How Does Soft Washing Differ From Pressure Washing?

You’re dying to give your home’s exterior a much needed refresh. You’ve been hearing a lot about this pressure washing business, but hear conflicting things. Some people say pressure washing is fantastic and can make your home’s exterior look infinitely cleaner. Others say pressure washing is horrible and will damage your property.

What’s going on is more likely than not people confusing pressure washing with soft washing. Both soft washing and pressure washing are excellent services for cleaning your home’s exterior, but they’re not good for the same things. Try to pressure wash a surface that should only be soft washed, and you’ll likely end up with damage. Try to soft wash a surface that should be pressure washed and you likely won’t see the results you want.

Here is what you need to know about the difference between soft washing and pressure washing, which service you should have done for different surfaces, and which one is better overall. Let’s get into it. 

What Is Soft Washing?

Soft washing is often confused with pressure washing because you do indeed use a pressure washer to soft wash – just on a much lower setting than you would for pressure washing. This makes it suitable for the more delicate surfaces around your home’s exterior, such as your roof and your vinyl siding. As a matter of fact, soft washing was originally invented to clean algae off of rooftops! 

So, in short: soft washing is like pressure washing, but at a much lower pressure setting. It’s used for surfaces that would likely be damaged by traditional pressure washing. 

What Is Pressure Washing?

Pressure washing is like soft washing, but more intense. It’s not suitable for more delicate surfaces on your property, due to how the intense pressure could cause damage, but can be used for sturdier areas like your driveway. You must be extremely careful with pressure washers, as many people underestimate just how powerful and dangerous that highly pressurized water can be. 

Professional pressure washers undergo thorough training in order to be able to use pressure washers safely and effectively. While the average homeowner may run the risk of accidentally sending someone to the hospital or damaging their property, pros know how to mitigate risk in order to ensure a job done right.

What Surfaces Can You Soft Wash?

You can soft wash:

• Roofs
• Siding
• Stucco
• Windows
• Brick
• Decks
• Concrete under 3 years old
• Outdoor furniture
• Windows
• And more

The company that you’re working with should tell you what surfaces would be better to soft wash and which ones would likely need a pressure wash. In short, soft washing is good to give your home a bath with and to remove algae, dirt, and the like, in a gentler manner. 

What Surfaces Can You Pressure Wash?

You can pressure wash:

• Concrete older than 3 years
• Treated decks
• And potentially more

Again, the company that you work with should inform you whether or not pressure washing is a good option for your needs or if you should go with soft washing. Basically, though, most concrete surfaces around your property, like your driveway, your sidewalk, your pool deck, and the like can be pressure washed, as long as the concrete is not new.

Which Is Better: Soft Washing Or Pressure Washing?

As with anything that people want to know the difference between, there’s always the question of which one is better. Because one has to be better than the other, right?

However, it really depends on what your needs are. Both soft washing and pressure washing are fantastic, but they’re better suited to different areas of your property. So, which is better? Well, soft washing is better for surfaces that pressure washing would damage and pressure washing is better for surfaces that can withstand more pressure. 

Professional Soft Washing And Pressure Washing In And Around Boston

Above & Beyond Window Cleaning provides both soft washing and pressure washing services, in addition to window cleaning and gutter cleaning. We’ve got your exterior cleaning needs covered. We use the suitable method to provide you with results you can gawk at and are happy to answer any questions you may have about what type of cleaning is better for your needs.
Contact us today to learn more about our exterior cleaning services.