Siding · trim · fascia · prep wash
Pressure washing for Tri-Cities homes
Brighten and refresh your home. The same wash our crews run before every exterior coat, from the office in Kennewick.
Chapter 01
Why the wash comes before the coat
Paint grips a surface, not whatever is sitting on it. Dust, chalky residue from old paint, cobwebs, pollen and general grime all come between a new coat and the siding, and a coat applied over them has nothing solid to hold. That is why pressure washing leads the prep list our crews work through: pressure washing, scraping, sanding, caulking and priming.
One customer described the order her crew followed in a Google review, from power washing, through scraping and caulking, and finally painting. It is the order we use on every exterior because each step depends on the one before it. You cannot find the loose paint or the failed caulk until the wall is clean enough to see it.
Smile-A-Mile painter in a company tee spraying pale siding from a ladder, windows masked in plastic
What a prep wash takes off, and what it shows you
A wash lifts the loose layer: dirt and dust, cobwebs under the eaves and soffits, chalk that has worked up out of old paint, and mildew staining where the sun rarely reaches. Eastern Washington's intense summer sun, dry heat and seasonal winds are hardest on the south and west walls, so those tend to carry the most chalk, while the shaded side of a house is where the green builds up.
It also works as an inspection. Once a wall is wet and clean, peeling edges, hairline cracks in caulk, soft spots in trim and open gaps at siding joints stand out. Those go on the list for scraping, sanding, caulking and priming, or for repair before paint if the damage is bigger. The pressure is chosen for the material, since lap siding, board and batten, stucco, shakes and brick or stone do not all take the same treatment.
Washing comes before masking, too. Windows, fixtures and anything else that is not being painted get covered in paper, plastic and tape afterward, on a surface clean enough for the tape to stay where it is put.
Chapter 03
When a wash alone is enough, and when the house needs paint
Brighten and refresh is how we describe the stand-alone wash, and sometimes that is all a house needs. If the paint is sound, tight to the wall and still the color you chose, and what is wrong is a season of dirt, pollen and mildew, a wash can bring back much of how the house looked the day it was painted.
It is not a fix for paint that has failed. Peeling, bubbling, bare wood, heavy chalk or color that has faded past saving is a painting job, and washing harder only takes good paint off along with the bad. When we look at a house in Kennewick, Pasco or Richland we will tell you which of the two you are dealing with. Estimates are free, virtual or in person.
If the answer turns out to be paint, the wash is simply the first step of the exterior process, and the crew moves on to scraping, sanding, caulking and priming with a clean wall to work on.
Smile-A-Mile Painting washes and paints houses in Kennewick, Pasco, Richland and West Richland. Licensed, bonded and insured, WA #SMILEP*896CW, with a 2-year warranty on workmanship.
A clean wall shows what the house needs next. Loose seals and rotted trim are covered on our construction repairs page, and the coat that follows is described under exterior painting. Browse all services, or use the contact page to reach the office on (509) 987-4774.