The Best Time of Year to Wash a House in Louisville

Spring: the busy season, and the pollen season

Spring is the busiest time of year for exterior cleaning; national cleaning companies such as squeegeesquad.com, washh.com and allhandspws.com all name it as their peak. It also overlaps with tree pollen. Family Allergy and Asthma, a Kentucky allergy practice, says trees often start pollinating as early as February (a long, cold winter can push that into early March), oak and cedar come first, willow, pine, birch and mulberry follow in April, and tree pollen falls off around mid June (Family Allergy and Asthma).

That gives two good spring choices:

1. Early, if the house came out of winter green and you want it clean now. More pollen will land, but the growth underneath is gone.
2. Late spring, after the heaviest tree pollen, if you want one wash that stays clean through summer.

Summer: work around the heat

Summer is still busy, but heat changes how the wash goes. A cleaning solution needs time on the surface to work, and squeegeesquad.com notes that summer heat can make it dry and streak before it does. That makes cooler parts of the day the easier ones for a soft wash.

Fall: the quiet window

Fall is the slower season in exterior cleaning, with more scheduling flexibility (allhandspws.com), and the pollen is long gone. It is also the season leaves start to land on decks, drives and gutters, so a fall wash works best once the heaviest leaf drop is done, or with a plan to rinse off what falls after.

Winter: why masonry waits for warmer weather

The National Park Service’s guide to cleaning historic masonry says water cleaning should never be done in cold weather or when frost is likely, because water inside the masonry can freeze and crack it, and a wall can take over a week to dry. It advises stopping several days before the first average frost date, and says chemical cleaning should never be done below 40 degrees F, and generally not below 50 (NPS Preservation Brief 1). If you need work done in winter, ask: masonry especially should wait for mild days.

How often

The University of Maryland Extension says washing once or twice a year may be needed where surfaces stay damp (Ask Extension, 2019). A sunny, open house may go longer; a north wall under trees usually will not.