Your Underground Downspout Drain Is Clogged: Here’s How to Find It and Fix It
Somewhere under your lawn there is a pipe. It was put in when the house was built, or when someone got tired of a wet flowerbed, and there is almost certainly no drawing of it anywhere. It might run twenty feet to a gravel-filled dry well. It might run eighty feet to a pop-up emitter […]
Green Algae Came Back on the North Side Only: Here’s Why That’s Normal
If three walls of your house still look clean and the north wall is green again, the most likely explanation is not that the north wall got a worse cleaning. It is that the north wall is a different environment. At Connecticut’s latitude, a north-facing elevation receives little or no direct sun for much of […]
A Roof Cleaner Used High Pressure on Your Shingles: Here’s Exactly What to Do Next
Asphalt shingles are protected by a layer of ceramic-coated granules. Those granules are not decoration. They are the shingle’s UV shield and part of its fire rating, and they are held in place by a thin layer of asphalt. High-pressure water strips them off. It also breaks the sealant strips that bond each course to […]
Black Streaks Returned Within a Year? Here’s What Went Wrong on Your Newington Roof
Black Streaks Returned Within a Year? Here’s What Went Wrong on Your Newington Roof If you paid to have black streaks removed from your Newington roof and they are already back, something went wrong. A properly performed soft wash on a Central Connecticut roof should stay clean for three to five years, not eight months. […]
Your Gutters Overflowed Right After Cleaning: Here’s Why That Happens
A gutter has one job: catch water at the roof edge and move it to a downspout fast enough to keep up with the roof above it. Cleaning solves exactly one failure mode, which is debris blocking the flow. It does nothing about a gutter pitched the wrong way, a downspout too small for the […]
Paint Peeled During Your House Wash: Here’s What That Actually Tells You
Home built before 1978? Peeling paint may contain lead. Do not scrape, sand, dry-sweep the chips, or continue washing. Go straight to the lead safety section below. Paint holds onto a surface by adhesion, and adhesion either exists or it does not. Sound, well-bonded exterior paint will not lift under a low-pressure house wash. It […]
Stucco Cracks Discovered During Cleaning: What They Mean and What to Do
Cracks in stucco are so common that their presence tells you almost nothing on its own. What matters is three things: how wide they are, where they run, and most importantly what kind of wall you actually have. Traditional three-coat stucco is a drained system. Water that gets past the surface hits a weather-resistive barrier […]
Bee or Wasp Nest Under Your Siding: Identify It Before Anyone Sprays
Meta Title: Wasp or Bee Nest Under Siding? What CT Homeowners Do Next Meta Description: Found a nest behind your siding? Identify it first. Honey bees need a beekeeper, not an exterminator. Here’s the safe order of operations for Connecticut homes. Slug: /blog/bee-wasp-nest-under-siding-connecticut/ Author: Roman, Owner, Mr-Suds Power Washing PROs Before anything else: do not […]
Water Got Behind Your Siding During a Wash: What to Do in the First 48 Hours
Siding is not waterproof. It is a rainscreen, designed to shed most water and let the rest drain out behind it. That system works because water always travels downward and outward. A pressure washer aimed upward under the laps reverses that. It pushes water sideways and up into a cavity that has no way to […]
Aluminum Siding Chalking Onto Your Hands: What It Is and What Actually Fixes It
That white powder on your palm is not dirt, mould or a failed cleaning. It is the finish itself. Aluminum siding is coated with a baked enamel, and that enamel is held together by a resin binder that slowly breaks down under decades of ultraviolet light. As the binder degrades, it releases the pigment particles […]