How to Prepare Your Home for a Professional House Wash

You booked your house wash. The crew is on the way. Now what? The truth is, a little bit of prep from the homeowner makes a big difference in how smoothly the job goes — and how good the result looks when our team finishes. None of this takes long. Most of our customers knock it out in 15 to 20 minutes the night before or the morning of.

Here's the exact checklist we send our customers before a house wash appointment. Follow these steps and your cleaning will be faster, safer, and cleaner.

Move Outdoor Items

The single biggest thing you can do before our crew arrives is clear the work zone. Anything within about 6 feet of your house walls should be moved away from the house so our team can get full access to every siding panel, soffit, window frame, and foundation line.

Specifically, please move:

• Patio furniture. Chairs, tables, umbrellas, cushions — everything. Cushions especially should go indoors; they soak up overspray quickly.
• Grills and outdoor cooking equipment. Move the grill away from the wall so we can clean behind and around it. Wrap propane tanks if they'll stay outside.
• Kids' toys, trampolines, and sports gear. Move these to the garage or away from the cleaning zone.
• Potted plants and planters. Move delicate potted plants at least 10 feet from the wall, or indoors for particularly sensitive species. Our cleaning solution is biodegradable and plant-safe when rinsed properly, but direct exposure to concentrated mix can stress some plants.
• Door mats and decorative items. Welcome mats, wreaths, seasonal decor, and porch lights with fabric shades should come down or be moved indoors.
• Vehicles. Pull cars out of the driveway if the driveway or garage door area is being washed. This also gives our team space to park the rig.

Close Windows and Doors

This is the one that surprises homeowners. Yes — all of them. Every window, every door, every sliding glass door, every garage side door. Even if it's a beautiful 72-degree day and you'd love the fresh air, please close everything up before we start.

Why it matters:

• A low-pressure soft wash is gentle, but it still uses water, and water finds the smallest opening. An open window can drop a few gallons on your hardwood floors in under a minute.
• Overspray can carry into screens and mist onto blinds or curtains.
• Most window tracks have weep holes that handle rain fine — but the direct spray pattern of a wand is different, and sealed windows handle it best.

Double-check second-story windows, basement-level slider vents, attic vents, and any window you typically leave cracked overnight. Also make sure pet doors are closed and locked.

Protect Outdoor Outlets

Exterior outlets are designed to handle rain, but we still recommend a small extra layer of protection when a pressurized spray is going to hit them directly. If you have the time:

• Unplug any extension cords, holiday lights, or landscape lighting transformers connected to exterior outlets
• Close any outlet covers fully (the spring-loaded flip type)
• Cover non-weather-rated outlets with a small piece of plastic wrap and painter's tape
• Do the same for doorbell cameras, motion sensors, and outdoor speakers if they are not rated for direct spray

Our crew is trained to avoid direct spray on these components, but a 30-second prep on your end is cheap insurance. If you have a well pump housing, pool equipment, or an outdoor AC breaker, let us know where they are so we can work around them.

Secure Pets and Communicate Access

Pets and pressure washing do not mix well. The noise, the strangers, the hoses moving around the yard — it's stressful for dogs and cats, and it also creates safety hazards for our crew. Please plan ahead:

• Indoor pets: keep them inside, ideally in a quiet interior room away from the exterior walls being washed.
• Outdoor pets: board them, crate them indoors, or arrange for them to be elsewhere during the appointment.
• Dog waste: please pick up the yard the day before. It's a small thing but it matters a lot to the crew.
• Gates and fences: make sure every gate is unlocked or provide the code. We need full access to the back and side yards. A locked gate we can't open often turns a 2-hour job into a half-finished one.
• Neighbor access: if we need to step onto a neighbor's property to clean a shared fence or a shared wall, please give them a heads up.

What to Expect During the Job

Once our crew arrives, here's how a typical house wash unfolds so you know what to look (and listen) for:

• Duration: 2 to 4 hours for most single-family homes, depending on size and number of services (house only vs. house + roof + driveway).
• Walk-through: our lead will knock on your door to confirm the scope, ask about any specific problem areas, and check for anything we need to avoid.
• Landscape pre-wet: we thoroughly soak all plants and grass near the house before applying any cleaning solution. This dilutes any overspray and protects the landscape.
• Noise level: our pressure washer rig makes roughly the same noise as a lawn mower. Loud but not disruptive. If you work from home, we recommend taking calls during the quieter rinse stages.
• Water use: we use your outdoor spigot. Please make sure it works and is accessible.
• Final walk-through: we always invite you to walk the property with our lead before we leave. If you see anything you'd like touched up, that's the time — we fix it on the spot.

That's it. A few minutes of prep, an unlocked gate, and closed windows — and you're set. Our crew handles the rest, and you get to watch your house go from dingy to dazzling in a single afternoon. If you want a deeper look at what we actually do during the cleaning, check out our house washing services page.