Most people love the look of their home after its freshly power washed. It looks so shiny and new again! Plus, it’s pretty satisfying to watch all that dirt, grime, and build-up just fall away and wash down into the street gutter. But many homeowners also wonder if we can power wash their houses in the winter. Whether you’ve procrastinated the task or were gone all summer and didn’t have time to schedule it, you can still power wash a house in the winter. However, there are some restrictions to this. Let’s take a look at some of the things to consider before you schedule a residential pressure washing service.
Where You Live
To an extent, yes. It’s not the best idea to power wash when the outside temperature is below 40 degrees. Cold temps like this can damage our pumps, cause the water to freeze as we spray it onto your home. This would put our employees at risk of hypothermia, and just makes for less effective cleaning, in general. For these reasons, we typically do not power wash home in the winter if the temperatures get below 40 degrees. This means most northern climates are not good for a good chunk of time in the winter, typically December through March, depending on the area.
The main risk with pressure washing in winter is freezing pipes and surfaces. One way to combat this is to use hotter water than you would normally use for pressure washing. A temperature between 180 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit is optimal so that the evaporation rate will minimize the risk of icing.
Another way you can prevent freezing pipes and surfaces is to pressure wash out in the sun. Do your best to avoid the shade. Make sure to stay under the bright sunlight when pressure is washing your house or vehicle so that ice won’t form. It is even better to do this in the afternoon when the weather is likely at its hottest. This also helps speed up the drying process, further preventing ice from crystallizing.
Schedule your home pressure washing service today!
Best Time
As mentioned above, we typically can’t power wash your home if the temperature is too cold. However, the day may start at 20 degrees but warm up to 45 by the afternoon. In these cases, we can schedule your home’s power washing for later in the day when it’s warmer outside. As you may be able to guess, this limits the number of properties we can visit in a single day, so please be aware of this when calling to schedule your home’s power washing service.
When pressure washing in winter — or any time of the year, for that matter — the runoff water has to go somewhere. If that water makes its way to your driveway or sidewalk, it could quickly turn into ice. To ensure everyone’s safety, it is best to de-ice your surfaces before you start pressure washing. You can do this by applying salt, sand, calcium chloride, or magnesium chloride to the surface area.
Can you power wash in the rain?
In some years in New Jersey, winter doesn’t mean cold and snow, but it means lots of rain. Because of this, we’re often asked if we can power wash a home, not just in the winter, but in the rain. The quick answer is yes, we can. The longer answer is that it depends on the conditions. If it’s a light sprinkle for just a few hours in the afternoon, or if it’s an all-out downpour. As you can imagine, a few sprinkles are fine, but a thunderstorm will not allow us to work safely and effectively. If we wake up and expect to see rain on the day of your appointment, we’ll let you know if we plan to arrive as scheduled, postponed for later in the day when the rain has died down, or reschedule the appointment altogether. We do our best to work in all conditions, but Mother Nature sometimes has different plans for us!
Depending on what time of year it is, we may be able to power wash your home in the winter. We can also take care of your window cleaning, gutter cleaning, deck cleaning, and other household tasks! Just let us know what you’re looking for and we can accommodate!
Contact us
BEARCLAW is a Mercer County power washing company that has been performing painting and pressure washing for the past 20 years. We specialize in refurbishing home exteriors, decks, sidewalks and walkways, and roofs. We provide restoration of many surfaces including brick, concrete, roofing, stucco, vinyl and aluminum siding, wood, and cedar shake. Many people do not know that you can bring many surfaces back to their original beauty with the process of power washing.
Service towns in Mercer County, NJ area include Princeton, Pennington, Lawrence, East Windsor, West Windsor, Hamilton, Hopewell, Robbinsville, Hightstown, Windsor, Trenton, and Groveville. With 20 years’ experience, Bearclaw is a professional, high quality power washing service. Phone 609-882-1688 Email NJBEARCLAW@AOL.COM