What happened to my shiny new house?

Hi, I'm Barry Hagendorf of Deck and Patio Care. With 18 years of experience, I have become the expert on how to care for decks, fences, flagstone, and pebblestone. My expertise is cleaning and sealing exterior surfaces and exterior and interior painting.

When you buy a new house everything looks new, but after four plus years, everything outside slowly fades to a tired dirty look. Nature has gradually planted dust, mold and mildew spores on all of the items that you own. I say, clean it up!

Let's start at the front curb. A simple cleaning aide is Clorox. The chemical in it is sodium hypo chloride or hypo. Hypo is the best natural mildicide known to man. With a pump up sprayer, apply straight hypo to the curb, driveway, front entry and walk. This alone will get rid of 90% of the ugly gray, dingy look. With the help of hypo, followed by a few good rains, surfaces will be even cleaner. Using a power washer after hypo is always a plus.

Now, let's look at the house fascia, soffett, and flat areas. You'll see the same dust and mold growing. Spraying hypo on your entire house from the eaves down the brick to the foundation will do wonders. Use a diluted ratio of three parts water to one part hypo on most areas.

On these solid black, moldy areas of your home, you may need to use straight hypo. After applying, flush with water. Always protect plants and grass from coming in contact with hypo. First, wet plants with water, then cover plants and grass with plastic.

Next, spray the house with hypo. Finally, rinse the house with water, remove plastic and rinse plants. You'll love your home again. It may even look like a new paint job.