To think that there is no need to pressure wash the great outdoors to within an inch of its life?

[bigbluebus]

The house behind us owns a pressure washer. They wash the cars with it and last year cleaned the patio and path with it. Today they seem to have hired a man with an industrial strength pressure washer who has been cleaning the drive/path/patio for at least 5 hours now with the resultant noise. It's 30° here and people have their windows open - some are still WFH. Their neighbour opposite them also owns a noisy pressure washer and uses it frequently. They are 2 rows of houses away with a street in between and the noise can be heard inside my house when they use it.
I usually wash my car with a bucket and sponge and an ordinary hose pipe or drive it up the road where a team of chaps will clean it for a fiver. My patio has not been pressure washed in the 29 years I've lived here and it is absolutely fine - it looks like an outdoor surface!
So AIBU to think that this obsession with pressure washing the outdoors is totally unnecessary and unacceptable from a) a noise perspective and b) it is environmentally bad due to chemicals, electricity usage and a waste of water? (All these houses are on water meters)

It should be really fast to use one to wash a car, I think anyone who needs hours to do it is doing it wrong 😂

@tarapinn

I LOVE my Karcher!!

I hoovered the patio just outside the back door the other day too!
The door was open when I was hoovering so I just sucked up some small leaves. So much quicker than faffing around with a dust pan and brush.

Why would you hoover up some small leaves that were outside? If you didn't like them on your patio, just brush them off surely (with a hand! No equipment needed)...why hoover them up into a hoover bag?

Some people hoover their fake grass too.

No wonder the ecosystem is fucked

@Menora

It should be really fast to use one to wash a car, I think anyone who needs hours to do it is doing it wrong 😂

This is kind of the point isn't it, that most people have managed to miss. I've got no issue with using a power washer to clean your patio or car, we use ours to clean the car and the slabs in our garden. But unless you own a palace and a fleet of cars, taking 5 hours to do this is either showing you're an idiot that can't work a simple machine, also doesn't know how to clean, or you're very boring and have nothing better to do. Should take an hour to do that, at max. But 5? Jesus christ, surprised there was any stone left to clean and that the cars paintwork hadn't been peeled off.

This obsession with chemicals you use products to clean your own car. They’re chemicals! Fairy liquid for your dishes? Chemicals. Shampoo?

I couldn’t scrub anything on my hands and knees because of a back injury. I can pressure was though. And it doesn’t use any chemicals just water.

I do applaud the advertising algorithm on this thread though. Well done.

It takes around 6 hours to do both my drive and patio. I do know how to use my pressure wash and clean effectively but it is a large area to cover. I could easily get 6 cars on my drive plus I have a wall retaining the soil of a large flower bed. It is much better to use just water from a power wash to jet clean it and remove any weeds growing between the pavers than to use chemicals in such a large area. My drive and patio are both build to be porous so the water used doesn’t go down the drain but into the soil underneath.
A pressure wash uses water really efficiently and per minute uses 75% less water than a garden hose. So the lack of the need for chemicals and the water saving makes using a jet wash the most environmentally friendly way of cleaning a large area.

Agree. So antisocial and bad for the environment - along with outdoor heaters I don’t know why they’re legal.

There's just been a chap from our area water company on our local BBC radio appealing for people not to use pressure washers in this hot weather in order to save water!

Are they also appealing for people not to water their gardens, file those large free standing paddling pools or hot tubs because all these will use about the same amount of water as me jet washing my patio.

@bigbluebus

There's just been a chap from our area water company on our local BBC radio appealing for people not to use pressure washers in this hot weather in order to save water!

Of course there has, there'll be a fucking drought soon. Why do people have to be told this every bloody year?

Ours gets used a couple of times a year to do the patio. Guy next door uses his every bloody week to do individually every single ornament in his garden.

@Proudboomer

Are they also appealing for people not to water their gardens, file those large free standing paddling pools or hot tubs because all these will use about the same amount of water as me jet washing my patio.

No but I think watering your plants and letting kids have a paddling pool in this weather definitely takes priority over pressure washing your car/driveway/patio - all of which can wait until the weather cools down and we get some more rain!

I only do it when the postman complains he's nearly gone tits up on the driveway - so usually once a year, around November after all the leaves have fallen and made it slippy.

@MikeWozniaksGloriousTache not to mention the bucket of dihydrogen monoxide the OP is using to wash their car.

I used a jet/pressure washer Monday morning to clean some patio furniture that were is desperate need of cleaning. I'd already tried scrubbing them, using chemicals, using magic sponges and everything else I'd read inline. They didn't work. These chairs and table had been outside for years without a full wash.

An hour and half with a pressure washer and they look like new - yes, they are noisy.

I chose mid morning to lunch time as the time to do it as thought people would be more likely to use their gardens for lunch, afternoon and evening. I also deliberately didn't use the weekend as people are more likely to be outdoors, so I did consider other people and when they were more likely to want to be outside enjoying their gardens.

By the way - anyone with 'Astroturf' or artificial grass (they are different products) - don't use a pressure washer in them. It will wash away the sand and other stuff used underneath the grass and cause potential damage. It's one of the things you're told about.

As for 'elbow grease' - I tried that and it didn't work. Plus the elbow grease makes my arthritis in my elbow very painful. The pressure washer did a bit but not to the same extent.

And the 'car chaps down the round for a fiver' - probably still using some for of jet wash for parts of the car wash, also known to encourage modern day slavery, and the chaps are probably not even taking home minimum wage. It'd cost a lot more than a fiver to avoid some of those pitfalls from such outlets.

@Proudboomer

It takes around 6 hours to do both my drive and patio. I do know how to use my pressure wash and clean effectively but it is a large area to cover. I could easily get 6 cars on my drive plus I have a wall retaining the soil of a large flower bed. It is much better to use just water from a power wash to jet clean it and remove any weeds growing between the pavers than to use chemicals in such a large area. My drive and patio are both build to be porous so the water used doesn’t go down the drain but into the soil underneath. A pressure wash uses water really efficiently and per minute uses 75% less water than a garden hose. So the lack of the need for chemicals and the water saving makes using a jet wash the most environmentally friendly way of cleaning a large area.

6 hours to do one drive?! It's a big drive sure, but I have space here for 4 cars, two more wouldn't take much longer and I could probably do the whole thing in half an hour. You must be taking a ton of breaks or you're really wasting a ton of time.

Plus 6 hours of water usage, no matter how much water a power washer saves, is still a shit ton of water. No matter how you want to try and word it.

No chemicals used in the Karcher pressure washer. It was just simply water.

If this is an annual job then yabu. We have to do our patio decking and the walls every year as it turns green over winter due to lack of sun. Also don’t underestimate how long it actually takes to clean it properly due to working in small sections and dependant on size.

So if the washer has been going for five hours already imagine how long it would take by hand. My patio is quite large so I’d be there for days cleaning it with a broom and a bucket of soapy water"…….. I ain’t got time for that shit!

My neighbour jet washes his patio and fence at least once per month. The water slices through the fence at high pressure, damages our plants and brings all his filth through to our garden. I've spoken to him about it more than once but he still does it. Asshole.

I'm surprised you're so comfortable supporting slavery. Not sure why you think that's preferable to washing a car yourself.

@IsobelEd

My neighbour jet washes his patio and fence at least once per month. The water slices through the fence at high pressure, damages our plants and brings all his filth through to our garden. I've spoken to him about it more than once but he still does it. Asshole.

I used to have this when my neighbour's over zealous grandson was let loose with the jet wash. I asked them to let me know when they'd be doing it so I could take any washing off the line.

He also did the path outside our houses which splattered my car (just cosmetic but would have been so easy to ask me to move it), and breached the double glazing resulting in a fine mist between the glass.

She is no longer there, the grandson is a grown man, I have new windows and doors anyway, so it's all just a distant memory.

In terms of patios I’ve had it is dirt and grime build up. It comes off the roof, from the trees, from the chimney, from the plant pots and build sup over th year, I’ve no desire to sit in the flower beds and eat my lunch and have a drink and I am the same with the patio. If the grass was covered in dirt I’d not sit in that either, I’d sit in a bit that was just grass

I get it completely that some cleaning is needed. What I don't understand is people who pressure-wash compulsively so that it looks as if the patio has just been laid, and who believe that the slightest bit of garden dirt in the garden is dreadful. There's a happy medium.

I agree. Waste of electricity and water. Pressure washes are toys for people with more money than sense and prove companies can flog us anything (and yes, I do have one).

We sit out there a lot and don’t like sitting looking at a minging patio.
What does that even mean? Do you think the pavement is minging? I don't believe anyone pressure washes that.

@Kendodd

I agree. Waste of electricity and water. Pressure washes are toys for people with more money than sense and prove companies can flog us anything (and yes, I do have one).

We sit out there a lot and don’t like sitting looking at a minging patio.
What does that even mean? Do you think the pavement is minging? I don't believe anyone pressure washes that.

They use electricity but for me, it’s not a waste because I physically can’t scrub the massive wood pigeon shits and moss off. Water, not always. A lot of modern ones use less water than a hose.

Considering dogs piss on it and people walk all over it I would say the pavement is minging. I like walking around barefoot in the garden, I wouldn’t dare do that on our pavements.

@Kendodd If I borrow one am I able to be judged less please?