Never put off professional residential cleaning services for your home, as correctly washing a house inside and out can improve air quality, protect various surfaces and materials from damage, and also preserve your property's value and curb appeal.
Every homeowner should invest in regular exterior residential power washing, window washing, roof cleaning, carpeting cleaning, and professional washing of all outside decks, driveways, and sidewalks. This cleaning should all typically be done every year, if not more often!
To ensure your home is always in the best condition possible, note these five residential cleaning services that every homeowner should invest in no matter the overall age or condition of their house, and the benefits of each type of service.
Exterior Residential Power Washing
It's probably safe to say that most homeowners don't understand the damage caused by built-up dirt, dust, soot, and other debris that settle onto a home's exterior surface. This debris often holds moisture against a home's brick or siding, and these materials then soften, chip, crack, or suffer corrosion along their surfaces.
A high-quality power wash machine will remove all this corrosive residue and debris, protecting a home's exterior from damage. Regular residential pressure cleaning will also wash away cobwebs, nests, and termite tunnels, so your home is protected from potential insect infestation.
Pressure washing a home's exterior walls, trim work, shutters, and other such features can also restore their paint and stain colors. You may even assume that your house needed a fresh coat of exterior paint, only to find that a proper power washing has made its outside colors fresher and brighter, and more attractive overall.
Why Your Home Needs Professional Residential Window Cleaning
Regular window washing does much more for your home's exterior glass than just removing dust and dirt! Note why every home needs regular window washing and professional washing of exterior glass doors:
- Corrosive residue from acid rain, pollution, bird droppings, and other such pollutants can weaken window glass over the years, causing it to become thin and brittle. Professional window power washing will remove that residue and protect the security and strength of your home's windows.
- Regular residential window washing improves your view to the outside! You may not even realize that the view outside your home's windows is blurred or dimmed by dirt and dust until you have those windows adequately cleaned.
- Clean windows allow more sunlight into your home's interior rooms. Added sunlight keeps your home's houseplants healthy and also ensures your home is toasty warm through long, cold Michigan winters. A light and bright interior can even improve your mood, making you feel energetic and alert throughout the day.
Note, too, that you don't want to manage residential window washing on your own, as it's easy to shatter a window pane when using a pressure washer, fall off a ladder while reaching to clean upper story windows, or leave behind streaks, water marks, and detergent residue, making windows look worse after they've been washed.
Roof Cleaning Protects Your Home
A professional roof cleaning will make a house look more attractive overall. Roof washing makes shingles appear brand new, restoring their appearance and color.
However, residential pressure cleaning of your home's roof also protects those shingles as well as flashing, roofing paper, and gutters from damage due to dirt and grime. Roof cleaning even helps keep your home properly insulated. How so?
- A buildup of corrosive grime on a home's roof can erode shingles and roofing tiles, compromising their overall thickness. Thin roofing tiles will allow heating and air conditioning to escape the home, while also failing to protect the interior of the house from outside heat and cold. Neglecting to clean your home's roof can then mean added utility costs throughout the year.
- Corrosive grime can cause the granules on roofing tiles to come loose and get washed into the home's gutters, leading to clogs and water backup.
- Damp debris such as leaves, twigs, and seeds can lead to mold and algae buildup on a home's roof. As mold and algae grow and spread, they can cause shingles to come loose from their connectors and eventually fall away from the house. Power washing a home's roof will also reveal the true condition of those shingles so that a roofer can evaluate if tiles are thin and worn or otherwise so old and damaged that it's time for roof repair or replacement!
Every Home Needs Professional Residential Carpet Cleaning
A standard household vacuum is not enough to get a home's carpet thoroughly clean. However, many if not most homeowners tend to put off professional carpet cleaning for their house for as long as possible, or will rent a machine and manage this work themselves. These can both be mistakes! Note why professional carpet cleaning is needed in every home, how often this work should be done, and why a homeowner should avoid doing this work themselves:
- Ground-in dirt, dust, and other debris can permanently damage carpet fibers and ruin its overall nap or height. Professional carpet cleaning will remove thick layers of dirt and dust, prolonging the life of the carpet while also "fluffing up" fibers, so they look more attractive and are softer underfoot.
- Vacuuming a carpet will not remove pet dander, pollen, and other such allergens and irritants. A through carpet steam cleaning or shampooing will remove all these harmful contaminants, improving your home's overall indoor air quality.
- Homeowners often fail to properly rinse or extract the detergents used when they shampoo carpets on their own. Residual detergents can become sticky, attracting more dust and dirt than before you cleaned those carpets!
- It's typically recommended that your home's carpets be cleaned every year. It's especially useful to have this work done every spring, as you and your family may have dragged residue from snow-clearing salt into the home during a long Michigan winter. If you have pets or children, live in an area with lots of pollution, or need cleaner air inside the house for any reason, consider having your home's carpets cleaned two or three times throughout the year.
Benefits of Concrete Power Washing
Spraying your home's exterior surfaces with a garden hose is not enough to get those materials truly clean. Concrete, asphalt, patio stones and pavers, and wood decks or porches need professional residential cleaning services to be adequately cleaned and kept free of damaging debris. Note a few reasons why you should always have these surfaces cleaned by a professional with a power wash machine on a regular basis:
- Motor oil and other lubricants and fluids can stain concrete and similar surfaces, but frequent power washing of concrete and asphalt can wash those fluids away before they discolor your property's driveway or garage floor.
- Power washing will remove chipped paint as well as pebbles and gravel that have been ground into the surface of soft asphalt and patio stones or pavers. Removing these materials will protect these surfaces from excessive pitting, pockmarks, and other damage.
- You may not even realize that layers of dust, dirt, soot, grime, silt, and other residues are covering your home's driveway, walkways, patio stones, and wood deck; after a thorough power washing, you may be surprised at the restored color and appearance of these surfaces!
- Cleaning walkways and decks in particular can improve the overall air quality outside your house. You won't be breathing in so much pollen and dust or irritants like mold spores when you have these areas of your property cleaned regularly and professionally.
Other Residential Cleaning Services to Consider
While exterior house washing, window washing, roof cleaning, carpet cleaning, and washing of a home's driveways and walkways are essential types of residential cleaning to have done on a regular basis, you might note some additional cleaning to consider for your home and property:
- Interior wall washing will reveal areas of mold growth behind the walls as well as small holes that may indicate a pest infestation in the house. Cleaning this mold and patching up holes will make your home as safe and sanitary as possible for you and your family.
- A home's air ducts should also be cleaned on a regular basis, to remove dust, dirt, pet hair and dander, pollen, and other irritants that get blown into your home's interior spaces through those ducts.
- A residential pressure washing company that offers gutter cleaning will remove silt and mud that cling to the inside of gutters while also eliminating algae and mildew that you might overlook when you clean gutters yourself.
- While a high-quality filter will keep the home's air clean during wintertime, it's also good to have your furnace itself cleaned as often as recommended by the manufacturer. Regular cleaning is especially needed for gas furnaces, to remove soot and other deposits that can cause the pilot light to extinguish repeatedly.
Remember that it's good to hire a professional when you need to have these residential cleaning services done, to ensure the work is done correctly and thoroughly and your home always looks its best.