Serving Commerce Township, MI
Pressure Washing in Commerce Township, MI
5.0 from 792 Google reviews
BeforePressure washing and soft washing around Commerce, Union, Long and Lower Straits lakes in Commerce Township. Well water leaves orange iron stains, lake-side walls stay shaded and damp, and long drives and decks round out the job.
Owner-operated in Northville since 2014
Local to Commerce Township
What Commerce Township does to your siding and concrete
Iron staining from private-well irrigation
Many Commerce Township homes are on private wells, and Oakland County well water is hard and often carries iron. Sprinkler overspray leaves an orange to brown band along the lower siding at spray height. It's chemically different from algae and needs a different treatment.
Cedar and composite decks over the water
Lake houses have big decks, and the material varies: cedar, older pressure-treated pine, and composite boards that scar for good if the pressure is wrong. One setting across a whole deck is how people end up with wand marks in composite that never come out.
Shaded lake sides that never dry
The side facing the water often faces north or east, sits in shade and picks up moisture from the lake. It grows green and black film faster than any other part of the house, and it needs to be treated at the root to stay clean through a season.
Our own photos
What the work looks like
Every photo on this site is a Glass Guru job. None of it is stock.
Wood privacy fence 
Before and afterGrey deck boards, then clean timber 
Soft wash, part-way through 
Window cleaningThe inside of a window wall 
Commercial window cleaningSkylight dome on a flat roof 
Before and afterGutter cleaningPacked with leaves, then cleared
Free quote
What needs washing?
Pressure washing in Michigan runs April through November, and the late spring and early fall dates go first.
Free quote
Tell us about the house
Siding, concrete and decks are each priced on their own.
Rather talk it through? Call (906) 203-6538
How your quote is worked out
Pressure washing is quoted per property.
How long it takes
How long a wash takes is set by the size and height of the house, how much growth is sitting on the shaded faces, and how much concrete and decking is included. The cleaner needs time to sit and kill the algae, so a proper soft wash can't be rushed.
In their words
What our clients say
Word for word from our Google profile.
More pressure washing reviews“Glass Guru did a wonderful job on the inside & outside of our windows, power washing, and cleaning the gutters.”
Glass Guru did a wonderful job on the inside & outside of our windows, power washing, and cleaning the gutters. We will definitely call them out again.
Review 1 of 4
Why it happens in Commerce Township
In Commerce Township, the orange stripe on the siding comes from the sprinklers
The sprinklers are painting it on. Many Commerce Township homes draw from private wells, and Oakland County well water is hard and often carries dissolved iron. Every watering cycle throws that water onto the lower siding. The water dries and the iron stays. Over a season it builds into an orange to brown band along the bottom of the wall, at the height the heads reach. It's iron, so the cleaner that handles green growth won't touch it. Iron staining needs its own treatment, and unless the heads get turned away from the house, it comes straight back next summer.
How we handle it in Commerce Township
- Iron and hard water stains from well-fed sprinklers treated as a separate step from the house wash.
- Siding, brick and stone washed with a cleaner and a low-pressure rinse, which keeps water out from behind the surface.
- Shaded lakeside walls treated at the root, since a north-facing wall over water stays damp far longer than one facing the street.
- Cedar and composite decking cleaned at a pressure matched to the material, and composite in particular handled gently because it scars.
- Long private drives and lake-lot walks done with a surface cleaner and priced on their actual area.
“They're perfect for window cleaning, gutters, power washing my dock etc.”
Questions
Pressure washing questions from Commerce Township homeowners
Can you remove the orange staining on my siding?
In most cases, yes. Iron staining from well-fed sprinklers is a surface deposit, and it comes off with a treatment made for iron. If it has built up over many seasons, it may only fade, and we'll tell you before you pay for it. We'll also show you which sprinkler head is causing it.
How much does pressure washing cost in Commerce Township?
A walkout lake lot is more work to wash than a house on flat ground, so access counts for a lot here. House washing is priced on wall area, long private drives on their actual area, and decks separately because the material changes the method. Send the address and we'll quote it properly.
Is pressure washing safe on a composite deck?
Not at high pressure. Composite boards scar, and the wand marks stay in the surface for good. We check what the deck is made of first, turn the pressure well down for composite, and test a board out of sight before we do the rest.
Why does the lake side of my house go green so much faster?
It's usually the shaded side, and it sits next to open water, so it stays damp for much more of the year than the street side. Treating the growth at the root keeps it off for a full season. On a lake wall that's always in shade, it will come back eventually, and it's better to know that going in.
Do you work on the lake roads and around Wolverine Lake?
Yes. Wolverine Lake is its own village inside Commerce Township, and we work there and around Commerce, Union, Long and Lower Straits lakes. Send the address and tell us what you'd like washed, and we'll reply with a quote.
Will my well water stain the house?
Check the bottom of the siding near the sprinkler heads. An orange or brown band at spray height is iron. Michigan's health department puts the staining level at 0.3 milligrams per liter, and a water test will tell you where your well sits. Aiming the heads away from the house stops new stains.
The detail
Pressure washing in Commerce Township, explained
Well water in Commerce Township
A lot of what makes outside cleaning different in Commerce Township comes back to the water. The township buys treated Lake Huron water from the regional system for the areas it serves, but many homes out here are on private wells, and that water is hard and frequently iron-rich. Run it through sprinklers aimed near the house and you get mineral and iron stains on the siding, brick, stone and the lower panes of the windows. Once you know to look for the band at spray height, you'll see it all over. It's treatable, and a fifteen-second turn of a sprinkler head keeps it from coming back.
Decks on Commerce Township lake lots
Lake properties have big decks, and deck material varies more than anything else on the lot. Cedar furrs if you push it. Older pressure-treated pine splinters. Composite boards look tough but are the easiest surface on the property to damage, because a high-pressure pass leaves wand marks in the surface texture that no later cleaning removes. We check the material, set the pressure to it, and try it on a hidden board first. It's slower, and it's the right way to do it.
Treating the shaded lake side
The side facing the water is the shaded one on many lots, and being next to a lake keeps the air around it humid. That wall grows green and black film faster than anything else on the property. A rinse takes off the top of the growth and leaves the roots, which is why it looks clean for a month and then looks the same again. A soft wash kills the growth so it comes off and stays off through a season, which is a realistic goal on a lake wall.
Iron by the numbers, and road salt
Michigan's health department says water with more than 0.3 milligrams per liter of iron can stain sinks, tubs and laundry, and siding stains the same way. When the U.S. Geological Survey and the Oakland County Health Division tested 38 county wells in 1998, water from 26 of them was over that limit, though about half the wells were picked because they'd had problems before. A 1987 USGS summary also found that southeast Michigan's groundwater tends to be harder and higher in iron than the rest of the Lower Peninsula.
The roads add salt. The Road Commission for Oakland County spreads an average of 64,000 tons a winter, about 400 pounds per two-lane mile, and the cars that use those roads carry it up long lake-lot driveways all season.
Scheduling pressure washing in Commerce Township
Several homes on one lake road can be washed the same day, so tell us if your neighbors are interested. The season runs April through November. Spring is the natural time for the house wash and the drive, and adding window cleaning or a gutter cleaning makes good use of one visit.
Where we work
Serving all of Commerce Township
We pressure wash and soft wash homes near Proud Lake Recreation Area, Union Lake, Long Lake, Commerce Township Community Library, and every neighborhood in between.
- Union Lake
- Commerce Lake
- Long Lake
- Lower Straits Lake
- Village of Wolverine Lake
Free quote
Get the green off the siding
Send us your Commerce Township address and tell us what you need, and we'll get back to you with a price.
More from Glass Guru
Pressure washing near Commerce Township
Pressure washing service areasBook it alongside
- Residential Window CleaningHouse first, then the windows, so nothing gets re-dirtied
- Gutter CleaningThe wash does the outside of the gutters; this clears the inside
- Commercial Window Cleaning
- New Construction Window Cleaning
- Christmas Light Installation
- Chandelier Cleaning
Glass Guru Window Cleaning is based in Northville and does pressure washing across Commerce Township, MI. Siding and brick at low pressure, concrete and decks at the pressure they can actually take. Read more about our pressure washing service, or see all seven things we clean.