Behind a Service Day in Glenwood South & Downtown Raleigh: Washing Pre-War Homes in 27601, 27603 & 27605

Truck out, equipment check, route confirmed

Truck pulls out of the 6712 Vernie Drive shop in 27603 with the soft-wash pump, the surface-cleaner, the 200-foot hose, the gutter brightener, and three pressure-washer wands — one set up for low-pressure house wash, one for concrete, one as backup. Route confirmation goes out by text to all three homeowners with arrival windows.

Quick stop at Cup A Joe on Hillsborough Street en route — one of the perks of an ITB route. North Raleigh route days don't get to do that.

Arrival, walkthrough & plant pre-soak

We park on the street with cones front and back. Walkthrough with the homeowner takes about ten minutes — we point out two original window panes that look like they're seated in old putty rather than modern glazing (we'll keep pressure off those), and a bed of newly planted hostas that will get tarp coverage. The crepe myrtles in front get a fresh-water pre-soak so any incidental cleaning solution that drifts onto leaves dilutes immediately.

House soft wash — siding, soffits, fascia

Low-pressure pump (about 60–100 PSI — less than a kitchen faucet) delivers a biodegradable cleaning solution that does the work chemically. We start at the lower courses and work up so streaking doesn't form, then top-down for the rinse. The soffits at the dormer get hand-detailed because we don't want over-spray drifting onto the slate roof above.

Front porch & concrete walkway

Old downtown sidewalks and porches almost always have a strip of organic stain along the drip line where the eave drips onto the concrete. Surface-cleaner (a rotating-arm attachment) restores the porch slab to original color in two passes. Walkway gets the same treatment, then post-treatment to slow re-soiling.

Final rinse, photo report, neighbor wave

Perimeter post-rinse to flush any solution out of plant beds. Final walkthrough with the homeowner. Before/after photos go into the homeowner's email and into our internal job record. Neighbor across the street has been watching for the last hour and asks for a card — we leave one and roll.

Walkthrough on the brick — what we will and will not do

This is the kind of home where we slow down. Original mortar from the 1920s is much softer than modern mortar — high-pressure water can erode it visibly in a single pass. We confirm with the homeowner that we'll soft-wash only, that we won't direct any spray at the joints, and that we'll skip a section of mortar near the chimney where we can already see some erosion (we'll photograph it for them so they can talk to a mason).

Soft wash on the brick & wood trim

The same soft-wash chemistry used at the Glenwood South stop, dialed for brick. The dwell time is a little longer (12–15 minutes vs. 8–10 on painted siding) because brick texture holds dirt deeper. We hand-rinse with a fan-tip nozzle at house-side pressure that is, frankly, no harder than a thumb-on-garden-hose rinse.

Rear deck cleaning — original 1985 pressure-treated

The rear deck is older pressure-treated lumber, gray-weathered. We clean it with deck-safe solution and a low-pressure rinse, dial-in for board lift. Boards stay flat; texture comes back without fuzzing. The homeowner mentions she's been wanting to re-stain it — we leave a note about the 24–48-hour dry-down before stain.

Walkthrough & oak-tree debris assessment

The 60-foot oak in the front yard has dropped enough debris on the front porch and roof slope that the cleaning sequence needs to change — we'll dry-broom the porch first so we don't push wet leaf-mold into the seams. Roof slope below the oak gets a heavier solution dwell because organic debris accelerates algae colonization in shaded north-facing roof slopes throughout Mordecai and Oakwood.

Painted-brick first floor + wood second floor

Painted brick gets the soft wash treatment with a longer dwell. The wood-sided second story is a little chalky — we adjust solution strength so we lift the chalk without stripping more paint. The wraparound porch ceiling gets attention because it's the home's signature feature: original tongue-and-groove, sky-blue paint, and surprisingly clean once the spider work and cobwebs are gone.

Roof soft wash — the Mordecai oak problem

Architectural shingle roof with the classic Mordecai pattern: dark vertical streaks pouring from the ridge on the north slope, almost none on the south. ARMA-approved sodium-hypochlorite soft wash kills the cyanobacteria at the root and visibly fades streaks within minutes. Dwell of 15 minutes for the kill cycle, then a low-pressure neutralizing rinse that flushes dead organic material off the roof and into the gutters — which is why we'll…

Gutter cleaning & gutter brightening

…always finish a roof soft wash with a gutter clean-out. We pull the dead organic material out of the gutter channel by hand, flush downspouts, then apply gutter brightener to the white-painted aluminum gutter exterior to remove the vertical "tiger-stripe" oxidation that's nearly universal on Mordecai and Oakwood gutter runs.

Final walkthrough, photo report, route close-out

We walk the perimeter with the homeowner, point out the saved color on the porch ceiling, confirm the roof streaks are gone, and document the work for our records. Last set of before/after photos go into the homeowner's email by the time we're back in the truck.