Can You Power Wash a Brick House?

Keeping your brick home clean protects your investment and can significantly increase your home’s resale value. Power washing a brick house can instantly boost your curb appeal and make your property more attractive to potential buyers.

When performed by a professional, power washing is safe for a brick home, but it’s a surprisingly risky project to take on yourself. The difference between a beautifully clean house and a permanently damaged brick comes down to the right technique.

Risks vs. Rewards of a DIY Power Wash

While a clean brick home clearly delivers value, DIY attempts carry severe and often permanent risks. When safety and quality matter, choosing an experienced power washing company protects your property and wallet.

Considering DIY makes it essential to avoid these mistakes:

• Using only narrow nozzle tips that concentrate pressure and chisel away mortar
• Choosing a higher pressure that can cause irreversible brick and mortar damage
• Expecting water alone to remove organic growth

Understanding the Real Costs of DIY

This hidden price tag on a rented power washer far exceeds hiring a professional from the start. Even safe pressure acts like a chisel, blasting away soft mortar that holds bricks together. Water then seeps behind the brick siding through these channels. Here’s what you risk financially with DIY brick power washing: 

• Mortar replacement and repointing: Soft mortar deteriorates under pressure, creating gaps where water enters and weakens your wall’s integrity. Matching old mortar requires skilled labor and specialized materials. Minor masonry has an average repair cost of $250-$1,200, while major repairs can cost between $5,000 and $10,000.
• Brick damage from temperature changes and excessive pressure: Moisture inside bricks expands during freezing temperatures, causing cracks from the inside out that worsen each winter. You’ll need to replace cracked or chipped bricks individually, often requiring custom orders to match your home’s original color and style.
• Interior water damage repairs: Trapped moisture behind brick siding spreads moss through insulation and drywall while causing wood rot in support beams that compromise your home’s stability. Water infiltration behind brickwork means you’ll need organic growth removal, framing repairs and other services that escalate costs rapidly.

Beyond property damage, power washers can cause serious injury, so it’s vital to use them with caution. Professionals have experience using specialized equipment correctly, minimizing risk to your property and using safe techniques.

The Professional Method for Power Washing Your Brick Home Safely

Understanding how to power wash a brick house properly requires following our proven and simple process, which professionals execute through soft washing. The following three steps outline the best ways to power wash brick to achieve outstanding results.

1. Assessing the Age and Condition of Your Brick

A trained technician evaluates your brick before any water touches the surface. They look for preexisting cracks, loose mortar and powdery white deposits. This assessment determines their technique and pressure settings.

Common questions professionals answer during evaluation include:

• Can you power wash painted brick? It depends on the paint’s condition. To avoid stripping peeling paint, have an expert assess it first, as a gentler cleaning method is likely required.
• Can you power wash brick siding? Yes, but the technique adapts to the specific material and mounting system. Veneer brick attached to exterior surfaces requires different pressure settings than solid masonry.
• Does power washing damage brick? Yes, power washing can damage brick if the pressure is too high or the wrong technique is used. Choosing an appropriate pressure is key to avoiding mortar damage that allows moisture to worsen cracks.

2. Using the Soft Wash Technique With Biodegradable Cleansers

Professionals use biodegradable cleansers that do the heavy lifting, not dangerous pressure. These solutions break down the molecular structure of moss, algae and dirt, allowing gentle rinsing.

This method is called soft washing. It works by pairing a safe pressure stream, between 500 and 1,500 PSI, with a wide 40-degree nozzle. Instead of using destructive force, this technique lets specialized cleansers do the difficult work chemically. The water is only used to gently rinse the surface, which prevents the kind of damage unsafe pressure streams can cause to brick and mortar.

This modern technique safeguards your property and is the professional standard for jobs ranging from power washing a brick patio to performing delicate services like roof treatments.

3. Performing a Final, Protective Rinse

The final rinse completely removes cleansers and protects surrounding plants and landscaping. Professionals rinse multiple times, ensuring no residue remains on the brick or in nearby soil.

Why Hiring a Professional Is the Smartest Choice

While DIY attempts are possible with the right guidance, the reality is that power washing brick is a job for a trained specialist. Perfect Power Wash offers a professional house washing service that delivers expertise, equipment and accountability that DIY attempts cannot match. See what our customers say about the results we deliver.

Access to Professional-Grade Equipment and Training

Each Perfect Power Wash technician undergoes 150-plus hours of training before treating a single home. This education covers technique, safety protocols and material-specific approaches that safeguard your property.

Our professional-grade equipment includes:

• Commercial concrete surface cleaners: Our technicians understand the specific differences in cleaning a brick patio with a concrete surface cleaner versus using a different technique for vertical siding.
• Calibrated pressure systems: Our equipment delivers consistent, safe pressure between 500 and 1,500 PSI, unlike unpredictable rental machines that vary in performance and lack safety features.
• Specialized tools and cleansers: Our proprietary biodegradable cleansers and professional-grade nozzles break down organic growth at the molecular level and adjust spray patterns for different brick types without harsh effects.

Saving Time and Avoiding the Hassle

Professional service gives you your weekend back. The DIY process involves renting, transporting, setup, trial and error, work, cleanup and returns. One phone call eliminates all of that.

Our team handles everything, from assessing your property to delivering a damage-free finish. We address your entire property — from power washing a brick driveway to power washing brick pavers and cleaning your concrete surfaces and other exterior hardscapes to leave your home looking clean.

Get the Finish Your Home Deserves With Perfect Power Wash

While it’s possible to power wash your own brick house, the safest, most effective way to achieve a clean finish is to partner with a professional. Perfect Power Wash has over 25 years of experience and has serviced more than 350,000 homes. We guarantee to deliver the best results possible for your property using our safe and effective process, or your money back.

Skip the risk, hassle and potential for costly damage. Get your free quote today or call us at 833-868-8873 to schedule your brick home treatment with trained experts who will protect your investment while delivering exceptional results!