Pressure washing costs in Orlando

An Orlando house on a septic tank has one firm wash rule: the wash water stays out of the tank. The city's pressure-washing guidance, written for businesses and special events, says water caught during a wash must never be put into a septic system.

The rest of that guidance is about lakes. Orlando counts more than 100 of them, and City Code bans putting any pollutant into the lakes or into any part of the stormwater system, from the street and sidewalk to the retention pond. The city's pollution list names soaps among the household culprits, and it says that means the biodegradable kind too. If your crew's soft-wash mix has soap in it, that's what the list covers.

Septic itself is changing in parts of Orange County. The county's Wekiwa Springs Septic to Sewer Program, which started in summer 2021, is moving almost 2,000 homes off septic tanks and onto central sewer. The reason is the springs: the county says septic tanks have been identified as the source of 29 percent of the nitrogen in them, and that nitrogen feeds algae.

If your home is in that program's area, the timing matters. Once central sewer becomes available to your parcel, county ordinances and state rules give you one year to connect.