Pressure washing costs in Chicago

If your Chicago house is brick, the wand is the thing to be careful with. The Historic Chicago Bungalow Association puts it plainly: never sandblast brick or limestone. Its advice for cleaning masonry is a gentle power washer set between 200 and 600 psi, and the gentlest process that does the job. Once the hard outer face of a brick or a piece of limestone is broken, the association says, that unit can't be saved.

That's worth knowing if you own a bungalow, a two-flat or a greystone. A garage slab or a gangway takes far more pressure than that range, so one setting won't fit your whole lot. When someone quotes your house, ask what pressure they'll use on the walls and what they'll use on the concrete. The association also says to pull ivy and vines off first, because they hook into mortar and pump water into the wall.

Spray paint is its own case. Chicago's Department of Streets and Sanitation runs blast trucks that use baking soda under high water pressure on brick, stone and other mineral surfaces, and paint trucks that cover tags on metal or wood. If someone tags your garage or your wall, call 311 first: the department removes graffiti from private property for free.