How to Clean Vinyl Siding

I clean houses every day with vinyl siding. The North side of the house is always in the shade here in middle Tennessee. The lack of direct sunlight allows that side of the house to be damp more often, and some green stuff freely grows on the vinyl siding. That green stuff is mold, mildew, or algae, and if you leave it long enough between cleanings, it will even grow moss.

I'm going to describe for you the easiest home remedy, "bleach water." If it's on your house in the area isn't too large, you should give it a shot. It works so well that from now on, you should use bleach water to clean your vinyl siding if I can be reached safely. Otherwise, call a professional.

I will show you a technique a homeowner can use to clean vinyl siding. If you have a two-story house, you will need to use a ladder. Use caution, make sure your ladder is secure, and do not overreach.

Equipment needed:

• You will need a pump sprayer. I find that a two-gallon sprayer is a good size. If you find that a two-gallon sprayer is a little too heavy for you to handle, you can drop it down to a one and a half-gallon or a one-gallon, whichever suits you the best for safety purposes, especially if you're on a ladder.
• A garden hose with a spray nozzle.
• A ladder if need be.
• All you need to make the cleaning solution is household 6% bleach and water.
• I suggest wearing safety glasses to keep the solution from getting into your eyes and gloves.

The Mixture:

Mix the solution one part bleach to three parts water. I put 1-1/2 gallons of water into the sprayer and add 1/2 gallon of bleach into the water. You can experiment with different proportions, but this works well for most and is approximately 1.5% bleach. Once you have your bleach water solution, start to pump up the sprayer. You could add an ounce or so of dish soap to reduce your mixture's evaporation rate while on the vinyl siding during its dwell time.

The Cleaning process:

You will need to spray the siding from the bottom to the top. This helps to keep the bleach water solution from creating streaking. Ensure you never let the siding completely dry, and the area may need to dwell for up to 10 minutes. Therefore, you may need to spray it a couple of times to keep it wet, but the dish soap should help the siding stay wet for a longer period.

Set your pump sprayer's nozzle to a wide pattern and evenly spray the bleach water solution onto the vinyl siding. If this is the first-time cleaning vinyl siding with bleach water, you might want to try a small section to test how long you will need to leave the solution on the siding before rinsing. I find that ten minutes is just right. Start from the bottom and work your way up to the top. I pick a section that I know I can spray in about five minutes. If you work on small sections, you can alternate between spraying, rinsing, and work your way across your house.

After giving the bleach water solution about ten minutes to kill the green stuff, use your water hose to rinse off the bleach water solution. The green stuff should be completely gone or at least easily rinsed off. If it does not, you may need to apply the bleach water solution a second time. The green color will turn brown, and that is how you can tell that you have killed the algae and at that time, it should rinse away very easily or totally disappear for you at some point. No matter what, though, always thoroughly rinse, and you may want to do the entire section of the home instead of just doing the affected / dirty area because you will essentially have a clean spot that might be cleaner than the area you didn't clean if that makes sense.

It is amazing the difference clean siding makes.