a pressure wash to loosen off any chipping paint, you can have a clean home with crappy paint flaking off, soft washing wouldn’t do anything. If it’s a stucco home in good condition getting a colour change or refresh I would clean it for paint with 1000 psi wide fan after a chemical soak, you need to be on the same page as the painter, if the homeowners are painting the home themselves, then walk away, there incompetence will always fall on your shoulders should there crappy workmanship come through at a later date. Collaborate with other professionals not homeowners.
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Always soft wash houses. Doesn’t matter what it’s made of. You may have to go up to 3% for stucko, but that house doesn’t look to bad. It’ll clean up easy. Don’t over think it.
Don’t be silly, someone’s going to take your advice and paint over chalky powdery oxidation and you’ll accidentally misplace your password to login in to help them troubleshoot there mess down the road. A third on here can’t work out there tip sizes with a psi chart in front of them let alone take paint into consideration.
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Okay, I understand hitting a house with 1000 or 1500 psi won’t hurt it, but how do you plan on getting the whole house? Add an extra $500 for a boom lift? How long does all that take?
I’m still new so maybe I’m missing something. I know I can brush off oxidation if I have to. I also know most painters don’t prep houses with any cleaning agents, if they wash it at all, and they usually don’t have a problem.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think that if you do a good job doing a regular house wash, it will be more than enough to prep for paint.
And, if the paint is flaking they make tools for that that work way better than a pressure washer.
Just my opinion 
