"A Little Water Clears Us Of This Deed...."

I have found my new favorite summer power tool.

The pressure washer.

I used to own a heavy monster pressure washer that leaked water through every joint, including the handle, sprayed everything within five feet in all directions, was awkward to move, unpredictable in starting and difficult to store.

Luckily for me, somebody stole it from the back porch of a friend's house.

The new breed of pressure washers are lighter, easier to start, easier to move, easier to adjust and just plain fun to use. Of course, you still get soaked from the knees down, but when its still nearly ninety degrees at five o'clock in the afternoon, who cares?

And mine just paid for itself in one hour.

One of the decks on my 1970s ranch house is supported by pressure-treated pine posts, each encased with four Western cedar boards to match the cedar siding on the house. Over time the 8-inch wide cedar boards had discolored, grown a layer of permanent mildew and, in short, looked so bad that I assumed I would have to tear them off, then cut and install new - and expensive! - cedar planks.

But this afternoon, while I was power washing the mildew off the concrete beneath this same deck, I decided to take a chance and carefully began power washing the cedar posts. To my amazement, the blast of water literally blew away the dirt and mildew and several of what I assumed were permanent stains.

Before long I was spraying everything that wouldn't blow away: concrete, door frames, windows, rocks, pressure-treated pine and cedar posts.

Now, like a belt sander, if you're not careful you can leave unsightly scars in the wood with a pressure washer, but it just takes a few minutes of practice to get the feel of just how close you can position the tip from the surface without damaging it.

Here are a couple of other tips I learned:

1.) Never start or run the pressure washer without first turning the water on from your hose. The water will prevent your motor from burning up.

2.) Like washing your car, wet the entire area first to give the water time to loosen the dirt before you start spraying.

3.) Start spraying before you direct the spray against any board to avoid leaving a lighter spot where the water first blasted the wood.

4.) Keep the spray wand moving at all times. Holding it still will remove more dirt (or wood) than the adjacent areas, again leaving a lighter spot.

5.) You don’t want your rock wall to look like it has been sandblasted. Leaving some moss and mildew stains on rocks keeps them looking old and natural. Pull the wand back to keep it from over-cleaning those areas you want to clean, but still look old.

6.) Not all woods respond well to pressure washing. Pressure-treated pine tends to get very fuzzy, so test any wood first before turning your deck into a fuzzy mess.

Good Luck!

- Bruce

Next week: Its Re-Coating Time!