Exterior
House Cleaning
In PA,OH & WV

Soft washing cleans a roof with low-pressure application and a treatment solution that kills what is growing on the shingles, instead of blasting it off with force. At the surface, the pressure is closer to a garden hose than a pressure washer. That distinction matters because what darkens a roof is alive — it feeds on the limestone filler in asphalt shingles and grows back if it is only rinsed away. High-pressure washing strips granules, and granules are the layer protecting the asphalt underneath from UV. Soft washing treats the growth and leaves the granules where they belong. We use the same approach on siding, adjusting the solution to the material.

Not when it is soft washed. The damage people worry about comes from pressure washing, which drives granules off the shingle surface and can push water up under the courses. Granule loss is not cosmetic — it is what ages a roof early, and it is also what voids most shingle manufacturer warranties. Ask anyone quoting you roof cleaning what pressure they use at the surface and whether they are applying a treatment or just water. If the answer is pressure, it is the wrong method for an asphalt shingle roof.

You can, and it is how most siding gets damaged. Pressure forces water behind the panels and into the wall assembly, where it has no way out — which is a far more expensive problem than the dirt you were trying to remove. Vinyl is designed to shed water from above, not to take it sideways under pressure. We soft wash siding with a solution matched to the material, which lifts the grime and kills the growth without driving anything behind the panels. Wood, fibre cement and metal each get a different mix for the same reason.

For most homes across western PA, eastern OH and northwestern WV, every two to three years is about right. Roofs under heavy tree cover, on shaded north-facing slopes, or inside the Lake Erie snowbelt need it more often. Shade and moisture drive the interval — north slopes and anything under overhanging limbs stay damp longer and regrow faster. If you are on a cycle it is usually worth pairing the roof with siding and gutters in the same visit, since the setup is identical and the runoff from a roof cleaning lands on both anyway.

Four things: how much surface there is, how steep and reachable it is, how heavy the growth has gotten, and how many surfaces you do at once. Every quote we give is for your specific property after we have looked at it — not a per-foot rate applied sight unseen. Roofs that have gone untreated for a decade need a longer dwell and sometimes a second pass, so they cost more than one cleaned on a cycle. Steep or multi-storey elevations need different access. Combining roof, siding and gutters in one visit is consistently cheaper than three separate ones, because the setup is the expensive part.