If your home is looking grimey, a good wash can bring it right back to life and make it look as good as new, no fresh paint job required. But what kind of wash is best for what areas of your home? This can be confusing for homeowners, as people will often talk about soft washing and pressure washing as if they’re the same, when in reality, there is a difference between soft washing and pressure washing.
This leads to conflicting accounts of one person saying pressure washing is great for your roofs while another says pressure washing will actually damage your roofing system. This occurs because pressure washing is good for some parts of your property while soft washing is better for others. If you don’t know the difference between soft washing and pressure washing, it can lead to you making statements like the roof one and general confusion.
Here’s what you need to know about the difference between soft washing and pressure washing, what they are, and which is best suited for what kind of applications. Let’s dive in!
What Is Soft Washing?
Soft washing is a type of washing service for your home that actually uses a pressure washer, but at a much lower PSI (pressure per square inch) along with special cleaning solutions. This allows for soft washing to provide a gentle, yet thorough cleaning that is eco-friendly and won’t damage your home’s exterior.
Soft washing is used for surfaces that are known to be hard to clean or that would be damaged if you tried to use pressure washing on them. It was originally designed for the purpose of cleaning algae off of your roof’s shingles.
What Is Pressure Washing?
Pressure washing is a type of cleaning service that uses highly pressurized water in order to clean your home of any deeply embedded dirt, mold, mildew, grime, and the like. Pressure washing necessitates extreme care, as the force of the water can cause injury and damage to your property if used incorrectly. This needs to be done at a proper distance in order to avoid wearing down your property.
The Difference Between Soft Washing And Pressure Washing
As you can see, though people tend to use the terms interchangeably, there’s a difference between soft washing and pressure washing. While they use similar equipment, they necessitate different techniques, cleaning solutions, and pressure, and they are used to clean different surfaces.
Whether you need to soft wash or pressure wash depends on the surface that you need to have cleaned. Soft washing can be inefficient for some surfaces, as it can take longer and require multiple applications in order to clean them. Pressure washing can damage some surfaces, as the pressure of the water can be too much. Here’s what you need to know about the difference between soft washing and pressure washing in the different surfaces that they’re used for.
Surfaces You Can Soft Wash
Generally, soft washing is used in order to provide a gentler, but still thorough, clean for surfaces that pressure washing would damage. These include:
- Your roof
- Stucco
- Wood, vinyl, or cedar shake siding
- Screens and enclosures
- Windows
- Outdoor wooden furniture
- Concrete that is newer than 3 years old
- Decks
- Brick
- Any standard surface that’s structural integrity could be impacted by too much pressure
In general, soft washing is good for standard home cleaning. It will remove dirt, mold, algae, and other surface contaminants without causing damage to the underlying surface.
Surfaces You Can Pressure Wash
Pressure washing is used for the surfaces of your home that can withstand more pressure and that are less vulnerable and soft. This includes:
- Concrete older than 3 years old
- Treated decks
- Vehicles
Which Is Best For Your Home?
In answer – both! Many cleaning companies will use a combination of soft washing and pressure washing in order to provide a thorough clean of all the exterior surfaces of your home. They’ll use pressure washing for the surfaces that can take it, like your driveway, and soft washing for the more delicate surfaces, like your roof.
Do You Need Soft Washing Or Pressure Washing Done?
True Clean Power Wash & Seal offers professional pressure washing and soft washing services to suit all of your needs. Whether you need your roof cleaned or your driveway pressure washed, our expert team has the training, experience, and equipment needed to get the job done quickly and efficiently, restoring your property to its former glory without damaging it. To learn more about our soft washing or pressure washing services or to schedule your cleaning appointment, please don’t hesitate to contact us today!
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