Protecting Your Property: Essential Precautions for a Safe Soft Wash

Soft washing is a fantastic way to restore your home’s beauty, gently removing algae, mildew, and grime. But like any exterior cleaning method, it’s crucial to ensure the process is safe for your property. While no method is 100% foolproof, taking proactive steps to protect your landscaping and electrical components can significantly lower the risk of any unintended damage. Here’s how we prioritize safeguarding your home during a soft wash.

Shielding Your Greenery: Plant Protection During Soft Washing

One of the primary concerns during a soft wash is protecting your valuable landscape. The main active ingredient in our soft washing solution is an algaecide (Sodium Hypochlorite), which is incredibly effective at treating organic growth. However, this same ingredient can potentially harm plants if proper precautions aren’t taken.

Why is there a risk? The algaecide has a high alkalinity, which can disrupt a plant’s natural pH balance if absorbed. This is why we use it – to effectively kill and loosen stubborn organic growth like algae, mold, and mildew, allowing us to use incredibly low pressure for the actual cleaning.

Our Triple-Watering Defense: The best defense for your plants is thorough hydration. We meticulously water your plants and surrounding landscape before, during, and after the soft washing process. This proactive watering accomplishes two crucial things:

1. Minimize Absorption: Well-hydrated plants are less likely to absorb the diluted cleaning solution that might reach them.
2. Neutralizes Runoff: The fresh water helps to further dilute and neutralize any runoff, significantly reducing its potential impact.

Tailored Protection for Different Needs:

• Standard House & Concrete Cleaning: For most house washing and concrete cleaning applications, the concentration of our cleaning solution is mild. This means the risk to your plants is inherently lower, and our triple-watering technique is generally highly effective.
• Shingle Roof Cleaning – Extra Vigilance: Cleaning a shingle roof often requires a slightly stronger solution (typically 3-5% Sodium Hypochlorite) to effectively treat stubborn algae and moss. Due to this, we implement additional protective measures:
  • Covering Vulnerable Plants: Bushes and delicate plants located directly in runoff paths may be carefully covered with appropriate materials.
  • Gutter Runoff Management: If your home has gutters, we can place large contractor trash bags on the downspouts. This captures a huge portion of the roof cleaning solution runoff, allowing us to collect and dispose of it in a more suitable area on-site, away from sensitive plantings.

While we take every precaution, it’s important to understand that there’s no absolute 100% guarantee against any plant sensitivity. However, our proactive and thorough watering protocols dramatically reduce this risk.

Safeguarding Your Home’s Electrical Components

Water and electricity don’t mix, and protecting your home’s exterior electrical fixtures is a key part of our preparation process. This includes outlets, utility meters, generator isolation switches, doorbell cameras, electric door locks, and other external electrical installations.

Pre-Wash Inspection and Protection:

• Thorough Inspection: Before any washing begins, we conduct a visual inspection of all exterior electrical components.
• Protective Covering: While most modern exterior fixtures are designed to be weather-resistant if installed correctly, we believe in an extra layer of defense.
  • Waterproof Tape: For most outlets, we use waterproof tape to carefully seal around the sides of the plug housing and then apply another layer to completely cover the plug face. We always use tape that is designed to be removed without damaging the surface it’s applied to.
  • Plastic Bagging: For larger or more awkwardly shaped items like generator isolation switches or security cameras, plastic sheeting or bags secured with tape can offer better protection against water intrusion.
• Powering Down: As an added safety measure, we recommend switching off exterior lighting (even motion-activated lights) and turning off the breakers connected to exterior electrical outlets and fixtures for the duration of the wash.

Post-Wash Procedures:

Once the cleaning is complete and the areas around the electrical fixtures are thoroughly dry, we will carefully remove all protective coverings. At this point, it is safe to restore power by turning the breakers and lights back on.

Taking these extra steps in preparation is a hallmark of a professional and conscientious soft washing service. While nothing can be guaranteed 100%, these measures are designed to significantly lower the risk of damage, ensuring your home is not only clean but also well-protected throughout the process. Our goal is to leave your property looking its best, with peace of mind that every precaution was taken.

Nick Loomis Owner-operator

Nick Loomis, owner of Hot Water Pressure Washing has been a trusted name in Tallahassee's residential house washing industry since 2012. As one of the most experienced exterior cleaning operators in the region, Nick brings over a decade of hands-on expertise to every project, ensuring exceptional results and customer satisfaction.

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