Pressure washing can be a satisfying, effective, and even stress-relieving activity. But doing it the wrong way has the potential to do more harm than good.
Pressure Washing Precaution
In this article, you’ll find a few ways that pressure washing can damage your deck and siding. That damage includes, but is not limited to:
Water Damage
Pressure washers are powerful tools. They start at a pressure of 1,500 psi and can get up to 3,300 psi, which can shoot through wood, asphalt, and concrete.
If you have a wood-frame house with any type of wood siding, washing your house with pressure that’s too high can cause the water to shoot up under the siding and potentially soak wall cavities, insulation, wiring, flooring, and plaster. And once the water is in the wall, it has a very tough time evaporating.
Gouged Wood
When you’re trying to blast loose paint off of your deck or your house, many amateurs will get up close and personal. That close, paint will oftentimes come right off, but you’ll also send all that pressure into bare wood, and that will gouge holes into the surface and damage the siding/deck.
Lead Paint
Removing lead paint is ideal, but you don’t want to do it with a pressure washer. You can blast those chips all around your yard where they’ll get mixed into the soil, which is never a good thing.
Loss of Stain and Finish
It’s likely that your deck is stained. If you pressure wash, it’s likely that you’ll pull the stain right off the surface. To restore the look it once had, you’ll have to stain all over again.
Paint on a deck will also be blasted off by a power washer, and repainting is often time-consuming and expensive.
Splintering
Pressure washers are no friend to wooden decks, as that much pressure on the deck’s surface can lead to severe splintering. And pressure washing doesn’t just negatively affect wooden decks, it can actually damage PVC as well.
Leave it to the Pros
Pressure washing is efficient and effective, but in order to get the most out of it, we recommend leaving it to the pros. If you have a pressure washing job that needs a professional touch, contact One Man & A Toolbox today.