Owning a business is exciting and challenging. If you are a business owner, you have first-hand knowledge of how difficult it can be to keep everything running smoothly. One critical component of that fight is maintaining a clean commercial property. There is simply no substitute to commercial pressure washing when it comes to making a business really sparkle. In fact, there is also no way to measure just how much regular cleaning can really help a business thrive, but we’ll try to narrow it down to five major advantages. 

Make a Good First Impression

People are well understood to make judgment calls based on appearance. It’s how our brains are wired. We are drawn to beauty and repelled by unattractiveness. If you want your business to really stand out, regular commercial pressure washing should be a high priority. Having a clean exterior is the only way to make a good first impression to casual bystanders or serious shoppers on the street. 

Good commercial pressure washing does not simply include your property’s walls. It also includes the pavements, driveways, and other concrete which belongs to your business. Soft washing is a better choice for roofs, and a professional pressure washing team can offer that service. If you prioritize these processes, you will gift your property with a better appearance and a sense of professionalism and care that will instill confidence and trust in potential and long-standing customers. 

Picture Perfect

In this, the Information Age, many if not most of your customers likely come from sources other than seeing your business on the street. In all probability, most of your customers come to you from the internet, and that means you have to give a good impression there too. Before you have pictures taken of your property for your website or social media accounts, we highly recommend giving it a thorough commercial pressure wash. This will allow you to put your best foot forward online, generating more business from a wider audience.

A Healthy Dose of Safety

What many people do not realize is that the benefits of a deep commercial pressure wash include far more than just a pretty exterior at surface level. Exterior surfaces are filthy, exposed constantly as they are to dirt, air pollution, pollen and other allergens, bacteria, mildew, and mold. These can build up on the surface of your commercial property, where they expose your patrons and employees to all kinds of health risks. By cleaning your commercial property regularly, you limit the risk of allergies, infections, and other health challenges.

Spend Less On Repairs

Repairing damage caused by bacteria, mold, chemicals, mildew, or other grime can be very expensive. If you clean all of those threats away, you don’t have to worry about damages and repairs at all. In this way, regular commercial pressure washing can save you a lot of money in repairs, replacements, and remodels. Take care of it early, before damage can accrue. 

Prolong Your Investment

A business is an investment, and if the marketing campaigns and sales strategies you employ operate to protect investment, so too should your building. Regular commercial pressure washing helps keep commercial properties up to date and functioning properly. It can improve the functionality of your plumbing, heating and air systems, roof, and driveways and parking lots. By extending the lifetime of your property, you save money fixing the problems that arise from uncleanliness.

Commercial Pressure Washing from the Professionals

As mentioned above, we know that the demands on your time as a property owner are numerous. You’ve got a lot on your plate without adding cleaning the building to it. That’s where leaving the task to the professionals comes in. entrusting the cleaning of your commercial property to a team like Westchester Power Wash is the best way to take a load off your mind.

In addition to saving you time and energy, entrusting your commercial pressure washing to the professionals is infinitely safer. For all their perks, pressure washers can be dangerous to operate and can even cause damage when not handled correctly. A professional team minimizes those risks because of the years of training and experience they possess. A professional company will also be insured against any mishap. 

At Westchester Power Wash, we promise New York residents the best commercial exterior cleaning services on the market. We will leave your roof, walls, and concrete sparkling clean so it will last longer and provide you with the best advantages available.

If you are interested in learning more about our commercial pressure washing services or you would like to schedule with us, contact us today.

Tiger stripes, sometimes also called zebra stripes, are an ugly phenomenon that can mar the appearance of any gutter. As their pithy name implies, tiger stripes are irregular black streaks that form on the side of gutters and siding. The best way to prevent them from causing staining or other damage is to remove tiger stripes without delay or to prevent them in the first place.

What Causes Tiger Stripes on Gutters?

Contrary to popular belief, tiger stripes are not the result of a poor paint job or protective finish. Affecting gutters more than roof tiles, tiger stripes are caused by the buildup of debris inside of gutters and spilling over the side. This accumulation can include anything: dirt, pollen, chimney fumes or other airborne pollutants, tree sap, insecticide, and mildew. When combined with moisture, either from dew or rain, this debris forms a slimy black or brown sludge and trails down the side of gutters. These stripes may even continue down the fascias and siding.

The Trouble with Tiger Stripes

Sometimes when dirt or other debris sticks to a home, it is concealed by dark and textured brick or asphalt tiles. Gutters, on the other hand, catch no such break. Because gutters are usually white or silver, tiger stripes are plainly obvious and even eye-catching. The contrast is a sure way to reduce a home’s curb appeal.

A perhaps worse problem is that if you do not remove tiger stripes in a timely manner, they can actually stain your siding and gutters. This happens in one of two ways: either the dark grime seeps into the material and permanently discolors it or the area around the stripes is bleached by regular sun exposure while the material under the stripes is not. Either way, it is important to remove tiger stripes quickly to avoid permanent evidence of them. 

How Do You Get Rid of Tiger Stripes on Gutters?

As ugly as they are, it can be tempting to try and remove tiger stripes with all the elbow grease you possess. This is actually not a good idea. If you attack tiger stripes too vigorously, you actually risk damaging your gutters and siding. For this reason, you should not use a hard or metal brush. A soft brush or rag is a much better choice.

Take it easy as you apply the cleaner to your gutters. Too much force will reduce your gutter’s glossy finish to a soft satin and may even wear the aluminum too thin. While you should be careful, you should also be thorough, inspecting the inside of your gutters for stripes as well. They may have started on the inside before running over the outside edge, or run down both edges at the same time. 

If you are nervous about climbing up on the ladder to remove tiger stripes, look for a wand or other extension to help you reach your gutters from the ground. Safety should always come first, and if you are really nervous, you can reach out to the professionals to make your tiger stripes a thing of the past.

What Is the Best Cleaner to Remove Tiger Stripes?

The cleaner you use to remove tiger stripes is very important. You want something that will cut through the dirt and grime without damaging your gutters or siding. As a general rule, a non-abrasive household detergent cleaner should do the trick. If you decide to use a commercial gutter cleaning solution, make sure it doesn’t have ammonia, paint removers, or other abrasive solutions. 

That being said, sometimes you need a little extra “umph.” More problematic stripes should be treated with more heavy-duty cleaning products as long as they won’t erode the aluminum. If your tiger stripes contain mildew or mold, they will need to be treated with germicides like bleach to make sure they don’t perpetuate damage or respiratory problems.

Preventing Tiger Stripes

An even better alternative to removing tiger stripes is preventing them in the first place. Covering your gutters so debris rolls off instead of accumulating is a great start. Another is cleaning your gutters (both inside and out) at least once a year. Pressure washing your gutters is an effective way to do so while saving you a lot of time and energy. There is an art to pressure washing gutters. Usually soft washing is recommended to avoid damaging soft roofing tiles. Alternatively, you can stick to washing them by hand, but pressure washing (especially professional pressure washing) is a more efficient and powerful way to keep tiger stripes at bay.

Pressure washing is a relatively quick and effective way to clean a home. It boosts a property’s curb appeal and clears away mold, mildew, and dirt that can gradually eat away at the home’s structure. Unfortunately, too often the pressure washing process results in damage to shrubs and other plants around the home. If you want to protect your plants, even during a pressure wash, take the following precautions.

The Proper Mix

Pressure washing is not just a matter of spraying pressurized water at a building. The process also involves laying down a coat of cleaning solutions to eat away at grime and debris before rinsing it off. Some of these chemicals, especially bleach, can be harmful to the greenery surrounding your home. 

The trick is to find cleaning solutions that are environmentally friendly. There are many commercially-available detergents that fit such a description. It is also wise to dilute the cleaning solution down. Try a ratio of 10:1 water:detergent. You can also protect your plants by adding a neutralizing agent to your cocktail of cleaners. These balance out the chemicals used to clean. 

Unfortunately, sometimes bleach is necessary to kill harmful biological agents such as mold and other fungus. If you need to use bleach in your pressure wash, you can still help protect your plants by adding a surfactant to the mixture. These components improve the adherence of bleach on the building itself, minimizing runoff into your flowerbed. Because of this property, surfactants also reduce the amount of bleach required for a good clean.

Rinse and Repeat

Water is obviously a big part of the pressure washing process. While it may seem like a risk to add more into the bargain, believe it or not, rinsing both before and after a pressure wash is one of the most powerful ways to protect your plants during the process. 

You may be a bit incredulous at the suggestion to rinse your plants before pressure washing, but doing so will saturate your plants so they don’t absorb the chemically-treated water of the wash. Rinsing will also dilute the chemicals further before they interact with the plant itself. You can use something as simple as a garden hose to pre-soak your property’s plants. 

Rinsing after a pressure wash is also vital. Cleaning solutions left on your plants run the risk of chemically burning them, leaving brown patches. Runoff from bleach leaves salt behind that actually dehydrates plants by impeding their ability to soak up water. Rinsing residual salts away negates this problem.

Once the cleaning solutions used in a pressure wash dry, they generally become inert. That being said, if they are not allowed to dry—for example, if it rains within days of the wash—those chemicals will stay active longer, increasing the risk that they run off into your landscaping. Minimize the problem by diluting with a rinse. 

Take Cover

Covering plants has long been a go-to method of protecting plants during a house wash. However, there are risks to this process. Plants that remain covered for too long can suffocate as their carbon dioxide supply is cut off. They can also overheat as a result of the greenhouse effect that is produced under a tarp in the sun. Lastly, if you are not cautious, covering your plants with a tarp may cause chemical runoff to pool at their root systems. 

The way to protect your plants even when employing the use of tarps is to be quick and efficient with them. Cover only the sections of your flower beds that are in close proximity to the portion of the property being cleaned. As soon as the wash in that area is finished, remove the tarps to the next section. The process is tedious and time consuming, but it will give your plants a fighting chance. 

Redirect The Runoff

The water used in a pressure wash has to have somewhere to go. If you want to protect your plants from damage, the ideal destination for runoff is not among your shrubs. The best way to alter the course of chemically-rich runoff is to bag your downspouts. This removes the contaminated water from the picture entirely: once the process is finished, you can simply remove the bags and dispose of them. Alternatively, you can use a bucket to catch the unwanted water.

Trust Westchester Power Wash to Protect Your Plants

If you want to make sure all these methods to protect your plants are followed properly, the best way is to entrust the process to the professionals. As we pressure wash your property, we will apply all detergent layers from the ground up, creating a barrier to chemical run-off. In addition to providing your home with a sparkling clean, our experienced team will prioritize your plant preservation.