Soft Washing in Fort Gratiot Township

Picture a vinyl wall on a lot in the southwest of the township, with woods behind it. The master plan places some of its most extensive woodlands here, and the soil survey puts this corner, south of Keewahdin Rd and west of Pine Grove Ave, on Wainola-Deford soils, which drain slowly and hold a high seasonal water table. After rain the ground under that wall stays wet, and the air beside it stays humid. Algae grows while the siding is damp, and on the shaded face of this house that lasts most of a summer morning. Gray-black mildew joins it on the bottom course, where splashback from the wet soil keeps the siding wettest.

The National Wetlands Inventory puts most of the township's wetland in Sections 4, 5, 9, 16, 17, 20 and 21, and the flood map runs floodplain along the Brace Drain in Section 9 and the Brandymore-Howe Drain in Sections 17, 18 and 20 through 22. A house beside that low ground has two problems at once: walls that dry late, and wash water with a short path to a wetland or drain. A weak sodium hypochlorite mix, with a surfactant to hold it on the siding, kills the algae and mildew where they sit, so the rinse needs about the force of a garden hose, which is easy to keep out of a wetland or drain.

Along Lakeshore Rd the ground changes. The Eastport-Wainola-Tobico soils there lie in old beach ridges and the troughs between them, about a mile inland from Lake Huron, and the soil survey rates them anywhere from well drained to poorly drained. One house can sit on dry ridge sand while the next has damp trough ground under its back wall. The eastern woodlands add shade near the lake, so these houses tend to green on the side the sun reaches last. Our guide to why one side of a house turns green covers that shade pattern, and the drive of about 50 minutes up I-⁠94 from our Clinton Township shop carries no travel fee.

Why a Woods-Facing Wall Greens Up Again

Blasting a damp, woods-facing wall with plain water takes off the color but leaves living algae in the siding texture, and on these slow-drying lots it can be back by the next fall. The pressure also drives water up behind vinyl laps and into brick joints, where it dries slowly on a wall that already sits beside wet ground. Too strong a mix causes the other common failure. It browns foundation shrubs, and if the rinse runs into a roadside ditch it carries chlorine toward a wetland or drain.

When to Book Soft Washing in Fort Gratiot Township

April through November works for soft washing here. Booked for late April or May, a wash removes the winter growth before the humid weeks of summer spread it. On a wall facing the southwest woods or the Black River floodplain, plan on a repeat in about two to three years. A sunny wall on an open farm lot in the northwest lasts longer, and a lake-side house with open exposure falls in between.