Power Washing in Columbus Township, Michigan

Parcels, Wells and the Belle River Valley

Columbus Township covers about 37 square miles, two-thirds of it zoned agricultural, and the 2020 census counted 4,112 residents. St. Clair Township lies to the east, Casco Township to the south, and the City of Richmond touches its western edge. Ponds are one of the township's typical building permits, and the master plan asks for natural buffers along the Belle River and its tributaries. On a lot that slopes to a pond or the river, the diluted runoff is kept out of the water and out of any ditch that feeds it.

The township's 2012 master plan found no public water or sanitary sewer here. Homes drew from private wells and drained to septic fields, and the plan warned that many wells have very limited flow. A two-story house wash runs through roughly 200 to 500 gallons in two to four hours. The rig draws 4 to 8 gallons a minute while rinsing and almost nothing while the solution dwells, and those pauses let a slow well recover. Our water-use guide breaks the numbers down by job.

The ground is nearly level glacial-lake clay that drains slowly. Rain off the eaves splashes that clay onto the bottom foot or two of siding, and the stain sets as it dries. In the northern part of the township, the same plan counted only Rattle Run Rd and Bauman Rd as paved, with gravel on the rest. Passing traffic lifts dust onto the walls facing the road. A surfactant pre-treatment loosens both films before a low-pressure rinse carries them off.

Salt is a frontage problem in Columbus Township. I-⁠94 crosses only the southeast corner, near exit 257 on the Casco line, so the spray that reaches siding comes mostly off Gratiot Ave, the main paved arterial. Homes fronting Gratiot Ave near Snyderville and the hamlet of Belle River collect a gray winter film of salt and tire grime on the road side. A degreasing pre-treatment and a short dwell lift that film before the rinse, as our road-film guide explains, and the back walls usually need only a plain wash.

1990s Growth, Farmhouses and Manufactured Homes

The median home here was built in 1992, younger than in the river towns. Of about 1,621 homes, 324 went up in the 1990s, as the population rose from about 3,200 to 4,615, and 370 more in the 2000s. Where a woodlot shades one of those roofs, dark streaks appear, often from the algae Gloeocapsa magma. A no-pressure treatment clears it, repeated every three to five years.

Another 418 homes date from the 1970s and 1980s, and about 160 from 1939 or earlier, a census count with a wide margin. Outside the eight recorded plats, such as Arlington Woods, Pine Woods Meadows and Cold Springs Farms, most homes sit on parcel splits facing a county road. On a split, the road side takes gravel dust or Gratiot Ave film, a wall open to field dries fast, and a wall toward a woodlot holds dew and greens first, so each wall gets its own mix. On a pre-1978 farmhouse, a wash leaves sound paint where it is. Peeling paint is pointed out, never blasted off: removing over 20 square feet outside is lead-safe work under EPA's RRP rule.

About one home in five, 300 by census estimate, is a manufactured home, and Pinewood on the Lake, on Gratiot Ave south of Big Hand Rd, is the township's one manufactured housing community. Skirting panels, vents and the seams between factory panels are where a direct jet pushes water into the wall or under the home. These homes get a low-pressure soft wash that spares those points, from the same $349.