High pressure isn't always the right approach. Here's when soft washing is the better option and what it involves.
Soft washing is a cleaning technique that uses low-pressure water combined with specialist cleaning solutions to remove algae, moss, lichen, and other biological growth. Rather than using high pressure to physically blast the growth away, soft washing kills the organisms with cleaning chemistry and then rinses them away gently. This is much safer for delicate surfaces that would be damaged by high pressure.
Surfaces that benefit from soft washing include rendered walls, painted surfaces, wooden structures, roofing, older masonry, and some natural stone. High-pressure washing on these surfaces can strip paint, damage render, dislodge pointing, or physically erode the material. Soft washing achieves thorough biological removal without these risks.
The trade-off with soft washing is that it relies more heavily on the cleaning chemistry than on mechanical force. Dwell time is important — the solution needs sufficient contact time with the surface to kill the organisms. Results may take a day or two to fully develop as the dead biological matter dries out and becomes visible. For the right surfaces, though, soft washing produces excellent results that last longer than high-pressure cleaning alone.
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