A freshly power washed driveway, deck, or house siding makes will make your home look fresh and new. But doing it yourself can be costly and dangerous if done incorrectly. So before you set aside a Saturday and rush out to the local rental center and grab a pressure washer, you may want to consider hiring a professional.
One of the biggest mistakes we see do-it-yourself power washers make is using the wrong pressures. Many people underestimate the power of high-pressure water jets and the damage they can do if not properly set. This can cause etching in siding, or even carving out of wood in decks and fences. And if you are using it remove graffiti, you certainly wouldn’t want to etch a profane word permanently into your fence or siding.
Skip the Headache
While performing a good pressure wash yourself can be rewarding, is it worth driving to the rental center, loading it into and out of your car, getting dirty, and spending an entire Saturday doing it?
Just the cost alone to rent the equipment, buy the cleaner, and then drive to and from the rental center may justify hiring a pro. Maybe you have a friend or family member that has an old pressure washer you can borrow, saving you the cost of rental. Sounds reasonable, but there may be some hidden reasons why this is not a good idea.
Do You Even Know What You Are Borrowing?
Borrowing a tool from someone usually means you are getting it in the condition it was left in after its last use. This may mean that it wasn’t properly cleaned out or water was not purged properly after and now it has sat in your friends’ garage or shed for months. This can cause mold and bacteria to grow inside the unit and become airborne once you start using it.
Or maybe one of the washers or gaskets dried out and split, and the second you connect your hose to it and fire-it-up, water is spraying everywhere except out of the wand.
Reality or Bad Infomercial?
This all probably sounds like one of those cheesy infomercials and you think to yourself, ‘What idiot can’t figure this out?!’ And people safely and correctly (or mostly correctly) use power washers daily to clean everything from their fence to their cars. But there are reasons why we have service companies that specialize in these things, and sometimes it just pays to have someone else do it!
Get professional results on pressure washing for your Napa Valley home today. Schedule an appointment with Wash-N-It by e-mailing Eric at eric@washnit.com or calling (707) 294-4873.
