The painters power-washed/pressure-washed our house today. Our house is stucco with wood trim. We have a lot of old brick patio in the back. The house and one of the garages smell pretty musty after the power-washing. (The other garage is fine, I think.) Is this normal?
It's fine. When power washing a home, there's lots of mildew (some unseen) that is on the siding. This gets blasted off and ends up on the ground around your home causing the smell. Perfectly normal.
It could also be the chemicals/detergents they used. You never know what someone's concoction is. Of course in Arizona I wouldn't have expected much mold/algae on your home to begin with.
Yes, I do, but even more than that, I'm a very chemically-sensitive person. It was the painters who did the power washing, not a separate company. They hooked up a hose to the spout on the side of the house, the hose went to a machine that I presume made the pressure, and from that machine came a hose and a wand that had variable pressure. They could blast hard on the stucco and gently on our old metal windows.
But I am interested in what you are saying, because it never occurred to me that some people would use a cleaner as well as water. I just did a search on the topic and I see that people spray on stain-fighters and mold-killers. We didn't have a stain problem, just a ton of dust that had to be removed before painting. (Arizona, you know.)
Why would painters likely to use cleaners on two-story houses than ranch houses?
Well frankly it would be strange not to use cleaners on a ranch either. But the reason I mention is that they might feel they can use straight pressure, rather than any cleaners. But that requires they get close to the house (within a foot) and that's not too hard on a 1 story house, but very difficult on a 2 story house.
Normally the chemicals would be injected directly into the water stream from their machine, so you probably wouldn't even have noticed they were using any. Typically this is a blend of bleach and some detergent. http://sears.outdoorcleaning.com/basics/overview/detergent_injection/
You're in Arizona, so maybe they can do without the bleach there. I'd be surprised if they did without any detergent though. If they didn't use it, and they didn't blast away up close to your house, then it probably didn't get as clean as it should have. Probably won't be a problem though.
They might feel they can use straight pressure, rather than any cleaners. But that requires they get close to the house (within a foot).... Normally the chemicals would be injected directly into the water stream from their machine, so you probably wouldn't even have noticed they were using any.
As an extremely chemically-sensitive person, I would have, especially since I was right near him as he washed a few of the windows! Yes, he was very close to the house, and he could choose the flow rate.
I'll never understand pressure washers. Everything on the exterior of your home is there to protect it from the weather. Roofing, flashing, siding, paint, caulk, etc are all there to keep moisture out of your house. Why on earth would you want to blast high pressure water at all of these water proofing systems?
There are different ways to use pressure washers. One way is up close, which is good on concrete. The tip is about 6" or less from the surface. This is just what you want sometimes.
Another way is to use the pressure to get the water stream up high - higher than a hose can go. At the same time, the pressure in the hose is used to suck the chemicals into the water stream. In this case your house doesn't get direct pressure, but it does allow the cleaners and rinse to get high up on a multi-story house from the user on the ground.
That's why I asked about the ranch house. It is possible to get close to the siding with direct pressure (not real close for absolute top pressure) without hitting the elements you mentioned.
Hopefully they angled the nozzle at 45* to the house, direct at perpendicular would inject water into the stucco base possibly wetting the building paper below
At this point I should update and say that the musty smell went away by the next morning. As someone said on the thread, washing must have knocked loose and activated moldy dust that we never noticed before.
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