Intensive Exterior Cleaning

Twice a year suits most homes here, and the two visits do different jobs.

Late fall is the critical one, after the leaves have finished coming down. Boise drops late, so gutters cleaned in early September usually need doing a second time. A blocked gutter in January is where ice dams start, and that is the expensive failure.

Spring catches what winter left. Blown-in debris, seed pods and cottonwood, plus it is when we spot damage the winter caused. Finding a pulled bracket in April is a great deal cheaper than finding it during the next freeze.

If you are not sure whether your trees are done dropping, send a photo and we will tell you.

We clear the gutters by hand rather than blowing debris across your roof and yard, flush the downspouts to make sure water actually moves through them, and bag what comes out.

While we are up there we look at the brackets, seams and the roofline. If something needs attention we tell you, with a photo, whether or not it is work we do.

Yes, and the job is a bit different than you might expect. With guards installed, the problem is usually not inside the gutter at all. It is leaves and debris sitting on top of the guards and packed into the roof valleys, stopping water from ever reaching the gutter in the first place.

So that is what we clear. If your guards come off, we take them off, clean underneath and put them back. If they are fixed in place, clearing the guards and the valleys is usually enough, because that debris is almost always the real cause of an overflow or a drainage problem.

Pressure, and where you can safely use it. Concrete takes pressure well, so driveways, patios and walkways get power washed.

Siding does not. A pressure washer aimed at lap siding, stucco or painted trim forces water behind it and strips finish off it. Those surfaces get soft washed instead, which uses low pressure and a cleaning solution to do the same job without the damage.

If a company offers to pressure wash your house siding, that is worth a second question.

Every one to two years for most homes here. North facing walls and anything shaded by trees go sooner, because that is where algae and that green film show up first.

It is worth staying ahead of. Organic growth left on siding works its way into the surface, and once it has been there a few seasons it takes far more work to remove than it would have taken to prevent.

No. We wet down the plants and beds around the house before we start and rinse everything again afterward, which keeps the cleaning solution from sitting on anything.

If you have something particularly delicate or newly planted, point it out when we arrive and we will cover it.

Often, but honestly it depends on how long it has been there. Fresh oil usually comes up well. Something that has been soaking into porous concrete for years may lighten considerably rather than disappear.

We will tell you what we think we can get before we start rather than after. Send a photo with your quote request and we will give you a straight answer.

Yes, and we soft wash them rather than pressure wash them. Pressure strips the granules off asphalt shingles and shortens the life of the roof, which is the opposite of what you are paying for. We use low pressure and roof-specific cleaners that kill what is growing up there without damaging the material underneath.

One thing worth knowing before we start. Your roof will look significantly better the day we finish, and it will keep improving for about six weeks afterward as the cleaner carries on working. If you look up a week later and see it is still getting better, that is the treatment doing its job rather than something we missed.