Soft Washing in St. Clair Shores
Siding in St. Clair Shores is not dirtier than siding in Roseville. It is wetter, for more hours of every day, and that is the difference soft washing is built for. The solution kills algae and mildew where they root instead of shaving the green layer off the top and leaving the rest.
Lake St. Clair does not splash the houses here. It changes the air. A wall a few blocks inland in Roseville might dry by nine in the morning, while the same siding on a canal plat off Jefferson Ave sits in fog until noon, and on the lakeside streets between Veterans Memorial Park and Blossom Heath Park an east wind carries spray and damp air well past the first row of homes and into the side streets. Algae and mildew grow only while a surface is wet, so the extra damp hours compound into a wall that greens in half the time.
Canals concentrate the effect. Fourteen miles of them thread the plats around the Nautical Mile, and the air between close-set canal homes barely moves, so the water-facing siding grows a band of algae at mid-wall that the street side never gets. Under the 60-to-70-year-old street trees on the grid, north walls in the Lakeview Public Schools and South Lake Schools sections show the same film for a different reason: shade instead of fog. Either way the growth roots into the siding texture, and a rinse alone leaves the root behind to regrow by the end of the same summer.
Soft washing puts a sodium hypochlorite solution, mixed for the material and buffered with a surfactant, on the wall at low pressure and lets it dwell. The biology dies, the rinse at garden-hose pressure lifts it, and the wall starts its next cycle from zero instead of from survivors. On the canals that holds two to three years on the water-facing wall, and a sunny front on the grid goes longer. Pricing starts at $349 for a full house, a single green wall can be booked on its own, and the crew is about 20 minutes from its Clinton Township base on Hall Rd.
Dwell, Kill, Rinse
We start by noting which walls face the canal or the lake and which sit under the trees, then pre-wet the beds and cover anything that should stay dry. The solution goes on from the ground at low pressure, reaching the eaves of a second story without a ladder on the siding. It dwells for ten to fifteen minutes while the algae and mildew die, and the crew watches the wall change color as it works. The rinse follows from the top down at garden-hose pressure, angled toward the lawn on a canal lot. Brick fronts get a milder mix, the aluminum trim gets its own pre-treatment, and a typical Shores ranch is done in about two hours.
Where a Canal Wall Gets Damaged
The damage on the canals usually comes from treating a soft-wash job like a pressure job. A rented machine at close range shears the algae off, leaves wand marks in the vinyl, and drives water up behind the laps, and the roots it left behind put the green back by the end of the summer. The other failure is one mix for every band: house-wash solution will not touch the rust bleed below a dock cleat, and it is too strong for a seawall cap that is already losing mortar. Read the bands first and the wall lasts.
Timing It Right
Canal-facing walls are the first in the city to green each spring, so the earliest bookings in April are almost all on the plats off Jefferson Ave. The grid follows in May as the canopy leafs out and the north walls lose their sun. A refresh after the fish-fly hatch in late June is common on the lakeside streets. Soft washing works in any frost-free month, and a fall wash holds through the winter because nothing grows in the cold.
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Soft Washing in St. Clair Shores: FAQs
Is soft washing the same thing as your house wash?
It is the method our house wash uses, so on siding the two words mean the same visit. Soft washing describes the pressure and the chemistry: solution applied low, allowed to dwell, rinsed at garden-hose force. It has its own page because canal owners ask for it by name for a single green wall, a fence or a shed.
How many seasons does a canal wall hold after a soft wash?
Two to three years is typical on the water side, and longer on walls that get sun and wind. The water-facing elevation runs a year ahead of the street side on every canal home we see, so some owners book that one wall on its own cycle between full washes. Killing the root is what makes even the shorter number possible.
What is in the solution, and is it safe near the lake?
Sodium hypochlorite, the active in household bleach, mixed for the material with a surfactant so it clings and rinses clean. It breaks down to salt and water within hours of contact. We still keep it out of the canal by choice: beds are pre-wet and rinsed, runoff is steered toward the lawn, and nothing is sprayed over the seawall.
My north wall on the grid is green but the canal is a mile away. Same fix?
Yes. Shade does the same work as fog: the wall stays wet longer, and the growth roots in. On the grid between Harper Ave and Jefferson Ave the 60-to-70-year-old street trees keep north walls damp until late morning, and soft washing holds two to three years there. Trimming a branch or two off the north side buys extra time.
More in St. Clair Shores
Deeper reading: Why Homes Near the Water Grow Mildew So Much Faster and Soft Washing vs. Power Washing: Which Does Your Home Need?.
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