There is a stretch at the start of every job where nothing appears to be happening. No machine running, no visible progress, just people taping things and moving furniture.
That stretch is where the damage claims are avoided. Nearly every exterior cleaning incident we are asked to assess traces back to something that should have been covered and was not.
External power points and light fittings
First, always. Outdoor power points and garden lighting get taped and bagged before any water is applied nearby.
Outdoor fittings are weather rated, not pressure rated. A seal designed to shed rain falling downward does not stop water driven sideways at pressure. Water inside a fitting means a tripped circuit at best, and at worst a live fault in a wet garden.
Anything already damaged — a cracked cover, a missing gasket, a fitting hanging off its mount — stops the work in that area until an electrician has seen it. That is not us being precious. More: the electrical check before anyone turns a hose on.
The air conditioning condenser
The outdoor unit gets covered, and it gets covered properly rather than draped.
Driving water into the fins bends them, which restricts airflow permanently and costs efficiency. Chemistry on an aluminium fin stack corrodes it. And the electrical compartment is exactly as vulnerable as any other outdoor fitting.
Condensers do need cleaning, but that is a specific job done gently and usually by someone else. More: cleaning the outdoor AC unit.
Planting, which is the most common complaint
Garden beds below the work area get sheeted, and the planting gets wet down with clean water before and after.
The pre-wet matters more than the cover. A plant whose leaves and root zone are already saturated with clean water absorbs far less of anything that lands on it afterwards, and a thorough rinse afterwards dilutes what did land.
Chlorine damage on plants is delayed. Nothing looks wrong on the day; the leaf burn appears three to five days later, by which point the connection is not obvious. Hedges, ferns, Japanese maples and anything soft-leaved are the usual casualties. More: pets, ponds and vegetable gardens.
Windows and doors, checked rather than assumed
Every window and door on the elevation being washed gets physically checked, not glanced at.
Older timber sashes and aluminium sliders with worn seals leak under pressure from outside even when closed. Bathroom louvres are the classic one — frequently left open, frequently above a vanity, invariably on the elevation someone is about to wash.
Where a frame is known to leak, the method changes: lower pressure, different angle, or hand work around the opening.
Weep holes, vents and the openings that must not be targeted
Brick cavity weep holes and subfloor vents exist to drain and ventilate. Water driven into them ends up inside the wall or under the floor, and the consequence arrives weeks later as damp plaster or a musty subfloor that nobody connects back to the wash.
They do not get covered — blocking them is its own problem — they get worked around, with the spray angled across rather than into them. More: weep holes and subfloor vents.
The rainwater tank
Disconnected before work starts and left off through the first substantial rain afterwards, so the first flush carrying residue goes to the ground instead of the tank.
On a tank-fed property this is not a precaution, it is the difference between a clean roof and emptying a tank. It takes two minutes. More: tank-fed properties.
Pool and pool equipment
The pump and filter get isolated and covered. The pool itself gets covered where practical, and where it is not, the work is sequenced so overspray does not land in it.
A modest amount of soft wash mix in a pool is a chemistry correction rather than a catastrophe, but it is an inconvenience the owner did not agree to. Debris and organic matter washed off a roof into the water is the bigger nuisance.
Vehicles, especially the neighbour’s
Cars get moved, and if they cannot be moved they get covered and rinsed afterwards.
The one that causes real trouble is the vehicle next door. Sodium hypochlorite marks automotive clear coat, and the owner did not consent to any of this. On a narrow street we knock first and ask people to move. More: noise, hours and neighbours.
Soft furnishings, outdoor kitchens and the obvious things
Cushions and covers inside. Outdoor rugs rolled. Barbecues and outdoor kitchens covered, with stainless steel protected — chlorine chemistry left on stainless contributes to the brown speckling people mistake for rust. More: tea staining on stainless.
Door mats, pet bowls, bird baths, kids’ equipment, the washing on the line.
Solar panels and skylights
Panels are not simply washed around. Chemistry run across a panel array leaves residue that reduces output, and high pressure near a panel edge seal is a warranty conversation. Skylights and polycarbonate roofing scratch and craze easily and are often brittle with age.
More: solar panels and skylights.
And the rinse-down nobody sees
At the end, everything that was protected gets uncovered and rinsed, planting gets watered again, and paths and the street get washed down so residue is not tracked inside.
If a crew leaves while the masking is still up, the job is not finished.
