Pressure Washing, Roof Cleaning & Soft Washing in St. Louis

Power washing uses heated water; pressure washing uses unheated water. Otherwise they are the same thing, and most St. Louis companies use the two words interchangeably. Both rely on force to remove what is on a surface.

Soft washing is the different one. It uses normal garden-hose pressure plus a cleaning solution that kills the algae, mold and mildew instead of blasting it off. On a roof or on siding, that difference is the whole job.

Soft washing is exterior cleaning at low pressure — around the pressure of a garden hose — using a cleaning solution that kills organic growth at the root.

Algae, mildew, moss and lichen are living things. High pressure knocks the visible layer off; the organism stays and regrows. A soft wash treats it, rinses it, and the surface stays clean far longer because you removed the cause rather than the symptom.

No. High pressure on asphalt shingles strips the granules that protect the shingle from UV and weather, and it can force water under the shingle course.

Shingle manufacturers and the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association direct homeowners toward low-pressure cleaning for exactly this reason. We do not pressure wash roofs. We soft wash them.

Not when it is done correctly. There is no mechanical force on the shingle, so nothing abrades the granule layer. The risk in soft washing is chemical, not mechanical — wrong mix, wrong dwell time, or no plant protection.

That is the part training covers. We are a SoftWash Systems certified applicator, we mix to a tested specification, and we pre-wet and rinse landscaping as part of the process.

Those streaks are a blue-green algae called Gloeocapsa magma. It feeds on the limestone filler in asphalt shingles and spreads down the roof with rainfall, which is why the streaking runs vertically.

St. Louis summers are humid and our winters are wet, so it thrives here — especially on north-facing slopes and anywhere shaded by trees. It is not dirt and it will not wash off in the rain. It has to be treated.

Most St. Louis County homes do well on a wash every 12 to 24 months.

Shaded lots, heavy tree cover, north-facing walls and homes near creeks or low ground grow organic material faster and are usually on the shorter end. A sunny, open lot can often go two years. We will tell you honestly which one you have.

It depends on size, access and how much growth is on the surface, so we price each property rather than publishing a flat rate we would have to walk back.

What we will do is give you a real number before any work starts, with no pressure and no salesman. Send us the address and what you want cleaned and you will have a price.

Yes. We work with property managers, apartment and multifamily communities, HOAs and commercial buildings across St. Louis County — building exteriors, breezeways, walkways, dumpster pads, entry canopies and concrete.

We can quote one-time work or a scheduled maintenance cycle. See commercial services.

Our solutions are chlorine-based, diluted to a tested working strength, and applied with landscaping protection as a standard part of the job.

We pre-wet plants before we start, keep them wet while we work, and rinse afterward. Sodium hypochlorite breaks down into salt and water rather than persisting in the soil, which is why it is the standard for treating organic growth on building exteriors.

Yes, we carry insurance, and the people who show up are our own trained crew — not a subcontractor.

We are a family business run out of St. Louis County. If something is not right, you are talking to the owner, not a call center.