Your home’s siding does a great job of protecting the interior of your home from the elements, while also making your home look great to passersby. Whether aluminum or vinyl, darkly colored or lightly toned, your siding is bound to experience some degradation over time, however. Everything from dust and dirt being carried by the wind to the exhaust fumes from your car can make your siding look just a bit less presentable than it once did and over time, these things add up.
If you notice that your siding in Calgary AB doesn’t quite have the shine that it used to or it’s looking faded as compared to the color that you’d expect it to be, it could be time to give your home a good scrub down. Take a look at a few great methods that you can use to clean your home’s siding:
Water and vinegar solution: One of the simplest and most practical ways to clean the siding on your home is with a 70 percent water, 30 percent vinegar solution. This concoction won’t harm siding in Calgary AB, but it will do wonders on mold, mildew and other buildups that can cause unsightly spots on the face of your home.
Detergent and bleach: Mix up one-third of a cup of powdered laundry detergent, two-thirds of a cup of powdered household cleaner and add them to one quart of liquid laundry bleach and one gallon of water. The resulting concoction is a powerful cleaning solution that will help to take off just about any foreign substance on your siding, without harming the material itself. The drawback to this cleaning solution is that if you happen to get any in your grass or on the soil near the base of your home, it will effectively kill off any growth in that area.
Water and oxygen bleach: By mixing one cup of oxygen bleach to a gallon of water, you’ll whip up a cleaning solution that’s safe for your landscape, yet also highly effective at removing the filth from your siding. Often times, when combined with a power washer, this solution proves to be one of the most effective for homes with significant residue buildups.
Pressure washing: Sometimes, all it takes is a simple pressure washing with warm water to get the grime off of your home’s siding. This method by itself achieves significant results because the force of a pressure stream is able to lift off any residue that’s built up over the years. If your stains are more engrained in the material, a cleaning solution may be required over just plain water, however it’s up to you to judge how clean your vinyl is after a water pressure wash.
Remember to take care when mixing the chemicals above to create cleaning solutions. While these products are generally made for daily use, combining them in high volumes can be unsafe. It’s also important to remember that a variety of household chemicals will kill the landscape around your home if it’s exposed to chemical saturation. Be smart about cleaning your siding in Calgary, AB and you’ll see great results!