How to clean vinyl siding

• March 26th, 2010
• In: Vinyl Siding
• By: Rob Sabo
• (No Ratings Yet)
  
   Loading ...
• • 

If the environment has begun to take it’s toll on the vinyl siding on your house, and it’s beginning to look a little drab, you can clean it more easily than you can most other forms of siding. Heck, you can even get your kids to do it as part of their weekend chores.

Tools Needed to Clean Vinyl Siding

That car- or RV-washing equipment in your garage? It’s perfect for cleaning vinyl siding. Here’s what you’ll need:

1. detergent-based dish washing soap
2. long-handled brush
3. sponge
4. rinse bucket
5. extension ladder

Best Time to Tackle the Job

This is a great task to undertake with your kids on a summer day, when house-cleaning can segue into an all-out, fun-filled water fight. I like to clean walls in small-enough increments, say no more than 10 feet at a time, so that soapy water doesn’t dry on walls facing the sun. On that note, it’s best to start early enough so that the siding is cool.

Cleaning Your Vinyl Siding

• wet the wall to loosen dirt.
• Using a brush, start at the bottom of a wall and work your way across and up, removing accumulated dirt, grime, spider webs, etc.
• Rinse the soap off cleaned sections as you go.

Heavy-duty stains, grease spots, etc. can be tackled with cleaners such as Simple Green or similar.

I don’t recommend using a pressure washer, but if you do, set the wand to low or wide spray patterns, and never direct spray upwards to avoid trapping moisture under vinyl siding edges.

You’ll need an extension ladder to reach under gable-end rafters. If you have a two-story house, I think the best way to reach elevations of 15 feet or higher is to use two heavy-duty extension ladders and ladder jacks, which attach to the rungs and extend outwards, allowing you to run a plank between the jacks. Unless you’re nimble as a cat, you might want to use a safety harness attached to a point on the roof as well. Construction rental companies can provide what you need.