House Washing

House washing is the single highest-return exterior job you can do. It costs a fraction of a repaint and, on most homes, achieves close to the same visual lift — because what looks like faded paint is usually a film of mould, salt and airborne grime sitting on top of paint that’s still perfectly sound.

Soft washing, not pressure washing

Render, painted brick, fibre cement, weatherboard and composite cladding must never be cleaned at high pressure. Force drives water behind cladding joints, blows out render, strips paint and destroys window seals. Soft washing does the work chemically: a low-pressure application of a mould-killing solution, a dwell period, then a gentle rinse. The result is a wall that’s genuinely clean rather than one that’s been stripped.

What’s included

Walls, eaves and soffits, gutter faces and downpipes, window frames, sills, garage doors, entry doors, columns, balustrades and cobwebs throughout. We wash top-down so nothing recontaminates on the way past.

Coastal homes need this more often

Properties in Bondi, Bronte, Coogee, Clovelly and Dover Heights carry a constant salt load off the water. Salt is hygroscopic — it holds moisture against the wall, which is precisely the condition mould needs. South and east elevations that never see direct sun are where it takes hold first, and it’s why one wall of a house often looks dramatically worse than the other three.

Most Eastern Suburbs homes benefit from a wash every 12 to 18 months. Properties within a few streets of the water are closer to 12.

House washing questions

Will a house wash make my paint look new, or do I need a repaint?

On sound paint, a wash recovers most of what looks like fading, because the dullness is a biological and salt film rather than degraded pigment. The honest test is to wipe a small patch with a wet cloth: if the colour comes back, washing will do it. If the surface chalks onto your hand as a fine powder, the coating itself has broken down and washing will clean it but won’t restore the colour. We tell you which of those two you have before quoting, because there is no point charging for a wash that won’t deliver.

Is the solution safe around plants, pets and pool water?

Handled correctly, yes. Planting gets pre-wetted before we start and rinsed down afterwards, which dilutes anything that reaches it below the level that causes harm. Pets should be inside during the application and can come back out once the rinse is finished and surfaces are wet rather than dripping. Pools get covered where they sit directly beneath a wall being treated. The risk with soft washing is almost entirely about preparation rather than the chemistry itself.

Why is one wall of my house so much worse than the others?

Sunlight, and it is the most common question we get. South and south-east elevations in Sydney get little direct sun, so they dry slowly and stay damp for hours longer after rain or overnight dew. Mould needs exactly that. Add the prevailing salt-bearing wind on an east-facing coastal wall and you get one elevation carrying nearly all the growth while the north side looks fine. It doesn’t mean anything is wrong with the building — it means that wall needs washing more often than the rest.

How long does a house wash take?

Most single-storey homes are a half day and most two-storey homes a full day, though heavily detailed facades with a lot of balustrade, columns and window joinery take longer than plain render of the same area. The dwell time is a fixed part of it and can’t be rushed — the solution needs to sit and work before rinsing, and cutting that short is why some jobs look clean when wet and disappointing once dry.

Does washing remove mould permanently?

It removes it and kills the spores present, but nothing prevents new spores landing — they are in the air continuously, particularly in a humid coastal environment. What determines how fast it returns is how long surfaces stay wet. A shaded south wall with poor airflow will show growth again sooner than a sunny north wall, regardless of how thoroughly it was cleaned. Anyone promising permanent mould removal on an exterior wall in Sydney is overselling.

Should windows be cleaned at the same time?

It is the right order to do it in, and the sequence matters. The wash runs over the glass, so cleaning windows first wastes the work. Booking a window clean straight after the wash means the glass is done last and finishes the whole exterior properly — clean walls with hazy glass still read as a tired house from the street.