Why Soft Washing in Indiana is Critical

Yeah, not a good idea.

Soft Washing: A History

Soft washing as a technique came out about 20 years ago. Before then, pressure washing was the norm to clean any surface: concrete, walls or roofing. Well, high-pressure washing of a roof is just pad on it and if your wood siding or brick mortar is soft, you can really do some damage with a high-pressure wash.

Fortunately, someone started to add chemicals to the water in different solutions and realized that the chemical reactions could do the hard work while water in a lower-pressure flow could easily rinse off the residue. Soft-washing was born! Finally there was a way to clean most surfaces without the damage.

What does soft washing clean?

Soft washing was originally thought of to remove algae and bacteria from a roof. Have you seen the black or green streaks on an asphalt shingle roof? That is often the result of a bacteria called gloeocapsa magma. This bacteria assaults the roof, degrading it.

Your shingles are designed to only slowly degrade over their lifetime (say, 30 years). When you use pressure washing, that degradation happens much faster. Beyond that, weather damage and UV damage can create places for this "pest" to thrive. Over time, you get an ugly roof.

Well, over time people began attacking the bacteria. Initially a bleach and water solution was used, but that didn't get everything. Basically, it bleached the stains clear, but didn't kill them or remove them.

Over time, we added different types of chemicals to the bleach solution to help achieve two things: better cleaning with a longer lasting effect. These new agents cleaned better and truly killed the bacteria, algae and other flora growing on these roofs, sidewalks and walls.

Maintenance Medics Exterior & Roof Cleaning

You can't spray for bugs on half of a home to cure a roach problem. You also cannot treat just part of your home's exterior to achieve any kind of lasting result against these microbes. Our (and other soft washers') soft wash solutions are more than just a surface cleaner. They sink deep into every crevice and crack, truly cleaning what pressure washing has missed for all these years.

Soft washing a house in Valpo. 

That’s why soft washing can last up to six times as long as pressure washing.


Soft washing is becoming a preferred way to perform maintenance cleanings while implementing good environmental stewardship. The Maintenance Medics is here to serve northern Indiana with your soft washing needs and help you keep a clean house!