With the fall season upon us in the Washington DC metro region, it’s time to start getting your commercial office or high security facility ready for winter. Exterior projects to spruce up your facility should be on your to-do list if they haven’t already been completed over the summer. These include:

• Power sweeping parking lots and garages
• Power scrubbing and/or power washing garages
• Curb painting and (re)striping parking spaces
• Exterior window cleaning

In addition to these, cleaning up your sidewalks, entrances, building façade, and awnings is a good thing to do. Dirt, grime, bird droppings, chewing gum, paint, tar and rust can be an eyesore for building occupants and visitors.

Of course, proper methods to clean these areas are recommended. For instance, if you are having your building façade and awnings cleaned, then it is best to have the exterior of your windows cleaned first. Otherwise, you will end up spending more money to clean these areas again because of the runoff of the dirt, grime and debris from your windows.

Also, deciding whether to power wash versus pressure wash areas can be key as these two terms are often used interchangeably but are slightly different. Both methods use high-pressure water to clean.  Dirt, salt, mildew, mold, gum, grease and even weeds cannot stand up to the force of the water.  Be careful of the surfaces you use these methods on though.  They work best on harder surfaces like concrete, brick and hard woods. Softer surfaces can be damaged by the high-pressure water stream.

The main difference is that power washing uses hot water while pressure washing uses normal water temperatures from the source.  Adding heat to the process helps break down the more difficult materials to remove like chewing gum, grease stains, salt and mold.

Ultimately, the method to go with depends entirely on the job. By hiring a reputable and experienced cleaning company, you can expect to receive a good recommendation of which process to use to help you achieve the outcome you are looking for.

A professional cleaning service will provide you with several great additional perks as well, which include:

Helping you save resources and time. Proper commercial cleaning of these areas requires the right equipment, tools, and knowledge on how best to tackle the clean-up. Renting equipment and trying to have someone in-house do these jobs for you is not a good use of your time and resources.

Minimizing the cost of future repairs. Dirt and grime, if not removed, can give way to mold, mildew, and costly property damage down the road. Investing in having these areas properly cleaned up with a professional cleaning company will help prolong the lifespan of these areas.

Make a great impression on your clients and visitors this fall.  Give your sidewalks, entrances, façade, and awnings a make over!.

Mister Kleen is a leading provider of contract cleaning services to Commercial and High Security facilities since 1976. Our primary service areas is the DC Metro region. We also provide a variety of interior and exterior specialty services.