how to keep your home smelling fresh with pets

Your deck or patio can do with a good cleaning every year, the type involving pressure washing, any necessary resealing, and other actions needed to bring the deck or patio back into tiptop shape. Pressure washing is an effective way of getting dirt off concrete, wood, and other materials, but it can be very strong, and any obstacles the pressure washing tech has to go around will slow down the work. The more ready you can make your deck or patio area for the pressure washing session, the faster it will go.

Move Everything That Won't Be Washed

If it's not being washed, move it. That goes for furniture, potted plants, toys, and more. Sometimes furniture is getting a good wash, in which case you should move it to an open area where the water from the pressure washing can drain away easily without getting the newly cleaned deck dirty again. Other than that, make sure that the deck or patio is open and that there are few things left on it that would require the pressure washing tech to gingerly move around them.

Set Up Plastic Barriers Around Plants

If there's landscaping next to the patio or deck, cover it. In general, covering plants with a plastic sheet for just the duration of the pressure washing should be fine. You don't want to cover them for much longer than that (and do uncover them once the washing is over) because the plastic can trap heat and harm the plants. Covering the plants protects them from the high-pressure stream of water and also from dirty water that spatters everywhere as the pressure washing is in progress.

Make Arrangements for Outdoor Animals

While most people keep their pets indoors now, a few have pets that stay in heated structures outside (like heated cat houses), and quite a few take care of neighborhood feral cats that refuse to go live inside. If you're one of these, make arrangements for the animals. Those that live in heated structures can go to a pet daycare for the day so that the noise of the pressure washer doesn't alarm them. Ferals are more difficult to deal with because you can't just scoop them up and store them inside. Move their food and water bowls, and any shelters you've set up for them, just before pressure washing in that area begins. Put the items back as soon as the washing is done. Ferals will likely avoid all the activity anyway, but you don't want them to think their shelter has disappeared.

Pressure washing is relatively quick work, although if you have a lot that needs to be washed, then the entire process can take time. It's worth it, though, because when you see how clean your deck or patio is after all the container-plant rings and dust have been washed away, you'll be overjoyed that you got the work done.

For more information, contact a pressure washing service in your area.