Mike Bader Blues

Today’s writing comes from Andrew Thompson, founder of VT Mobile Pressure Wash. You can check out his site at: http://www.vtmobilepressurewash.com/

Pressure washing your wooden deck is as simple as one, two, three – if you know how to do it.

If you’re new to power washing a wooden deck, and you’re not sure what to do you could end up ruining your deck, and accruing thousands of dollars worth of repairs just to get it fixed – that’s a no-no in our books.

Today we are dedicating our writing into teaching you the fundamentals of wooden deck cleaning so you can go out and safely, securely, and confidently power wash any wooden deck.

What you need first to understand is that the best psi for this purpose is around 500-600. Any more than that and you’re likely to damage the wood that you will clean. Unless you have the finest wood in all the land, I don’t recommend going over 600.

Another thing to note about power washing your wooden deck is that instead of using a short angle we will be using a much wider angle. The purpose for this is twofold: not only do you cover more surface area, but you also reduce the risk of doing significant damage to the wood in place.

You see, a power washer can have so much power packed into it (in some cases over 1.200 psi) that it can even damage brick walls by etching them. This also includes removing the meat off of your bones, so please exercise caution.

All in all, I do mention the above so the next time you crank up your power washer you’ll use it at the recommended power. I learned very hard lessons from using high power pressure washer on my deck only to my dismay of having it fully repaired because of the damage I caused it.

Let’s move on, shall we?

Now, one useful tidbit that you must do is when you initially pull the trigger be sure to do so at least three feet above the target. Then, once the water is running you can move closer to at the most one foot above the surface – don’t get any closer than that.

What you want to do at this point is not get closer, nor further from the surface. It helps to use a swaying motion keeping your arms the same distance away from the surface. Slowly swaying left to right is enough to keep removing the dirt and stains from the wood.

Finally, after your done with the entire power washing procedure what you want to do is remove the splinters that naturally arise from the water digging into the wood. You want to be able to sand the wooden floor using a varying degree of sand paper.

If you’re sanding the rails, you want to use no higher than a 100 grit sand paper. If you’re doing this on the deck surface, you’ll want to use 60-80 grit sandpaper. If you do this, you’ll keep your deck polished 100%. On top of this you reduce the chance of anyone getting splinters from the wood pointing up, and you’ll have your deck looking like new.

If you live in the Sugar Land, Texas area, or Humble, Texas area and would like a free evaluation check out how you can do both respectively below:

My Sugar Land page: http://www.vtmobilepressurewash.com/sugarland-texas-pressure-washing/

My Humble Page: http://www.vtmobilepressurewash.com/pressure-washing-humble/

I’ve been inside of this for a long time now and if there’s nothing more that I get a kick out of is actually helping people get the results they need. I understand that some of you are too busy to do your own power washing, and that’s the main reason I’m here. With our service you can get back to kicking it and doing the things you like to do while we work on making your home beautiful.

If you want to power wash anything, it’s because you want your residential or commercial property looking spiffy. We get it, over the years the quality of the exterior begins to decline because of dirt, mold, and other various compounds want to get back into the work of human hands – it’s nature.

But it’s also our nature to come right back in and get things clean and in order. So, if you’re considering someone to do your power washing you need to understand a few things about how to get started beautifying your home.

Now, I will ask you this: Are you going to do the work by yourself, or hire a contractor?

If you do the work yourself, you can rent out a good gas powered power washer at your local Lowe’s department, or other home goods retailer. If you hire a contractor, the only thing you are paying for is the work the contractor will do.

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty lazy. That and I have other work to do, and other things I need to focus my mind. It’s completely okay if you want to do the work yourself, but I’d rather just pay someone else to do it and then get my time back in that aspect.

I digressed a little though.

Listen, by hiring a contractor you need not read further until you get to my next post “How to Hire the Perfect Contractor”. I’ll list out in detail what you need to know and ask in order to get the best jobs completed for your needs.

Now, if you’re going to be doing the power washing for yourself what I will say is that it’s best to get the right kind of protective gear, and a good gas powered power washer. I mention a gas powered machine because it has the highest pressure for the water at around 3,100 psi.

The 3,000 psi is more than enough to remove tough stains and keep your driveway, walks, walls and everything else squeaky clean. The uber awesome part about this is that you can also modify the angle that the pressure washer uses so you can have a refined high power throttle or a relaxed wide angle shower.

Swish

Swish.

Brrrr.

Here’s more info on DIY Power Washing:

The machine is designed to remove tough stuff from concrete, so please be aware that you should probably (no just do this next step) aim the power washer at least three feet away from your target. For the love of everything that you do be sure to point the power washer AWAY from your body at all times. The strength of the machine is so strong that I can rip and tear your skin off if you’re not careful with It. I had a buddy of mine had this happen to his daughter and, needless to say, the bone was what was left from that machines.

Be wise of your use of these machines and use them for their intended purposes, m’kay?