How to clean siding with a pressure washer?

Making a house is tiresome work that you have to take once but keeping it clean is another tiresome task that you have to do on a regular basis.

The most difficult part to clean in a house is its siding. Most of the time, it becomes difficult to reach the top so that you can clean them properly.

Your house protects you from all the types of outside forces such as wind, storm, rain, dust, dirt, etc.

Have you ever thought that the sidings of your house need to come in contact with these natural elements which not only damage them but also make them dirty?

Now it’s your duty to repair them, clean them from time to time and clean them properly so that it provides a beautiful look to your house.

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You will find there are plenty of different types of sidings that are used for various weathers and for providing different looks.

Among many, the most important sidings are Vinyl Siding, Metal Siding, Wood Siding, Fiber Siding, Brick Siding, Stucco Siding, Stone Siding, Concrete Siding, Glass Exterior Siding, and many others.

Here we will discuss a few important sidings about how to clean with a pressure washer.

Primary Preparation

Before we know how to clean different types of sidings first we have to do some preliminary works. It means you have to prepare your house sidings for cleaning.

Make sure that anything such as a tree branch, any furniture, any kind of wire, etc. is not leaning on the sidewall of your house. The weeds growing on walls are harmful to your wall and they also prevent your cleaning task.

• Remove all the furniture that is lying on the walls
• If possible move the branches that are attached to your walls
• In a failure of removing the branches, you can cut the small ones off
• The weeds that have grown on walls also need to be removed
• Remove the wires that are touching or close to the walls
• While cleaning do not allow any children to be at the spot.

Set up the Machine

A pressure washer has mainly three parts, connecting the garden hose with the water source, the main engine, and the HP hose that has a spray gun at one end. Connect the one end of your garden hose with the pump of the machine and the other end with a water faucet and leave it open.

Next, connect the HP hose with the other outlet of the pump. You need to put appropriate spray nozzle as well. For cleaning the sidings you need high-pressure water which the 0-degree and 15-degree nozzles provide.

You should use one of them according to your need. The nozzle tips are put at the tip of your spray gun; you can take the help of an expert if you have difficulty in attaching them. Now you are ready to do your cleaning job.

Wear PPEs

This is another very important part that needs to be done before you actually start. Don’t try to avoid it by thinking that it is unnecessary. But I must tell you that most of the accidents happen just because the user is not wearing any personal protective equipment.

Recently I visited a patient in the hospital who is injured by his pressure washer. After investigating I found that the main reason was for not wearing the proper PPE. For using a pressure washer the important PPEs are:

• A pair of shoes.
• Wear goggles
• A pair of good gloves
• Ear protective unit
• A set of trousers and a shirt.

Apart from a few different matters many of the house sidings need to be cleaned in the same way.

But, your house is one of the desired and important places that you need to take care of properly. So we showed here the cleaning of different house sidings individually.

Cleaning Vinyl Siding

Nowadays most the people put this siding on their houses as it is less expensive, durable, and lucrative. It has many panels that can be put either horizontally or vertically.

While cleaning this siding make sure that you don’t harm the panels by the water force. Start the machine, take the spray gun in your hand and start spraying the water. You have to move your spray according to the position of the panels.

Use a 0-degree nozzle and slowly move the spray from one side to another cleaning the dirt. This nozzle will allow you to reach at least two stories.

You can apply detergent using the soap applicator nozzle though it will not reach very high. It will make your house shiny. At the end wash the detergent using the 15-degree nozzle.

Cleaning Metal Sidings

This is another durable and lucrative siding that people like to use in their houses. Iron and aluminum are used in the making so that they can protect from tough weather.

Metal sidings are comparatively easier to clean because the dirt cannot stick to them firmly. They have a slippery surface which prevents the weed to grow on them.

With a 15-degree nozzle, you can easily clean the surface, and if the dirt is tough use a 0-degree nozzle. It’s better to start from the top side and slowly come downwards.

If you start from the bottom it will again get dirty when you clean the top. This type of siding is appropriate for using detergent to make it shiny. If your building is more than two stories high you might need to use a ladder to reach the top.

Cleaning Wood Siding

This is the oldest siding that people have been using from the beginning of house making. Nowadays there are many variations and designs are used to make the house beautiful.

This siding is one of the most sensitive sidings for pressure washer cleaning. The wood surface is not as strong as metal or stone sidings and with the water force, there is a chance of damaging the wood.

At first use the 15-degree nozzle to spray water and definitely maintain a good distance. Depending on the tolerance level of the wood you can adjust the distance and the nozzle.

Do not keep your spray gun holding at one point for a long time as it might make a small hole on it. Most wood sidings are made by putting the panels in a horizontal position. So you should move your spray gun in a horizontal position.

Cleaning Brick Siding

To make a house beautiful we often see this kind of sidings. In fact, we can see the eldest buildings and houses are made of brick sidings.

On the outer part, it only has the bricks so the entire siding is filled with plenty of brick corners. Because of this, it is the most difficult siding to clean with a pressure washer. You have to concentrate on each and every brick and its corners or linings individually.

To clean this type of siding the 0-degree nozzle works the best as it has pointed water spray that can easily reach the corners. Start from the top part and move your spray gun sideways.

When you reach the bottom again start from the top but this time move your spray gun vertically. This system will help to clean all the linings and corners properly.

Cleaning Stone Siding

This is another siding that uses stone which also has corners but is not in perfect order. The different shapes of the stones give it a rough and tough look.

This siding is also a little difficult to clean but not like the brick siding. Stone is one of the toughest materials that cannot be harmed by a pressure washer. So you are free to use as much water force as you want.

You just have to make sure that the stones are not loosely attached as it might cause one or two pieces to come off. Point your water spray with a 0-degree nozzle on the corners or the joints.

Again start cleaning from the top side and slowly move downwards to get a perfect clean. You can also use detergent so that the house looks shiny.

Removing the Old Paint from the Sidings

Removing old paint from a wall is one of the most difficult jobs as it needs plenty of rubbing. The main problem is that you cannot put new paint on the old painting as it might come off easily.

A pressure washer can easily help you remove your old paint. But for this work, you might need a powerful machine. You have to use either a 0-degree or 15-degree nozzle and you also have to keep your spray gun as close as possible to the wall.

Slowly move from one side to the other which will take off your old paint easily. There might be scattered patches of paint that didn’t come off you have to rub it with your hand.

Conclusion

It is difficult to describe the cleaning procedure of all the types of sidings as there are plenty of variations. That’s why we concentrated on mostly and widely used sidings.

But as I told you in the beginning most of the sidings have similar cleaning procedures so you can pick any one of the ways above and apply.

You just have to be a little cautious and understand the nature of your siding.

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