Alright, so the weekend rolled around and I looked at the house siding. Green stuff, dirt... looked pretty bad. Same for the walkway. Figured it was finally time to tackle it with the pressure washer I bought a while back.

Getting Started

Dragged the machine out of the garage. Little heavy, but manageable. First thing, hooked up the garden hose to the inlet. Made sure it was tight. Then connected the high-pressure hose to the outlet and the spray gun. Simple enough.

Checked the oil and gas levels. All good. Picked a nozzle – went with the green one, supposed to be for general cleaning, not too harsh. Didn't want to strip any paint, you know? Just wanted the gunk off.

Firing It Up

Pulled the starter cord. Took a couple of tries, then roared to life. Pretty loud, not gonna lie. Made sure the water was running from the hose before starting the engine, important step.

Squeezed the trigger on the wand. Water blasted out. Tested it on a patch of the concrete walkway first, somewhere out of the way. You could see the dirt lifting right away. Okay, this thing works.

The Actual Washing

Started on the vinyl siding. Bottom section first, working my way up. Held the nozzle maybe a foot or so away, moving in smooth, overlapping strokes. Back and forth, back and forth. You gotta keep it moving.

• The green algae stuff basically melted off.
• Dirt streaks from rain runoff? Gone.
• Had to be careful around windows and light fixtures. Didn't want to force water in where it shouldn't be.

Moved onto the concrete walkway next. Same process, just steady sweeps. It’s kind of satisfying seeing the clean path appear behind the spray. Took a while though. Holding that vibrating wand gets tiring after a bit.

Had a couple of stubborn spots on the concrete, maybe oil stains or something. The pressure washer lightened them, but didn't remove them completely. Guess you need special cleaners for that stuff sometimes. Didn't bother with soap this time, just water pressure.

Wrapping Up

Once I covered all the areas I planned on, I did a final rinse over everything. Just to wash away any loosened debris.

Turned off the engine. Then squeezed the trigger again to release the pressure in the hose. Important safety thing. Turned off the garden hose tap. Disconnected everything – garden hose, high-pressure hose, wand. Drained the water out best I could.

Wiped the machine down a bit. Rolled up the hoses, bit of a messy job that. Pushed the whole setup back into the garage. Felt good to get it done.

The Result

Stepped back and looked. Big difference. Siding looks almost new, walkway is clean. Definitely worth the effort. It's a messy job, you get sprayed a bit, but the results speak for themselves. Makes the whole place look better. A solid afternoon's work.