Frequently asked questions

Pressure would. That is why anything vertical gets soft washed instead — the cleaning solution does the work at low pressure and the wall is rinsed rather than blasted. The substrate decides the method, and painted block, brick, prefinished metal and EIFS each need a different one. That is settled by looking at the elevation before any work is quoted.

It depends on the elevation. A wall that gets sun and airflow can hold for two or three seasons. A north-facing wall shaded by trees, or one under a leaking gutter, will start again sooner — and if a gutter is the reason, cleaning the wall repeatedly is treating the symptom. Ask about the cause at the quote, not just the price.

That is normally the point. Quotes are scheduled around your hours and so is the work. Say what your access windows are and whether there is a night or weekend the property is empty.

Most two- and three-storey elevations are reachable from the ground with soft-wash equipment, which is one of the reasons soft washing suits commercial buildings. Anything taller, or set back behind an obstruction, gets discussed at the quote — including whether it needs a lift, because that changes the job and the price and you should hear it before the day.

Yes, and for retail that is usually the only way it works. Give the earliest access time and the opening time of the earliest tenant and the run gets sequenced around them so no unit is wet when it opens.

Whoever you tell us to. If you want the tenants notified, say so and when — a day of the week and a time window is enough for most tenants to move their sandwich boards and patio furniture. If you would rather they hear it from you, we will work to your notice.

The black flattened spots at an entrance are gum, and getting them off concrete properly is a specific step rather than part of a general wash. Point them out at the quote so the job is priced with them in it — a walkway wash that leaves every gum spot behind is the most common complaint about this kind of work.

Most plaza entrances want it twice a year in Michigan — once after the salt season ends in spring, which is the important one, and once in autumn. A busy food or drink tenant at the door can justify quarterly on that unit alone.

Spring, once the salt season is genuinely over — usually April into May. Washing the winter chloride residue out of the slab before the summer heat bakes it in is the pass that does the most good. Autumn is a good second pass for appearance and for leaf tannin staining.

It will make it look accurate. Cleaning does not cause spalling, but it does reveal it — flaking and pitting that were hidden under uniform grey become visible, and so does patchwork from previous repairs. That is worth knowing before you budget, and it is worth hearing at the quote rather than on the day.

Petroleum has to be lifted with a degreaser and given dwell time, not rinsed. Old, deeply soaked stains on porous concrete often lighten substantially rather than disappear, and anyone who promises a full removal on a decade-old stain without looking at it is guessing. Point them out at the quote and get a straight answer about what the realistic result is.

On flatwork it is worth asking, because the honest answer depends on the property. A surface cleaner keeps the water contained far better than a wand does, and where the run-off goes — a storm drain, a landscape bed, a sanitary connection — is part of walking the site before the work rather than something to discover mid-job.

Quarterly is the usual answer for food service and monthly through summer for a heavy producer. For an office or retail unit without food waste, twice a year keeps it from becoming a problem. The driver is what goes in the bin, not the size of the pad.

Usually yes on a pad that has been cleaned before or is not badly saturated. On a slab with years of leachate soaked into unsealed concrete, cleaning gets a large improvement rather than a total one, and sealing after cleaning is what makes the next clean effective. Anyone promising a guaranteed result on a pad they have not looked at is guessing.

Ideally the work lands the day after a pickup, when the bin is lightest and can be moved off the pad. Tell us your haul day and the visit gets scheduled against it.

This is the right question to ask about a pad, and a fair one to ask of anybody quoting it. It gets answered specifically for your property when the site is walked, because the answer depends on what drainage the enclosure has and what is downhill of it.

Pressure washing a roof can. Soft washing is the method precisely because it does not require pressure on the roof surface. If your roof is under a manufacturer warranty, get the cleaning-method language from the warranty before any work — that is worth doing on a commercial roof regardless of who does the cleaning.

The growth dies within days and weathers off over the following weeks; it is not scraped away on the day. A roof that looks patchy a week after treatment is normal and is the treatment working. Expecting a same-day transformation on a mossy roof is the wrong expectation and the method that would deliver it is the method that damages the roof.

Access, membrane type and warranty terms all change on a low-slope roof, and it is not the same job as a shingle roof. Say what you have when you call so the right conversation happens at the quote — including whether cleaning is the right answer at all, because on some membranes it is not.

Yes, and on a commercial building it is often the highest-value small job on the property. If one elevation is streaking, have the gutter above it looked at in the same visit.

Often, on concrete, when it is treated properly. Deeply set stains on porous or old concrete can lighten dramatically rather than vanish, and the honest version of that answer depends on looking at the stain. Get it looked at and get told which of the two it is before the work, not after.

Not pointless, but incomplete on its own. If the irrigation water carries iron, the stain returns on the same schedule. Cleaning it and adjusting the heads so they are not throwing onto the flatwork, or fitting iron treatment on the irrigation supply, is the combination that actually holds. Worth raising with whoever maintains the system.

That is likely efflorescence rather than dirt — salts coming out of the masonry. It has its own treatment, and it is a signal that water is getting into the wall from somewhere. Both parts are worth addressing; cleaning only the surface means it comes back.

Whatever your normal notice period is. Practically, three to five days and a per-building day assignment is enough for residents to clear balconies and move cars. The sequence gets agreed before the first day so your notice can actually name a date.

Yes, and for a large community that is often the sensible way — it spreads the cost across a budget year and keeps the disruption to one building at a time. It needs the sequence set in advance so it does not drift.

It is a fair concern and worth raising specifically, because beds sit directly under the elevations being washed. One of their reviewers had an "enormous organic garden" in front of a fence being cleaned and wrote that Chris was "so respectful and careful not to injury the plants and used a solvent that wouldn't damage them". Point out what you are worried about at the walk-through.

Yes, as part of the common-area scope. A shaded pool surround with organic film on it is a slip liability and generally the highest-priority piece of flatwork in a community, so it is worth flagging rather than leaving to be picked up in a general figure.

They come out of the section being cleaned, and the section gets ventilated and dried before they go back. Which stalls, in what order, and where the animals go in the meantime is the first thing to settle at the quote — it decides how the whole job is sequenced.

The chemistry is chosen around the animals, which specifically means not defaulting to the chlorine-based mix used on building exteriors, and rinsing far more thoroughly than an exterior job needs. If a product is going into your barn you are entitled to know what it is before the day; ask, and get a straight answer.

It depends far more on the soil load, the ventilation and how much of the barn can be emptied at once than on the stall count, so a number quoted over the phone would be a guess. It gets answered after a walk-through — which for a barn is genuinely necessary rather than a formality.

Yes — exteriors, run-in sheds, the concrete approach and the equipment areas. Barns are usually the priority because they are what boarders see, but it is generally more efficient to do the whole site in one visit than to bring the rig back.