The Power of Powerwashing

Let’s be clear, I now love power washing. It is one of the most satisfying tasks out there.  Summer in Maine is great, and yes, I’d rather be at the beach, but if you’re going to do house projects during the summer power washing should be at the top of your list. Here’s why — its outside, it’s wet, you can’t do it in the winter, so it’s the perfect summer task, and winter around here is LONG, there are immediate results, and finally if your kid is calling for you to find his missing Lego for the 20th time which is right next to him on the floor, you can’t hear him, which makes it the perfect task to do when you are home alone all day with your kid all summer.

I gave myself the project of power washing the front porch and back desk in preparation for staining. The front porch is a disaster and needs to be replaced. It has rot, it is painted, and is visible to all our neighbors, so I decided to start with it first. Based on the conversation I had with the friendly guys at Maine Paint (insert link) in SoPo while buying the paint for the kitchen trim, I was convinced that power washing the paint off the porch was going to be a cinch. He even said power washers can cut through metal! That old paint didn’t stand a chance against my big, bad power washer! Well, that paint is stronger that titanium because it wouldn’t budge. I mean, yes, I got some off, but it wasn’t like scraping melted butter off a warm piece of bread. I worked on it for a while and got frustrated at my lack of progress and decided to throw in the towel. According to Reed, this is a scraping job, followed by replacing rotted boards and then repainting. Talk about deflating my sails. Well, that sounds like a a lot of work to me to fix something I want to get rid of and use the space to expand our mud room into an expanded entrance/family room. As of today, the front porch looks the same as it did on July 1st.

After firing up my favorite power washer and giving the back deck some sprays, I knew the deck didn’t have a chance. That deck was covered in dirt, mold and general nastiness. All the hope I had for the front porch came to fruition on the back deck. I spent two afternoons, while Chase did god-knows what, inside (surely, there was a lot of PBS app watching and covert Angry Bird sessions), cleaning the grit and grime off the deck. And, that shit was fun. I am sure I didn’t do it as perfectly as Reed would have, if you look closely, the power washer did leave some inconsistencies in the wood but I don’t care, it look SO MUCH BETTER and I am proud of my work.

I’m buying a power washer. Look out, I am coming for your deck.