Soft Washing vs. Pressure Washing: Making the Right Choice for Your Cleaning Needs

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When it comes to professional exterior cleaning services, you're probably familiar with pressure washing. But you may be unaware of another option-soft washing. While both methods aim to clean the outside of homes and buildings, they utilize different techniques.
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Understanding soft washing vs pressure washing, including their cleaning mechanisms, use cases, and relative advantages, ensures selecting the ideal method for your unique job. Let's closely examine both exterior cleaning processes so you make the optimum service choice matching your precise needs and property attributes.

What is Soft Washing?

​Soft washing refers to cleaning building exteriors using a specialized low-pressure spray method. Instead of blasting surfaces with intense mechanical water pressure like pressure washing, soft washing relies on carefully applied chemical cleaners and gentle rinses at volumes substantially below pressure washing PSI intensities.

How Soft Washing Works

The soft washing process encompasses:

1. Pre-rinsing the area with fresh water if excessively dirty, removing loose contaminants through standard garden hoses without added pressure.
2. Applying customized cleaner mixture based on surface type and stains via a low pressure sprayer below 500 PSI. Cleaners penetrate into grime, mold, or buildup.
3. Letting solutions actively lift dirt while dissolving discoloration without the need for mechanical abrasion during optimal 5-15 minute chemical reaction window.
4. Rinsing thoroughly with fresh water, facilitating lifted dirt runoff without high pressure reconcentrating filth deeper into delicate architectural crevices through fluid shear force.
5. Spot cleaning any remaining stuck-on debris with special attention to avoid erosion, especially on aged materials.

​The strategic application allows efficient, comprehensive cleaning without surface wear using specialty detergents formulated for the task.

Benefits of Soft Washing

Soft washing offers comparative advantages making it ideal for particular cleaning challenges:
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• Gentler: The low pressure avoids damaging delicate or deteriorating building materials that high-intensity pressure washing would erode through extreme PSI and shear forces.
• Versatile: Customizable cleaning mixtures match diverse surface sensitivity needs from brick, stucco, and wood to vinyl.
• Non-Damaging: Specialized biodegradable detergents lift dirt without bleach or abrasives that degrade many construction materials with repeated exposure.
• Eco-Friendly: Chemical constituents break down through natural processes without lingering ecosystem accumulation.
• Water Efficient: Conserves water across hundreds of cleaning jobs compared to pressure washing high volume flow rates.
• Stain Removing: Tailored surfactant blends dissolve otherwise extremely difficult iron oxide, mold, and mildew stains through molecular emulsification.
  
  

For aged, delicate, or organically stained exterior surfaces, soft washing's gentler methodology cleans comprehensively without accelerating material weathering processes from intense mechanical blast erosion.

When to Use Soft Washing

Soft washing works best for:
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• Cleaning aging delicate surfaces prone to pressure damage like wood homes, and patio furniture.
• Removing mold/mildew growth without damaging organic materials like roof shingles or tiles.
• Restoring heavily stained siding or concrete discolored from leaf tannins, water marks, and environmental factors.
• Preparing exterior walls for painting or protective coatings by lifting underlying dirt.
  
  

Essentially soft washing shines whenever the cleaning challenge requires heavy stain removal or involves fragile, weathered building surfaces susceptible to abrasive damage under the high fluid pressures of standard power washing.

What is Pressure Washing?

Pressure washing refers to exterior cleaning using specialized high-pressure water nozzles to blast building surfaces with amplified mechanical force, dislodging contaminants through fluid shear physics alone without added detergents.

Generating up to 5000 PSI from electric or gas-powered pumps, pressure washers direct intensely pressurized narrow water streams carrying tremendous kinetic energy towards underlying dirt, debris, and stuck-on contaminants, tearing them free by liquid cutting force.
Adjustable wands allow modulating wider fan spray patterns to cover more surface area with lower intensities for flexible utility.

​Pressure washers scour quickly when pure mechanical cleaning brute force suffices without additional chemicals.

How Pressure Washing Works

In practice, the standard pressure washing process includes:
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1. Pre-wetting cleaning area with fresh water as a precaution against blasting dry debris creating hazardous particulate clouds.
2. Engaging high-pressure nozzles to scour the surface starting from top and descending gradually using between 500-5000 PSI controlled by nozzle aperture and distance from the cleaning surface.
3. Methodically raking pressurized water across contamination-covered zones, liberating ground-in particles from adhesion points.
4. Redirecting loose filth towards drainage paths using fan spray heads.
5. Scrubbing exceptionally stubborn deposits with boosted PSI or more acute nozzle angles delivers narrowly concentrated inertial impact forces near delicate architecture.

REPEAT steps 2-4, covering the entire surface methodically descending downward.

Benefits of Pressure Washing

Pressure washing proves advantageous for:

• Sheer Cleaning Might: Nothing competes regarding raw power tackling deeply ground dirt and mud deposits where mechanical energy alone suffices dislodging gross contamination.
• Speed: Large commercial operations are clean and efficient with pure high-pressure water throughput meeting tight schedules.
• Low Skill Entry: Operation largely involves controlling aim making training staff easier. No custom detergent mixing knowledge is needed either.
• Versatile Mobility: Gas-powered high-pressure pumping allows cleaning remote construction equipment or mobile food kiosks without outlet access.
• Paint Prep: Smooth scoured surfaces allow superior paint adhesion results after washing off all loose paint flecks or chalkiness.

​When speed, affordability, and accessibility trump finesse, taps into pressure washing's unparalleled brute force cleaning potential to clear thick debris buildup

Read also: Benefits of House Pressure Washing

When to Use Pressure Washing

Pressure washing excels for:
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• Quick cleaning of commercial parking garages/sidewalks caked with mud and oil.
• Removing loose paint or tree sap prior to recoating house siding.
• Deep cleaning dingy restaurant kitchen vents/hoods coated by grease.
• Stripping weathered decks covered in moldy leaves/dirt before restaining.
• Cleaning grimy concrete construction equipment or machinery prone to stains.

Read more about our Pressure washing services in Portland, Oregon

Comparing Soft Washing and Pressure Washing

Now that we've covered both methodologies independently, how do soft washing and pressure washing differ regarding practical considerations?
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Several factors determine the ideal choice:

Surface Sensitivity

​Pressure washing risks permanently eroding delicate or unstable building surfaces through extreme shear force while soft washing gently lifts contamination without negative material effects. Always verify tolerance.

Type of Contamination

​Soft washing dissolves tricky stains pressure washing cannot through specialty detergents while for pure grime pressure washing physically blasts away heavier deposits more easily. Match method to mess!

Longevity of Clean Results

​Soft washing subjects surfaces to less overall friction erosion, allowing deeper cleaner penetration into pores with enhanced longevity while pressure washing focuses on surface-level debris removal alone.

Safety Considerations

​Pressure washing poses higher operational risks surrounding uncontrolled water spraying hazards including injection injuries, fall risks working at heights, and potential breathing issues around certain media. Soft washing allows safer, more controlled cleaner application.

Cost Considerations

​Soft washing carries higher upfront costs surrounding custom chemical procurement but this balances long-run value against replacement/repair of premature weathering plus environmental externalities of wasteful high-intensity pressure washing.

Conclusion

Soft washing harnesses the cleaning power of chemical surfactants for customized light-duty exterior stain removal without surface damage and downsides of heavy-duty high-pressure washers used to fight intensely ground-in contaminants when pure force suffices.
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Carefully consider attributes of your upcoming cleaning challenges including budget, timeline, safety factors, surface types, and overall goals choosing between precision soft washing versus brute force pressure washing methodologies. Your local cleaning contractor can further assist in making the ideal choice that matches your unique needs.