Soft Washing vs Pressure Cleaning Brisbane – What's the Difference?

I get asked this most weeks: what's actually the difference between soft washing and pressure cleaning, and which one does my house need? Short version — they're two different tools for two different jobs, and using the wrong one on the wrong surface is where people get into trouble.

Soft washing

Soft washing uses low water pressure combined with a chlorine-based, biodegradable detergent to break mould, mildew and dirt down chemically rather than blast it off. It's what I use on anything painted — weatherboard, render, eaves, fences — because it gets a proper clean without stripping paint or forcing water where it shouldn't go. An average house only takes around 260 litres this way; I've had customers check the meter before and after, and both times they were happy with how little was used.

Pressure cleaning

Pressure cleaning uses real force to strip built-up grime off hard surfaces — driveways, pathways, concrete steps, pool surrounds, tennis courts. Mouldy concrete gets genuinely slippery and dangerous, so putting real pressure behind the machine is exactly what that job needs. I still put a chlorine solution down first and let it work before I blast it — you can watch the mould change colour when it's ready.

So which do you need?

If it's painted, it's a soft wash. If it's concrete, pavers or anything you walk on, it's pressure cleaning. Most jobs I quote end up being a bit of both — house done with a soft wash, driveway and paths done with the pressure machine — which is why I quote the whole property rather than one method for everything.

Used the wrong way around, pressure cleaning is genuinely bad news for your paintwork — see why high pressure damages paint for the detail on what goes wrong.