How Often Should You Wash Your House Exterior in Austin?
Quick answer
There isn't one number that fits every house. Your schedule depends on how much shade and tree cover sits over your walls, what your siding is made of, and how long you're willing to let it go. For windows we recommend twice a year depending on your trees, and our core clients are on a quarterly schedule booked a year out, so the house never falls far behind.
I got into this trade 22 years ago and started my own company in 2013. We rebranded to Elefant Xterior Experts at the start of 2024 with the same crew and the same standards. A question I get on walkthroughs is how often a house really needs to be washed. My honest answer is that it depends on the house, and I'd rather explain why than hand you a number that's wrong for yours.
No house is the same. Next-door neighbors with the same floor plan can have different landscaping, or a giant tree in the way. That's why we quote every job from the address, and it's why the schedule changes from one house to the next.
What decides how often your house needs a wash
- The trees around it. For windows I tell clients twice a year, depending on what kind of trees they have. The same shade and debris that land on the glass land on the siding.
- What the siding is made of. Stucco, wood, fiber cement, and vinyl all take a soft wash. Limestone and other natural stone need their own approach, because the wrong chemical etches stone permanently.
- What's attached to the house. Awnings, retaining walls, patios, and walkways collect algae and soil at their own pace. On one Austin job we cleaned algae off an awning and neutralized a retaining wall as part of the house wash.
- How long it's been. The longer buildup sits, the bigger the job when you finally call.
- How clean you want it to stay. It's like washing your car. If it gets splashed through a puddle, you wash it. Some of our clients want the whole property clean all the time, and we set their schedule to match.
What it costs to wait
A lot of what I run into in sales is deferred maintenance. People tell me, "I put this off so long, now I have extensive repairs." Mold, mildew, and algae on siding look bad, and left alone long enough they cause damage that a wash won't undo.
That's the whole idea behind our name. The elephant in the room is usually the maintenance everyone has been meaning to get to.
What a house wash looked like on a recent Austin job
On this house, Oscar and the crew washed the exterior with a biodegradable foam soap that has mildewcide in it, cleaned the windows inside and out, and pressure washed the driveway and the front bridge. The homeowner wrote afterward:
"I didn't realize what a difference cleaning our windows and house exterior would make. Joe and his crew did an excellent job inside and out. They had the equipment, expertise, and persistence to work on all of our many windows of different shapes and sizes, some even 2-stories high."
Meilisa T., 5-star Google review
What the visit covered
- Exterior walls washed at low pressure with biodegradable foam soap and mildewcide
- Windows cleaned inside and out
- Driveway and front bridge pressure washed
- Patio washed, with the difference visible in the photo below
How our clients stay ahead of it
Our core clients are on a quarterly schedule. We book a year of service ahead of time, so we already know we're coming in the next three months and you don't have to think about it. If you're not on that schedule, we check in at three months, six months, and a year to ask how everything is looking.
Clients who come back tend to notice the difference between visits. This one has had us out more than once:
"Elefant Xteriors has cleaned our windows twice, and this did a power wash of our house too, they do a fabulous job!! Very thorough and accommodating, and our house feels so clean and shiny after they come. Highly recommend, we'll definitely keep using them."
Laura H., 5-star Google review
We work across Central Texas, with a lot of our work in Westlake, Bee Cave, and around Lake Travis. You can read what other homeowners say on our reviews page.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to clean the exterior of a house?
It depends on the house, which is why we quote from your address instead of using a flat rate. Size, number of stories, how hard the walls are to reach, and what's planted around them all go into the price. If you're outside our core area of south of 183 and west of 35, expect a trip charge of about $100 to $150.
How much does it cost to wash the outside of a house?
We'll give you a real number once we know the property. Send us the address and we can often pull photos from an old real estate listing, or you can text us a few pictures. For homes around 2,500 square feet and up, I'd rather come out and walk the property with you so the quote is right.
Does rain clean my siding?
Rain rinses off loose dust. It doesn't take off the algae and mildew that turn walls green or gray, which is why we wash with a foam soap that has mildewcide in it. Waiting on the weather is a gamble anyway. It's like washing your car: whether it rains the next day is just chance.
Should siding be soft washed or pressure washed?
Soft washed. Low pressure and the right soap are safe on vinyl, stucco, wood, and fiber cement, and high pressure can damage them. We save pressure washing for concrete like driveways and walkways. Natural stone gets its own approach, since the wrong chemical can etch limestone for good.
Do trees change how often I need my house washed?
Yes. Tree cover is one of the first things I look at when I set a schedule. For windows we recommend twice a year depending on what kind of trees are on the property, and on a walkthrough I'll tell you whether your walls need more or less than that.
Can I wash my house myself?
You can, but I get a lot of calls that start with "my husband fell off the ladder, so I won't let him do it anymore." This industry has no licensing and no safety regulations. Our crew recertifies OSHA training every three years, and our ladders have levelers and standoffs so nobody gets hurt and the house doesn't get damaged.
Want a schedule built around your house?
Tell us the address and we'll look at the trees, the siding, and everything attached to it before we recommend anything. You can request a quote on our services page, where soft house washing is listed with everything else we do. We're open Monday through Friday, 8:00 to 4:30.
Joe, Owner, Elefant Xterior Experts