Pressure washing before the holidays: what to clean first

When people are coming over for Thanksgiving or Christmas, most of the cleaning happens inside. But guests form their first impression on the way to the door: the driveway they park on, the walkway they walk up, the porch they stand on while they ring the bell. If you only have the time or budget for part of the outside, those are the places to start.

Start with what people walk on. The front walkway and the porch or entry get the closest look, and in late fall they often carry brown leaf prints from cedar elm and oak leaves that sat on the concrete through a rain. The driveway comes next, especially the part where guests will park. The sidewalk along the street finishes the picture and is cheap to add when we are already there, usually $30-$50.

If the house itself looks tired, the side facing the street matters most. A soft wash lifts the green and grey film off siding and limestone at low pressure, and the front of the house is also the backdrop for most of the family photos taken that day.

Order matters if you are doing more than one thing. Work from the top down: house and gutters first, then windows, then the concrete last. Washing a house sends dirty water down the walls and onto whatever is below, so a driveway cleaned first can be streaked again an hour later. That is why the concrete should always be the final step.

Timing is the other half. Aim for one to two weeks before guests arrive. Any earlier and the fall leaf drop, which runs into December around Austin, can undo some of the work on the walkways. Any later and a single rainy week can push the job past the date you needed it done by. Concrete also takes a few hours to dry and look even, so the day before is cutting it close.

A typical holiday clean for a family home is the driveway, the front walkway and the street sidewalk, with a house wash added if the front looks dull. Driveways run $80-$175 and a house wash $200-$400. We work seven days a week, weekends included, and offer a senior discount. Send a few photos through the quote form and we will tell you what is worth doing now and what can wait until spring.