Building good habits

Good personal habits take a life-time to build. To build good habits consistency is require, along with commitment. There is much that we do automatically, these might be things our parents trained us to do beginning at a young age. Habits in personal hygiene; baths or showers, brushing teeth, flossing. Putting dirty clothing into the hamper, which were then washed at a minimum of weekly if not more often.

As children grow, they are usually given chores to accomplish to help out. This usually begins with collecting the trash that they can handle, possibly doing the dishes, ironing. I know my mom had my sister and I begin to wash dishes long before we were tall enough to reach the sink. She would pull a kitchen chair up to the sink and we would kneel on it, putting a small towel on the section of counter between the sink and our bodies so our arms wouldn't get too wet. The boys may have had to help with yard work, along with mowing the lawn, and other projects to help around outside.

So the habit building begins with taking care of one's personal self, then helping around the house. The latter then  helps them build a good work ethic also.

One thing, though may get missed in training up our children, is showing them what is involved in owning cars and homes. Often the parents take care of those things alone, or even if they have the children help with those aspects, I don't think the need for doing so is verbalized. The child might see it being taken care of, but not know why it needs to be done, or the repercussions of not doing whatever it is.

Currently I help manage a window cleaning business with my husband. We have customers that have us clean their windows monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly, and yearly; while other have us come whenever they are throwing a party, or when the birds have found the windows and left remains behind.

I'm sure my mother not only cleaned her windows, but had us help her out, and probably twice a year-minimum, I don't remember doing windows as much as I remember washing all the walls, and ceilings. Now that's something most people don't do these days.

Even though the majority of our customers have us come on a semi-regular basis, there are others that wait several years in-between each cleaning. That may seem to save them money, but what most homeowners don't understand is that over time the dirt will get baked into the surface of the windows. That may be partly due to where a person lives. If you live in an area with factories, it may be more of a problem than rural areas, or a city with mostly skyscrapers. Eventually, though window replacement might be needed many years before normal.

It seems like there are always cleaning projects that can be done on the inside of the home, especially in this day and age when all the adults hold jobs, but for whatever reason many times the outside of the home gets forgotten altogether, or as my dad would say, 'it goes to pot'.

While brick homes are about the easiest to maintain, spiders and certain types of bees enjoy making their homes in any little crack on the brick surface itself or between the windows and the windows frames.

All types of houses might have eave troughs around the circumference of their homes, they should consider cleaning it yearly to stop the staining that can take place when the water spills over the eaves. When the eave troughs are white, off white or a lighter color, they can look bad after just a few years. For some reason if they are brown or a darker color, they may clean up well even if not cleaned yearly; although it might be better to test this before making the assumption that it will clean up if you wait.

Houses with aluminum siding are about the hardest to clean up, unless it is cleaned on a regular basis. The main reason for this is that the sun oxidizes the aluminum causing it to look like it's been painted at different times. If they are cleaned using brushes and a garden hose, then many times the brush marks might stay on the siding when the cleaning is finished.

This has happened to us twice while cleaning the siding for two of our customers. We found out afterward that neither of them had ever had the siding of their homes cleaned before. That meant that all the oxidation that took place in the past came off all at once. It's almost as if it's cleaned in layers, yet the colors of those layers do not match.

So my word of warning to you if you have aluminum siding would be to not get it cleaned until you are ready to paint, even if you are trying to sell the home and make a good impression on the new buyer. If you've never had the exterior cleaned before, now isn't the time to start. If  you are going to paint in the same year, then by all means, get it cleaned, otherwise the new paint may not remain on areas that have oxidized.

If you are not sure whether your home has oxidized, take your hand and rub it- palm outstretched onto the siding. You should know immediately, for if it has oxidized your hand will look like someone wrote on it with chalk. You can check several places around your home just to be sure one way or the other.

For the most part homes with vinyl siding don't oxidize, or at least not as much and not as often. Although rare, I have seen a home or two with vinyl siding that has oxidized, but usually it's facing the sun every day of the year, and generally only the side with sun exposure.

My husband and myself highly recommend that you do not use a normal power washer, or pressurized washer to clean the exterior of any homes other than possibly brick ones. The reason for this is that the pressure of the water from a power washer can get underneath sections of siding into your insulation. It may seem that wood homes wouldn't have that problem, and you're right it probably wouldn't be affected in the same way, yet you never know where there may be a small hole or crack.


We recommend cleaning siding of any type with a garden hose and a cleaning product called Jomax, found at major chains like Lowe's or Home Depot. We've even purchased it at our local smaller hardware stores. We use a five gallon bucket with one quart of Jomax, three quarts of any household bleach, and then fill the bucket up to about three inches from the top. If you put the Jomax and bleach in first, then the solution will get mixed when the water is added. We have found that if you direct the water flow towards the sides of the bucket rather than downward, there will be a bit less foam, and less chance for it to splash out.


We then pour the mixture into several spray containers, also found at most hardware stores. These are the spray containers that are usually purchased for killing bugs around the exterior of your home. When working in an area of the home, we first thoroughly spray the surface with water, then spray the Jomax mixture onto the siding. You can begin at the top or bottom; there are various opinions on the benefits for both. We have found that both ways work the same. If the home is especially dirty, you need to spray every board, and often underneath each section (the part underneath that overlaps the section below. It's about a sixteenth of an inch wide.) Wait a few minutes, then using a brush on a pole, brush the dirt off the section that has been treated. Once you have done this, it needs to be re-sprayed with water to thoroughly remove any remaining solution.

This solution will not bother any landscaping, it can cause a problem with windows if they are not cleaned afterward.


When one section is completed, move onto the next section. If you have extra people helping out, and at least two garden hoses that reach 100 feet, you can have work done in more than one section at a time.

If it's a two-story home, and there is a section of siding above the garage or a room addition, you'll need to get onto that roof to reach the siding. If the roof is too steep to stand on it comfortable, it may need to be cleaned from the safety of the ladder. It's harder working that way, but it can be done. Make sure there is always someone standing on the bottom of the ladder to prevent the ladder from moving, even if you've turned the claw part of the ladder into the dirt.

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Regular maintenance of your vehicle is another area that many times gets neglected. Even though car owners know it's necessary to get an oil change according to manufacturers suggestions, everyone doesn't take care of that as soon as they should. I know from experience, it's taken us years to get on a regular schedule. When planning a road trip, the vehicle should be checked over and things fixed before the trip is started. Many mechanics will check the belts, fluids, tire pressure and tread along with doing an oil change and tune-up if needed. If more than that is needed it'd be better to get whatever it is fixed, or you might find yourself calling a wrecker when you're stuck on the highway.

Some of the information in this post can be found in a previous post.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5204166_clean-vinyl-siding-much-scrubbing.html

Maintaining One's Home

My husband and I clean a lot of siding for our customers. We've always preferred to clean vinyl siding because you don't have to worry about any oxidation like would happen with aluminum siding. Even with vinyl siding, comes aluminum gutters and soffets and it's been our experience that white gutters tend to stay dingy after cleaning, whereas other colored gutters such as yellow, blue and brown, will clean up very nicely. Why this is we do not know.

When people call us to clean their siding it is usually because the north side of the house has mildew on it. This can be black or it may look like grass stains on the siding. Or it just may be plain old dirty. Often when we clean it, it may be the first time it's ever been cleaned.

For the most part, vinyl siding will clean up. The only thing that won't clean is when small black bugs are on the siding, or the residue of the bugs. Oftentimes one can't see the bugs until one is up close. We've scrubbed them with a hard brush, soft scratch pad that won't scratch vinyl, or sometimes just used our fingernails, gently. But the black top surface comes off, leaving a lighter brown color behind, which will not budge.

Until recently, we've never cleaned any aluminum siding without having the color look spotty from the effects of oxidation on the aluminum. When years have passed before aluminum siding is cleaned, be expected to paint afterwards. Even white paint may look dingy or even have a yellow cast.

This past week, we cleaned someone's home that had no oxidation whatsoever. What a change that was. Come to find out the homeowner usually cleaned it once or twice yearly, herself. She would have done it herself this year, but she's had health issues to deal with instead.

From her experience, I see where if you want to maintain the exterior of your home properly, you should clean it yearly. This would also help to prevent the bug buildup. Oxidation is a fact of life, one cannot change it's effects on siding any more than one can change a cut up apple from turning brown without using lemon juice or similar topping.

Both painted surfaces and aluminum will oxidize. It's just that if your home is cleaned, the oxidation will be kept off the surface, and it will weather evenly. Eventually it may need to be painted, or treated once more, but if it needs to be cleaned inbetween times, it will not look like it's falling apart.

Our recommendation is that you not use a powerwasher as that can actually harm the siding if the pressure is too hard, it can remove the vinyl surface off the window frames, and the water can get underneath panels of siding and harm your insulation. Cleaning by hand is the safer way to go.

If you as the homeowner choose to clean your own siding, check out the articles linked below to help you decide how to proceed. Make sure whatever method you go with that you get the windows cleaned the same day preferably to prevent chemical spotting, or staining on the glass.

Like anything else in our lives, prevention and upkeep may not be easy, but it will benefit your home and your pocketbook long term.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5204166_clean-vinyl-siding-much-scrubbing.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_5323362_keep-aluminum-siding-oxidizing.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_5215872_keep-damaged-after-cleaning-siding.html