Picture this: You are pulling into your driveway after work. You look at your house, and you notice the white vinyl siding is turning green with algae. The concrete driveway is stained with black oil and mildew.
It looks terrible. You want to clean it, so you call a professional pressure washing company. A man comes out, looks at your house, and hands you a quote: $500 to wash the house and driveway.
For shooting water at a wall. The pressure washing industry is a massive summer scam. They prey on your embarrassment about a dirty house, charging you hundreds of dollars for 45 minutes of unskilled labor. You don’t need to pay a guy in a truck $500 to spray water. You just need the right machine. Here is the dirty truth about exterior cleaning, and how to do it yourself for pennies:
The “Gas Engine” Maintenance Nightmare People think they need to buy a massive, $400 gas-powered pressure washer like the professionals use. This is a trap. Gas engines require oil changes, spark plug replacements, and stabilizer in the fuel. If you leave gas in it over the winter, the carburetor clogs, and the machine is dead. You will spend more time fixing the engine than cleaning your house.
The “Bleach and Pump” Hack (Soft Washing) You don’t actually need 4,000 PSI (pounds per square inch) of water pressure to clean green algae off your siding. In fact, high pressure will blast the paint right off your house and force water under your siding.
- The Free Hack: Buy a $15 garden hose pump sprayer. Fill it with a mixture of water and household bleach (or pool chlorine). Spray the house down lightly, wait 10 minutes, and rinse with a regular garden hose. The bleach instantly kills the algae, and it washes away without you needing a machine at all.
- ✨ The Extra Benefit : Soft washing with bleach keeps your siding intact and prevents water from seeping into your walls. It also kills the mold spores at the root, meaning the green slime won’t grow back for two years, whereas high-pressure washing leaves the roots, and the algae returns in 3 months.
The Electric Power Secret If your driveway has stubborn, baked-on oil stains or thick moss that bleach can’t handle, you do need pressure. But you don’t need gas.
- The Smart Move: An Electric Pressure Washer is the ultimate homeowner cheat code. You plug it into a standard wall outlet, connect a garden hose, and it generates 2,000 to 3,000 PSI of cleaning power. It is whisper-quiet, requires zero oil or gas, and starts with the pull of a trigger. It blasts oil stains off concrete and strips dirt off fences in seconds. It pays for itself after one single use. (If you want to see which electric washers have the strongest PSI without melting the motor, check out our review of the best budget electric pressure washers!)
- ✨ The Extra Benefit : Electric washers are incredibly light and easy to carry. You can easily lift them to clean a second-story deck, or throw them in the trunk of a sedan to help a neighbor clean their patio. It becomes a tool you actually use, rather than a heavy gas machine you dread pulling out of the garage.
The Bottom Line Stop handing $500 to a guy who just pulls a trigger. Soft-wash your siding with bleach, and buy an electric pressure washer for your hard surfaces. You can make your home look brand new for a fraction of the cost.