Vinyl siding has quickly become the most popular siding material in the United States. It’s durable, looks great, and doesn’t rot or flake. However, it does get a dull and dirty look over time. Fortunately, cleaning vinyl siding is an easy task to do yourself. Here’s how to make your siding look great again.
Table of Contents:
Pre-Cleaning Steps
Because you will be spraying water and cleaner all around your house, there are a few things to do to protect yourself and items around your house.
- Close all windows and doors.
- Turn off power to any outside electrical units such as lights, outlets, etc.
- Cover plants such as shrubs or flowers to prevent the detergent from damaging them.
- Cover any etched glass or metal that may be damaged by cleaning solutions.
- Remove any other articles that may be in the way such as outdoor furniture or toys.
- Check over the siding for signs of mold or mildew. If you’re unsure if it’s mold, place a drop of bleach on it. If it turns white, it’s mold; if it stays dark, it’s dirt.
Cleaning Vinyl Siding
You Will Need:
- Laundry detergent
- Water
- Soft bristled brush and/or
- Broom and old towels and/or
- Sponge mop
- Large buckets (5 gallon buckets work best)
- Hose
- Pressure washer (optional)
The Cleaning Process:
- It will be easiest to work around your house in 3-5 foot sections.
- Fill a large bucket with 4 gallons of water and mix in ¼ cup of laundry detergent.
- Gather your cleaning tool, either a brush, mop or wrap an old towel around the head of a broom and secure with duct tape. You’ll want something with a long handle.
- Begin by using the hose to spray away any loose dirt and debris. If you have a pressure washer available, that can be used in place of the hose and will likely lessen (or completely eliminate) the amount of scrubbing needed. Be careful not to force water behind the vinyl panels through the seams. That could cause mold and mildew problems that are much more work to get rid of!
- Starting at the top, dip the chosen cleaning tool into the soapy water and begin scrubbing away any dirt and debris from the siding. Continue working your way down to the bottom of your section.
- Use the hose to rinse away the soapy water. Be sure to remove all the soap before it dries or it will leave a mark on the siding.
- Continue on, repeating steps 4-7 for each section.
Additional Tips and Advice
- If you’re concerned about putting chemicals into the ground, there are several eco-friendly detergents available to choose from as well.
- Trisodium Phosphate can also be used in place of the laundry detergent.
- Bleach can be used to remove mildew build-up present on many houses. Mix a mild solution of 1 part bleach with 5 parts water and remove by scrubbing away with a scrub brush.
- If using a ladder to clean siding near the top of your house, have an additional person available to help. Trying to scrub with a mop or broom while standing on a ladder can be extremely dangerous and should be done with extreme caution.
- Have stains that you can’t remove from your siding? The Vinyl Siding Institute offers a great list of cleaners for many kinds of stains that may be found on your vinyl.
- If your house is too big to complete yourself, you may want to have a professional clean the siding.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I live in SE Texas and have quite a bit of mold on my siding.
I usually brush off the siding first with a broom. Gets the webs and loose dirt off.
I mix a solution of 50% water/clorox. Using a hand-held pump-up sprayer, I start at the eaves and spray about a 5 ft swath and work down.
Let it sit for a while, and the mold comes off with only a water spray with the hose.
Gives you time to spray a whole side and then hose off.
Whitens the whole house. I do it once every couple of years.
A relative told me that I should clean from bottom to top when scrubbing my siding to avoid streaking. I didn’t really think it would make any difference, but the next time I cleaned it, I tried it anyway. It really does help.
I live on a busy street with white siding. I spray plain water at least once a month on the bottom half of the house. This washes away the dust that is accumulated during the month from the traffic and elements.
I use a jar that has a top and screws onto the hose end .I add the soap and bleach and spray s section at a time, then rinse with another hose. I have a hard time with a long handle brush. This seems to work well.
I used to use the window cleaner that comes in a bottle and connects to your hose and then you just spray. I did the windows and everything at the same time. It worked great. Now I have brick so I only need to do my windows.
Vinyl siding cleaning and protection
When I clean my siding, I just use a sprayer with bleach and water (2gals. water to 1 gal. bleach) I wet a section first with water, spray the solution, wait about 5-10 minutes depending on how dirty or if there’s mold/mildew and rinse very well. Works great. Then I use a carwash attachment on my garden hose that works by siphon (like an insect/fertilizer sprayer) and I use ZipWax carwash in it. I spray it on, let it sit for about 10 minutes and rinse gently. It leaves a little bit of a protective, UV resistant wax coating on the siding and really shines it up. It’s an extra step but well worth it!
Vinyl or wood siding should never be washed from
the top down as indicated in instructions above,
If you elect to do so streaks will appear in bottom
half of siding no matter how much you rinse it.
This will become more of a problem when using
a bleach solution.
Cleaning Vinyl siding
After 15 years of cleaning my siding as I have described (twice a year) I have never had a problem with streaking. I prefer top to bottom rinsing because the bottom gets rinsed constantly. With bottom to top, as the water flows down the siding, it could leave a residue behind. In actuality, everything you wash should be rinsed top to bottom, even a car. Plus, you want to be careful going bottom to top, not to get an excessive amount of water in the interlocking joints. Then you could develop mold. Some vinyl siding has small holes at the bottom of the joint for moisture drainage. Bottom to top rinsing may force excessive water into these holes. The title of this post is for vinyl siding, not wood anyway. I would never, nor do I recommend cleaning wood siding with bleach unless it was well sealed and the paint is in excellent shape. Even then, I would be very careful. I am interested in your theory about streaking since I haven’t encountered this after 30 plus washings of my own siding and also doing neighbors homes for them.
VSI Certified
I sell vinyl siding and have been certified by the Vinyl Siding Institute for proper installation and care practices. You should ALWAYS wash from the bottom up. If you don’t, streaking almost always happens and the streaks will not come off. The streaking occurs when there is DRY siding on the bottom and the watery dirty soapy mixture runs down onto it. If your siding has these streaks it voids your warranty as it is a tell tale sign that the siding was cleaned improperly. You can, however, wet down the siding first and then clean from the top down but then your just doing an extra step. after it is washed you should RINSE from the TOP to BOTTOM.
Bottom or top cleaning????
I clean everything from the top to bottom. I have never had a problem with streaking. However, I did ONCE (following instructions)try cleaning my vinyl siding from bottom to the top and had lots of streaking. The following day I had to do it again and this time I did it the way I had always done it : top first and then the bottom. Much better results and no streaking.