Learn which exterior cleaning jobs to take on DIY and which ones to leave to the professionals.
Homeowners in the heart of North Carolina know all too well the struggle of keeping the outside of their homes clean. Between the hot, muggy weather, seasonal pollen, and abundance of trees, the task can be neverending.
This guide to exterior cleaning in and around Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill covers everything you need to know about the unique challenges homeowners face. We’ll go over how to clean the most common sources of dirt and mold, as well as whether it makes more sense to try and clean it yourself or call in a pressure washing professional.
Understanding Raleigh-Durham Area Climate and Cleaning Considerations
The same conditions that make North Carolina so green and make spending time in the outdoors such a joy also provide an onslaught of gunk and grime for residents to deal with year after year. These include:
- High humidity: Steamy summers are the ideal conditions for algae and mold.
- Heavy pollen: North Carolina homes get pelted with pollen throughout the spring as well as the fall.
- Mild winters: Warmer temperatures in the winter may mean avoiding the cold, but they also allow mold to fester year-round.
- Seasonal storms: The Triangle gets inundated with rainfall throughout the spring and summer, preventing siding and more from fully drying out.
- Tree coverage: The scores of massive trees that line the streets of the Triangle and surround the area are beautiful to look at, but drop all kinds of sticky debris on homes across the region.
The Top 3 Cleaning Challenges for Central North Carolina Homeowners (and How To Solve Them)
In this section, we go over the environmental challenges for North Carolina homes, how these challenges affect those homes, and the best ways to clean them. You’ll also learn why hiring a professional pressure washing company is often your best move, even when considering the additional cost compared to doing it yourself.
Pine pollen accumulation
Year after year, Triangle residents brace for “The Apollenclypse,” an annual event where pine tree pollen hangs in the air and coats every surface in sight with a thick, yellow haze. It’s terrible for people with allergies, but it’s also a problem for people responsible for the upkeep of the outside of their home. While it’s an issue everywhere in the Triangle, heavily-wooded neighborhoods in places like North Raleigh and Chapel Hill get hit especially badly.
A trip to the car wash can rid your vehicle of its coating of pollen, but the same can’t be said for your home. Pollen can sink into more porous surfaces like siding, deck boards, and concrete used for driveways and sidewalks. Once it does, it can be nearly impossible to remove with common household tools like a garden hose. If left long enough, the stain may become a part of your property’s look for good.
Why professional pressure washing works for pollen (and DIY doesn’t)
Pine pollen is especially tricky to remove completely. Not enough pressure and you won’t get all of it off. Too much and you can damage your home’s siding.
Chemicals matter too. Using the wrong cleaning chemicals may do worse than not cleaning at all by setting that yellow stain permanently.
A powerwashing pro knows exactly how much pressure and which nozzle to use to effectively remove pine pollen without damaging your home’s exterior. When chemicals need to be involved, they’ll know the right ones to use to ensure your siding and trim get restored to their original luster.
A true local powerwashing pro knows what they’re up against with “The Pollening” every year, and they have the skills, equipment, chemicals, and knowledge to take it on.
Black algae and mold
North Carolina’s warm, muggy weather may be the perfect environment for barbecues eight months out of the year, but it’s also the perfect environment for algae and mold to thrive. And one the places they love to thrive the most is on the outside of homes in places like the beautifully shaded streets of neighborhoods like Umstead Park and Forest Hills, especially on North-facing surfaces.
Both hazards tend to look like black or greenish streaks that run on roofs, siding, and fences. You may also find it on the sides of porches or gazebos. Depending on what part of the Triangle you live in, it could be pretty much anywhere.
Why you should call a pressure washing company to remove black algae and mold
In moist and muggy North Carolina, algae and mold can spread like wildfire. It’s not a problem you can afford to ignore, but taking the wrong approach to cleaning it can make things much, much worse.
You can’t remove mold and algae with pressure alone. If even just a few spores hang around, you’ll be back where you started in no time at all. Spraying these spores can also spread them around to new areas.
It’s true you can use bleach to kill algae and mold, but it will also kill just about everything else in its path if it isn’t used properly. That includes any vegetation you’ve worked hard to grow and maintain in the vicinity.
The key difference with getting a pro to do it is they know the proper ratios to mix it to as well as the right dwell time. If you don’t let it sit long enough you just wasted your money. If you let it dwell too long before rinsing you won’t get all of it off and it can mess up how your house looks as well as leave streaks on the window that won’t come off with just water. Also, if you mix it too strong it will kill the plants, if you mix it too weak it won’t get the job done).
Red clay staining
The red clay soil upon which many of the homes in the Triangle region are built helps give this area its distinctive character. Sometimes that’s intentional, such as when it was used to make the bricks that were used to build Durham’s iconic Brightleaf Square and other tobacco industry buildings. Other times, it’s not, such as when it coats the lower third of homes throughout the region with a reddish-brown hue.
Throughout rainy months, red clay splashes up onto foundations and lower siding during heavy downpours and becomes caked on when the sun comes back out. When it’s been dry, red clay dust can get blown around and sprayed onto siding and anything else in its path.
Why cleaning red clay stains is a job for a pressure washing company
If you’ve ever tried to simply hose red clay off of a brick foundation, you know it’s about as stubborn as can be. Even standard pressure washing is often no match for the tough, viscous red clay of the Piedmont. Most chemicals aren’t up to the task, either.
The best pressure washing companies in the Triangle have plenty of experience cleaning red clay off of homes, driveways, sidewalks, and other surfaces. As a result, they know the right PSI to use to get things clean without etching up concrete or permanently damaging your siding. Pros also have access to the specific chemicals one needs to get rid of notoriously tricky iron oxide stains.
Learn why cleaning red clay is a job for professionals the easy way (by hiring us to do it for you). Click below to get in touch.
Exterior buildup on gutters
The many, many trees that make this part of North Carolina so stunningly beautiful also wreak havoc on your home’s gutters. When tree gunk builds up, it leads to unsightly brown or black streaks that run down the side of homes from under the gutters and grow quickly.
But when it comes to gutter buildup, it’s about more than just how it looks. Clogged gutters can lead to damaged gutters, and damaged gutters can lead to a damaged home. That can cost loads of time and money to repair.
Why it’s a good idea to hire a professional to pressure wash gutter buildup
Like with any other exterior cleaning challenge, using the wrong chemicals, equipment, or even technique can daily to the job at best or make matters worse. Gutters can easily get corroded by the wrong chemicals or knocked out of place by an overzealous pressure washing. That can add new problems to your checklist without crossing any of them off.
Then there’s the safety of it all. Gutter cleaning requires either ladder work or specialty equipment that can clean from a distance.
Ladder work is dangerous. Even if you’re comfortable taking that risk on yourself, the top pressure washing companies in the Triangle will work with proper safety equipment and higher-quality ladders, helping reduce the risk that anyone gets hurt while cleaning the exterior of your home.
The truth is, using a pressure washer while on a ladder is never safe, even for professionals. It’s easy for anyone to get knocked off balance with the surge of pressure that comes with the first spray.
Rather than take that risk, we use pressure washers with a higher GPM rating that are capable of cleaning upper stories of a home and gutters from the ground, where it’s safe. These machines are too costly to make them financially advantageous for DIY work.
Why DIY Exterior Cleaning Costs More than You Think
Find out how much it costs to have the best pressure washing professionals in the Triangle clean your home by clicking below.
To be clear, these exterior cleaning jobs common to North Carolina homes aren’t impossible to do on your own. If you’re so inclined, you may even enjoy some of the work. But many people assume that the DIY approach is easier than it actually is, or that the difficulty is worth the imagined savings. Many of those same people find out the hard way that that simply isn’t the case.
The cost of hiring a professional pressure washing service for a basic exterior cleaning in North Carolina typically ranges from $200 to $500 depending on the size of your home and other factors. Comparatively, the cost of renting a pressure washer or even buying an inexpensive one might seem like a great deal. However, as with everything, there’s just more to it than that.
Equipment
You might be able to find a pressure washer rental for less than $100 per day in many parts of the Triangle. However, that’s not all the equipment you need to run one properly. You’ll also have to make sure you have things like:
- Hoses long enough to reach where you need them*
- Nozzles*
- Protective goggles and gloves
- Coveralls or clothes you don’t mind ruining
*Some rentals come with hoses and nozzles, but many do not.
Most of these things aren’t things you can rent, meaning you’ll have to invest in buying them. You’ll also have to find a place to store them where you’ll be able to find them the next time you want to clean your home.
Chemicals
Pressure washer rentals don’t typically come with the biocides and other cleaning agents you need to properly restore your home’s exterior. The right chemicals aren’t cheap, often making up a large part of the best pressure washing companies’ operating budgets.
However, the wrong chemicals can be even more expensive. Using improper cleaning agents can cause permanent damage to siding, vegetation, trim, glass, and even concrete. Heavily damaged surfaces require repairing or replacing, with all of the expense falling on you.
Time
The money you spend on equipment and chemicals isn’t your only investment, mind you. You should also account for the time you need to invest to clean your home’s exterior again and again, thanks to North Carolina’s distinct environmental challenges.
It’s not just the time you spend doing the actual cleaning. There’s also the time you’ll spend renting equipment, buying supplies, setting up, cleaning up, packing up your rental gear, and returning your rental. And that’s probably forgetting at least a few steps.
Think about what else you could be doing with that same time, or even more so, what you’d rather be doing during that time. Whether it’s getting some other things done around the house, reading up on your favorite ACC basketball team (we don’t judge), or simply kicking up your feet for a bit, that extra time alone is probably worth the difference in cost.
Job Quality
In most cases, with most things, a professional is usually going to a better job than an amateur. That’s true whether it’s filling out tax reports, fixing electrical wiring, preparing an elegant meal (call us, M Sushi), or working on a car. So it’s reasonable to assume that’s also the case with exterior cleaning.
Even if the cost works out in your favor and you have the time to do it yourself, the best pressure washing companies in the Raleigh-Durham area can do the job like the professionals they are. That means a more thoroughly-cleaned home, less disturbance to the rest of your property, and more efficient work.
Learn firsthand why it’s best to hire a professional, and why it’s best to hire the best. Reach out today to set up your appointment or consultation.