Pressure Washing – Lafayette, CA

Lafayette properties typically include a mix of stucco and wood siding on older homes, with some Hardie on more recent construction. We wash all wall surfaces, wood decks and hillside terraces, concrete driveways and patios, walkways, and fence sections ahead of staining. Hillside homes often have tiered concrete retaining walls and wood terrace decks that accumulate leaf debris and algae from overhead canopy. Those surfaces get specific attention — the algae on shaded retaining walls needs proper dwell time with chemistry before rinsing.

Everything painted — stucco, wood siding, wood decks — gets soft-wash at sub-500 PSI with sodium hypochlorite and surfactant. For algae on north walls, which is common in Lafayette's shaded hillside areas, we use a 1:4 SH solution with a longer dwell — usually five to ten minutes — before rinsing. Older wood siding in Lafayette's hill neighborhoods needs extra care: high pressure strips paint and can raise grain. Concrete driveways and retaining walls get pressure-wash at 1,500–3,000 PSI with a rotary surface cleaner where the surface is accessible, hand-wanding for narrow hillside paths and steps.

Property walk to identify substrates, note any cracked caulk on older wood siding, and flag any areas where ground-level planting is close to wall surfaces. Windows and exterior lights get masked. We wet down landscaping before applying any chemistry. Soft-wash goes top-down on wall surfaces — north and shaded east walls get extra dwell time for algae. Concrete areas get rotary surface cleaner treatment, then hand-wanding along edges and steps. Plants get a rinse after chemical contact. Final walk to verify coverage on all surfaces including hillside terrace boards.

Spring (March through May) is the primary window — pollen season is finishing, algae has built through winter, and you're setting surfaces up before summer. Fall (September through October) is good for pre-paint prep. Hillside wood decks benefit from a fall wash before winter rain makes algae worse. For exterior painting, wash one to two days before the crew arrives. Lafayette's canopy also means surfaces can recontaminate faster than sun-exposed suburban lots — schedule accordingly.

Total wall surface area and substrate mix — wood siding takes longer than stucco. Hillside access: steep terraces, multiple levels, and tiered retaining walls add setup time. Degree of algae on north and shaded walls affects dwell time and rinse volume. Wood deck square footage and condition (heavy algae vs light pollen) affects time on each board. Number of levels and accessibility for hoses and equipment on hillside properties is a real variable.

Washed a hillside home above Happy Valley Road — stucco lower, wood siding upper, with significant algae on the north face and two wood terrace decks. Cleaned a flat-lot stucco home near downtown Lafayette ahead of exterior repaint, focusing on heavy oak pollen accumulation on all horizontal surfaces.