Pressure Washing in Jacksonville

Most homes here want a wash once a year. Shaded walls, anything under a live oak, and houses close to the water tend to want it sooner — sometimes every eight or nine months — because they stay damp longer after a storm.

The easiest test is to look at the north side of the house. If it has gone gray-green while the sunny side still looks clean, the growth is established and it is time.

It can, which is why we do not put high pressure on either one. Siding and roofs get soft washing: low pressure, about what a garden hose puts out, with a cleaning solution that kills the algae and mildew rather than blasting it off.

High pressure on a shingle roof strips the granules that protect it, and high pressure on siding drives water behind the panels. We save the pressure for concrete, brick and pavers, which can take it.

Pressure washing uses force to remove what is sitting on a hard surface — mud, tire marks, the gray film on a driveway. Soft washing uses a cleaning solution at low pressure to kill organic growth at the root, then rinses it away.

Algae, mildew and the black streaks on a roof are living growth, so they need the solution. Blasting them off leaves the roots behind, and they come back faster the second time.

Yes, and it is worth doing at the same time as the house. Washing a roof or a wall puts runoff across the glass, so windows done first get spotted and have to be done twice.

The tracks and screens are part of it. Sand blows in constantly here and it collects in the bottom channel, which is what eventually stops a window sliding properly.

A typical single-story house wash runs a few hours. A driveway on its own is usually under two. A roof takes longer because the solution needs dwell time before the rinse, and we work in sections so nothing dries on.

If we are doing the whole exterior at once, plan on most of a day.

Not for the work itself, as long as we can reach a hose bib and get into the back yard. It helps to be there at the start so you can point out anything you are worried about — a loose downspout, a window that leaks, plantings you want kept clear.

Not if it is handled properly. We wet the beds down before we start, keep the solution off them as much as we can, and rinse everything once we are finished. Established Florida landscaping takes this fine — it is the sitting-and-drying that causes trouble, not the contact.

Yes — Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach are a regular run for us, along with Orange Park, Green Cove Springs and Callahan. Salt air is hard on exteriors and beach houses tend to want attention more often than inland ones.