As delightful as it would be if the only thing you needed to worry about to prepare your home for fall were selecting the perfect wreaths and pumpkin spice candles and switching out your patio decor, it’s a much more involved process than that. Proper prep is key to ensure your home looks its best and lasts you as long as possible. Here are 5 helpful tips to prepare your home for fall so that you can make the most out of the season. 

#1. Clean Your Gutters

Or replace them, if necessary. It’s easy to forget about your gutters until you start experiencing gutter-related problems. However, in order to keep your property in the best condition possible, it’s crucial to ensure that you’re including your gutters while you work to prepare your home exterior for fall.

Fall leaves have a tendency to congregate in gutters, clogging them up and potentially causing damage over time. In order to ensure that your gutters function properly in order to avoid premature replacement and issues like ice dams in the winter, ensure that you get your gutters cleaned as needed.

This is something that you can do yourself, or you can hire professionals to do for you. Since cleaning gutters involves pulling out a ladder and trying to safely collect debris, many people don’t feel safe doing this themselves. Hiring professionals for gutter cleaning preserves your safety and ensures that the job’s done right, so that water can freely drain away from your home, preventing damage. 

#2. Check Your Windows

For drafts, whether they need to be cleaned, if they have any cracks and leaks, etc. Fall is the perfect time to check for drafts before they start impacting your HVAC bill and the comfort of your home. It’s also a great time to have window cleaning done. While you can clean your windows yourself, depending on their height and location, it’s safer and better to leave this job to window cleaning professionals.

Professional window cleaning not only brightens up your view and bolsters your property’s curb appeal, it also makes your home safer from the health risks associated with decreased air quality and helps your windows last longer. With New England’s stunning fall, you want to get the most out of your view to soak up all the beauty for as long as you can. 

#3. Call Your HVAC Guy

Fall is the perfect time to conduct any necessary maintenance on your system before you’ll need it to heat your home. It may be that all you need to have done is replace your filters and have any AC units covered, but in the event that your HVAC system needs repairs or replacement, it’s important to get this done before cold weather strikes.

#4. Clean Overgrown Vegetation/Dead Branches

In winter storms, dead branches can scratch or damage your home. Fall leaves and overgrown vegetation can cause your gutters to get clogged up, debris to build up around your property, and more. Cleaning overgrown vegetation and trimming any dead branches prepares your home exterior for fall and winter while also enhancing your curb appeal.

Professional pressure washing can take care of any existing buildup from fallen debris and dirt, giving your property a facelift – perfect for the upcoming holidays.

#5. Clean And Prep Outdoor Areas

From your deck to your patio to your driveway to the exterior walls of your home, all of these outdoor areas can benefit from proper cleaning and prep prior to snow storms. You don’t want dirt buildup to just sit there all throughout the winter. Professional pressure washing gives your property a much-needed refresh and makes maintaining it so much easier. 

Many homeowners think that their home needs a new paint job, get a pressure wash, and are astounded by the fact that removing all the dirt and debris buildup causes their home to look freshly painted.

Count On The Pros To Go Above & Beyond

Need help to prepare your home exterior for fall and winter? You’ve come to the right place. Here at Above & Beyond Window Cleaning, we pride ourselves on going above and beyond customer expectations to provide stellar service on each and every job. While window cleaning is in our name, that’s not all that we do. We also provide pressure washing, gutter cleaning, soft washing, and screen repair for comprehensive exterior cleaning.

Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you prepare your home exterior for fall. 

Professional residential window washing is an invaluable service that allows homeowners greater freedom while maintaining the cleanliness of their homes. If you’re not sure if you should leave your window cleaning to the professionals, here are five reasons you might consider.  

Key Benefits of Clean Windows

Last month we discussed the benefits of having clean windows. We refer you to that article for an in-depth exploration, but we do think it worth mentioning that having clean windows can increase a home’s value in many ways. Clean windows will boost your curb appeal, energy efficiency, minimize the need for repairs, and make your space a more inviting place to be.

Why Professional Residential Window Washing?

Many people prefer to manage cleaning their own windows. While this may seem like the better option for scheduling and cost, the truth is that doing your own window cleaning can be costly and time consuming. Moreover, it can even be dangerous.

Safety

While you may not think that cleaning the windows of a single story home has the potential to be dangerous, the truth of the matter is that all cleaning projects have their risks. The wrong chemicals, and the wrong combination of chemicals especially, can prove to be dangerous health hazards. For example, combining bleach and ammonia results in chloramine gasses which are highly toxic. Professional residential window washing avoids such risks because professionals’ proper training and experience minimizes the risk of danger. 

The same is true when the number of stories starts to climb. Ladders pose a dangerous threat, and if you clean windows on higher levels by yourself, you put yourself at risk of falling off. Professionals use such equipment every day, so their tools are sure to be in good working order, and they themselves have an almost instinctual use of it. 

For apartment complexes and tall townhomes, some professional window cleaners use harnesses and other climbing equipment that are designed to keep them safe even at great height. It is within a professional cleaner’s job responsibilities to verify their safety equipment is up to the task before each job. This further minimizes risk to themselves and to passersby.

Professional residential window washing services are also the best way to make sure your home is protected during the cleaning process. Professionals are careful to pay attention and not damage furniture or structural features of the property. Professional cleaners are also protected, as homeowners are not, by worker’s compensation insurance in the event of an incident. 

Health

The film of grime that develops on dirty windows can pose a health hazard to members of a household. Pollen and other pollutants stuck to the glass or screen can set off allergic reactions, and more serious biological trespassers like mildew and mold can be brutal on the respiratory system. 

The wrong chemicals can also damage skin, lungs, and eyes. They too can lead to allergic reactions and other irritation or abrasions. In serious cases, the damage can lead to cancer. As mentioned above, professional window washers use all the right chemicals in addition to the appropriate protective gear to protect their lungs, eyes, and skin.

Time

Residential window washing done right takes a good amount of time. The work is meticulous, and especially if the home is multiple stories, cleaning all the windows can be very time-consuming. The general estimate for professional residential window washing is two to three hours. That number is obviously higher for buildings with many stories like apartment buildings. Hiring professional window cleaners allows homeowners to carry on with their lives while someone else manages the window cleaning.

Money

While many people consider money to be their hesitation about professional residential window washing, leaving the work to the professionals can actually save homeowners money. Because the clean produced is more thorough and usually performed on a regular basis, the need for heavy cleaning is less. Some window cleaning companies offer discounted rates for recurring services. 

The Full Package

Professional residential window washing is more than just spraying on Windex and wiping it off with a paper towel. In addition to using really powerful cleaners and top-of-the-line equipment, professional residential window washing also includes cleaning all facets of the window. Your windows are not just the glass through which light shines. The blinds and shades, window tracks and hinges, and screens are all part of the package. Cleaning these will ensure better energy efficiency, privacy, functionality of the window, and air quality of the inside of your home. When you work with the professionals, you get the whole package.

Mold is a homeowner’s nightmare. It spreads quickly and can deliver a lot of damage in a short time. Fortunately, pressure washing is a powerful tool for eliminating dirt, pollen, and other grime, and it is equally capable of removing mold on concrete. If you have mold on concrete on your property, pressure washing is the single best way to kick it to the curb.

The Dangers of Mold

Mold is a kind of fungal growth that thrives in dark, damp places. Especially in the warm and humid air of a summer around Boston, mold stands as a threat to property’s appearance and structural condition.

Mold is commonly understood to pose many hazards to human health. In addition to forming in ugly black or green splotches, mold can irritate the eyes, throat, and nose; incite asthma attacks, and exacerbate allergies. It can also damage structural elements of a property. On wood, mold can lead to rot, eventually eating the material away completely. 

Mold on concrete is also a recipe for disaster. Despite the durability of concrete, the material is porous, and water can slip into all its nooks and crannies. These areas serve as cozy cafes for mold growth, and the fungus can quickly take root, growing and spreading as it eats away at the concrete. This further increases concrete’s porosity and perpetuates a snowball effect for damage.

Mold on concrete surfaces is typically found near leaky pipes or downspouts. It can also grow in any shady parts of a driveway or patio since these generally take a prolonged time to dry after a rainstorm or heavy dew. Check steps and other areas on the north side of a property especially since that side of the house receives the least amount of sunlight, acting as the ideal breeding ground for mold.

Can Pressure Washing Remove Mold on Concrete?

Fortunately for homeowners, pressure washing is a powerful weapon in the fight against mold, mildew, and other fungal and biological interlopers. The service combines high pressured water and antimicrobial cleaning agents to blast away anything—including mold—that threatens your concrete.

The most effective pressure washing jobs for getting rid of mold use a combination of detergents and bleach. Bleach is well understood to kill mold, and the sudsing power of detergents allows for comprehensive coverage. Choosing the right chemicals to include (in the correct concentrations) is critical to avoid damaging the concrete, but a professional pressure washing team has the right expertise to know what to put in the cleaning cocktail. Common inclusions consist of baking soda, vinegar, and concrete cleaners made of concentrated alkaline soap in addition to the detergents and bleach.

Your pressure washing team will avoid the use of any corrosive chemicals in order to protect your concrete. This means eschewing concrete cleaners that contain acid, since acid runs the risk of eating away at the cement’s top layer or any sealer that has been previously applied.

Once the perfect combination of cleaning chemicals has been selected, a professional pressure washing team will apply them and the water with the correct settings for your concrete. This ensures that the high-powered blast of water does not damage the material. After the detergents have had time to work, they are rinsed off with a wide angle nozzle.

If you have your concrete cleaned on a regular basis, you can prevent mold from taking hold in the first place. This is a powerful step toward preventing concrete degradation on your property and avoiding the growth of mold on concrete surfaces.

Keep Your Concrete Looking Like New

Pressure washing—especially administered by the professionals—is the best way to remove mold on concrete. No other method is as thorough or works as quickly. Concrete has to endure all kinds of weather conditions, so it is important to make regularly cleaning your driveways and patios a priority in order to keep such surfaces looking fresh and clean.

Leaving the pressure washing of your concrete to the professionals is a sure way to save yourself time and elbow grease while still getting rid of any mold on your property’s exterior. It is also the best way to keep yourself and your concrete safe during the process. The professionals have all the safety equipment and gear necessary to make such jobs go off without a hitch. 

Pressure washing isn’t just good for removing mold on concrete. It can also blast away larger things that detract from your concrete’s appearance, things like dirt and weeds. Pressure washing can be used on other surfaces as well to make sure that your property has a sparkling finish from top to bottom.