Power Washing in Washington Township, Michigan

Orchard Country, About 22 Minutes Up Van Dyke

Washington Township sits on the county's northern shoulder, about 22 minutes from our Clinton Township shop. Organized in 1827, it still covers 35.6 square miles, and its 28,165 residents (2020 census) are spread thin compared with the subdivision belt to the south. Van Dyke Ave, which is M-53, runs north to south as freeway and surface road. 26 Mile Rd is the southern line shared with Shelby Township, 28 Mile Rd runs through the Washington hamlet, and 31 Mile Rd and Mt. Vernon Rd cross the open farm ground to the north. Ray Township lies east, and a portion of the Village of Romeo sits inside the line at the top.

The land explains the work. The southwest corner is wooded and rolling because Stony Creek Metropark's 4,461 acres, its 500-acre Stony Creek Lake and its 6-mile paved loop sit mostly in Washington and Oakland townships. Mature oaks and maples there shade north walls, roof planes and decks well past noon, and creek-side and pond-side parcels hold morning humidity longest. Toward Van Dyke and the north the sky opens over former orchard and farm ground, and Westview Orchards & Cider Mill at 65075 Van Dyke, farmed since 1813 and now in its sixth generation, is why orchard country is a description here rather than a slogan.

Two things set Washington Township exteriors apart from the rest of Macomb. The first is water. Public GLWA water from Lake Huron runs along the serviced corridors, but the township confirms that many homes remain on private wells and septic, and well-fed sprinklers leave orange iron streaks and a white hardness haze on siding, brick and flatwork wherever the heads throw. The second is concrete. Long private drives and acres of stamped concrete came with the newer homes, and unsealed flatwork goes gray and loses its color under freeze-thaw within a few winters.

Every service below has its own Washington Township page, because the job changes with the lot: soft washing for the shaded walls near Stony Creek and the old wood in the hamlets, roof treatment under the overhanging limbs, iron-stain removal below the sprinkler heads, and cleaning plus penetrating sealer on the long drives before the next freeze. Pricing is published, there is no travel fee at any distance, and a written quote, itemized surface by surface, is back within 24 hours.

Farmhouses, Orchard-Ground Two-Stories and Acreage Homes

The oldest exteriors are the 1800s farmhouses and hamlet homes around Washington, Mount Vernon and the Romeo village edge. The Octagon House, built between 1858 and 1860, is the landmark version, but the same original wood siding and trim show up on ordinary houses along 28 Mile Rd and Mt. Vernon Rd. That wood is worked only with soft washing: a mild solution, a long dwell and a rinse no stronger than rain, so paint that is sound stays sound and the boards never take on water.

The newer, larger homes and subdivisions were carved from former orchard and farm ground, and their materials repeat lot after lot: a brick front, vinyl on the upper stories, a long stamped or decorative concrete drive, and walks and a patio to match. The vinyl uppers green up on the north side about a decade in, the brick fronts catch iron and hardness from well-fed sprinklers, and the stamped concrete needs a penetrating sealer every three to five years or the color goes first and the surface follows.

The acreage homes sit far back off the road behind long private drives, many of them on the wooded, rolling ground toward Stony Creek Metropark. Those lots carry the heaviest canopy, the longest driveways and the multi-level wood and composite decks that go with a big yard, and the trees run the calendar: gutters twice a year, roof treatment beneath the overhanging limbs, and deck work in the dry weeks of high summer.