Monday, June 9, 2008

How to externally clean a home of mildew and algae in The Woodlands Texas

If you live in The Woodlands under the canopy of the forest, you know that mildew and algae begs you to take action about once every year. You either call your local yard cleaning crew or give a call to a power wash specialist. You have a black driveway, green foundation, green fence and probably green siding on your home. The association may have given you a letter saying "please clean it", or your neighbors have said something like, "the color of your house is interesting", meaning of course "clean the .. thing, why don't ya!"

The good news is that it is not that difficult to do yourself. The driveway might be the toughest part if you do not have a power washer. Many have their own power washer here, so they can spend a half a day making it look good again. The professionals have a driveway washer with brushes and a power spray washer to speed up the process.

To clean your home, all you need is a ladder, a hand pump one gallon sprayer, a bottle of house bleach, a container of JOMAX concentrated house cleaner and mildew cleaner from a local hardware or building supply company. You would benefit from having a water pressure sprayer to put on your garden hose. It needs to have a narrow spray pattern so you can reach the roof of your home. I am able to spray the entire house from the ground, with the exception of one section where I climb the roof. I do the entire house in one-half day.

Put 4 cups bleach and 1 cup of JOMAX in the sprayer and add water to the one gallon marker. It is ready to go. Pump it up and spray 150 sq foot or so, letting it sit for 15 minutes. While waiting, spray some of the next section. Rinse the first section down using intense pressure, and you will probably need to repeat step one again by spraying parts of the first section with the solution again if it is truly green to start. I find myself giving almost the entire section a second treatment. Repeat the process until the entire house is completed. You can treat the windows just like they are part of the siding. Then you have a clean house except for the driveway, fence and concrete foundation. I treat the air conditioner, gas pipes and essentially everything outside with the solution. This year I tried an alternative to JOMAX - Damprid Concentrated House Cleaner. It worked just fine in the same proportions.

So what about plants? Just wet them down before you start spraying. Yes, there will probably be some bleaching of broad leafed plants, but I have yet to lose a plant from the treatment. If you have very sensitive plants, then go ahead and cover them. After you have completed the cleaning, be sure to clean out your bird feeder, dog bowls or anything that may threaten your pets or wildlife with residue from the clorox.

The additional good news is that this solution works for fences as well Use the same method and you can get quite good results. I have good luck using the same method on my concrete back porch as well.

But the driveway is typically another beast!I use only a power washer for that. It takes considerably more time and effort. So if you are going to hire this done, hire the driveway part. I usually treat the driveway with the solution also but have never noticed that it has done any good whatsoever. I also like to use a power washer at the base of the foundation where the mold and algae seem to never die. I do that every couple of years. While you at it, please clean the street and gutters in front of your house of the mildew there. One of our objectives here is to maintain the street view of the home, to keep the neighborhood clean as a unit. Black gutters leaves the appearance of dirtiness. It is up to residents to make their home pleasing to the eye. I power wash the street as well and believe it or not, the street is white underneath all that stuff.

That about wraps it up. I would caution anyone from using a power washer on wood siding and up under the eaves. You can damage the wood easily with a power washer. The chemical method is much less of a threat to the materials than the power washer which can strip the paint right off the house.

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