Pressure Washing in Los Angeles

What pressure washing covers

• Surfaces wet down and pre-treated with solution before the pressure goes on
• A flat surface cleaner on the concrete, instead of a wand pass that leaves stripes
• Siding soft washed at low pressure and rinsed, not blasted
• Plants and shrubs soaked before the work and rinsed off after
• Driveway, walkway and the concrete apron washed edge to edge
• Fence and deck boards worked along the grain, not across it

What is usually not included

• Sealing or staining afterwards. That is a separate job on a separate day, once the surface has dried all the way through.
• Rust, oil that has soaked into concrete and old tire marks. A wash lightens them and often does not take them out.
• Roof shingles and the inside of the gutters. Both are their own service and are priced on their own.

When to book pressure washing

Book this when outside surfaces have gone green or grey, before selling, or once a year as maintenance. Some surfaces need lower pressure, so say what the material is.

How long it takes

A driveway or a patio is short work next to a whole house exterior, where every wall has to be reached and rinsed. Weather sets the calendar more than the work does, and freezing temperatures push the date.

What makes the price go up

• Two stories of siding, which has to be reached from a ladder or with poles from the ground
• Oil and rust, which need a degreaser and a separate treatment step
• Wood decks, which take lower pressure and more passes than concrete does
• No outside spigot, or weak water pressure, so a tank has to come along

What to ask before you book

• Do you use my water and my outside spigot, or do you bring your own?
• If I want to stain the deck after, how long do I have to wait?
• Is the driveway in that price, or is that just the house?

What pressure washing looks like in Los Angeles

Los Angeles is not one place. A Spanish bungalow on a flat street, a hillside house that is mostly glass and stairs, an apartment over a garage in between. Neighborhoods sit far apart with freeway between them. Traffic keeps a fine road grit in the air, and when there is a fire in the hills, ash settles on patios, sills and outdoor furniture.

Two things change here. Distance: a job across town is a different day than one two streets over, so the schedule is built around driving. And the housing does not repeat from one street to the next, so the work shifts from hardwood floors in a bungalow to stairs and floor-to-ceiling glass on a hillside.