1st option is soft wash, The method of soft washing is you applicate your chemical / soap mix onto the house with a low pressure pump, Some of the cheap and nasty company's will use a bertiolini type weed sprayer with a longer hose attached, You see farmers with this style of pump on there quad bikes. You can also use motorized diaphragm pumps as well. The pros for this type of cleaning is the equipment is cheap dirt cheap so the cost to wash the house should be about $1.50 per m2 and the fact that it is gentile on the paint from a pressure point of view. I also believe that soft washing is great for roof cleaning and there is no kick back from the pump while on the roof. Now the cons, The biggest is the strength of chemicals used and the type of chemicals used and that needs to be used to wash your house from moss and mould and dirt. The typical soft wash company that uses 12v electric pumps will use a 15% chlorine mix on your house with a small amount of surfactant to make the mix foam up. If your house is real dirty these company's like to put caustic soda in the mix but be warned caustic soda is the main ingredient in paint stripper and oven cleaner!!!! I would also directly request NO CAUSTIC TO BE USED ON MY HOUSE.
So if you chose a soft wash method ask a few questions what % of chlorine is in your mix when it hits my house and will you ever use caustic soda on my house?? Most company's with soft, chemical, chem, or gentile in there name use these chemicals so be aware now in saying this if these chemicals are used in the right dose and in the right format than there will be no issue what so ever. It all comes down to training.
Picture is a soft rig doing a roof treatment on a hospital roof
2nd option is pressure washing, Company's that use a pressure washer still use chlorine to wash your house but they use a method called down stream injection which just means the chemical is injected into the water stream, Most contractors use a mix that when it hits your house its around 3% to 5% chlorirne which is a lot less than the soft wash only company's that are around 15% and higher in some cases.
When using a pressure washer you have the option of dialing up the pressure if needed to get some hard to remove dirt. The pressure washer can be dialed down low or dialed up very high so this gives the user a higher rate of flexibility to get the job done and done right. In the hands of an inexperienced user the pressure washer can cause damage to sidding's
A pressure wash company is more likely to give you an instant result and the surface is cleaned than and there. A down side of a pressure washing method is the cost of equipment. The equipment alone can cost you $10000 not including the vehicle where a soft wash set up can be brought for $2000
Now my option on whats better - Well both we at Wash Rite have pressure washing equipment and soft wash equipment in each and every service vehicle as each method has its place as long as the person using it is well trained up on best practice. We do extensive training on both sets of equipment before anyone is aloud to use it on a clients house. Training is key in this industry without a doubt, The big problem in our industry is there are heaps of so called bucket bobs out there working from home with no training and very little experience and they cause damage regardless of the method they use. I see it almost daily. http://washrite.co.nz/services/
Picture is of a pressure washer washing a house
If you have any questions we would love to help so feel free to look us up at www.washrite.co.nz or call on 0800101216
Troy Hillard
Wash Rite NZ
www.washrite.co.nz
Hamiltons Premier house wash company.
