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Chemistry does the work. Water just carries it away.

Q: Does it actually work as well?

On the surfaces it is meant for, better. Growth is biological, so killing it at the root beats knocking the visible layer off. That is also why a soft-washed wall stays clean longer than one that was simply blasted.

Q: Is the solution safe around plants?

Landscaping is covered before anything is mixed. That is a step in the job rather than a precaution taken if there is time.

Q: Which surfaces on my property get soft washed?

Siding, the roof, and the gutters. Anything where forcing water at a surface would push it somewhere it should not go, or take the surface with it.

Soft washing is what gets used on anything that would be damaged by force — siding, shingle roofs, gutter faces. The pressure sits at roughly what a garden hose gives you. The cleaning happens because the solution has time to work, not because the water hits hard.

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Most of what 501 does on a house is soft washing. Pressure is reserved for the ground.

The actual numbers

What runs at what pressure, and why.

There is no single setting for a property. Each surface has a ceiling, and going over it is how damage happens.

Surface	Working pressure
Vinyl, painted and composite siding	about 100 PSI
Asphalt shingle roof	under 100 PSI
Gutter faces and downspouts	up to 300 PSI
Wood decking and fence	500–1,200 PSI
Brick, stone and pavers	500–1,500 PSI
Concrete flatwork	3,000–4,000 PSI

The top three are soft washing. The bottom three are pressure washing, and they are a different setup on the same trailer.

Why force is the wrong tool

Water goes where you point it, including inside the wall.

Vinyl siding is a series of overlapping laps with an air gap behind them. Aim a pressure wand upward at it and water goes past the lap and into the cavity, where nothing dries it out. Months later that shows up as a stain bleeding through from the inside, and by then nobody connects it to the wash.

A shingle roof fails differently. Its weather layer is a bed of mineral granules held in asphalt, and pressure lifts them straight off. The roof looks better the day it happens and ages faster every year after.

Soft washing sidesteps both. Nothing is being forced anywhere, so nothing ends up somewhere it should not be.

A house with a covered front porch, its roof streaked dark in the top photo and clean in the bottom one

Straight answers

The questions this raises.

How is this different from pressure washing?

Soft washing cleans with solution and dwell time. Pressure washing cleans with force. They are two different jobs and the surface decides which one it gets.

Siding, roofs and gutters get soft washed. Concrete, brick and wood get real pressure, at settings matched to each.

Does it actually work as well?

On the surfaces it is meant for, better. Growth is biological, so killing it at the root beats knocking the visible layer off. That is also why a soft-washed wall stays clean longer than one that was simply blasted.

Is the solution safe around plants?

Landscaping is covered before anything is mixed. That is a step in the job rather than a precaution taken if there is time.

Which surfaces on my property get soft washed?

Siding, the roof, and the gutters. Anything where forcing water at a surface would push it somewhere it should not go, or take the surface with it.