The exterior of the home can get overlooked a lot. Chores often focus on the interior of the home, but exterior home care matters just as much, specifically for areas like your siding. Cleaning your siding keeps your home looking good and your siding operating efficiently. Having said that, you have to have the right cleaning approach for your home’s specific siding. Here are the best ways to care for every siding type, so you know how to proceed when it comes to caring for yours.

How to Care for Vinyl Siding

Vinyl siding is the most affordable type of siding and is quite durable. If you have vinyl siding, you’ll find that proper care isn’t too difficult. We recommend just wiping it down with soap and water every so often to prevent buildup from causing issues. If it does need a deep clean, make sure to leave that to the experts. Pressure washing it incorrectly could lead to water damage and broken siding.

How to Care for Wood Siding

Let’s imagine that you’ve invested a lot in the exterior of your home, and you have wooden siding or engineered wood siding. How should you care for it? If you’re just cleaning mold or other contaminants off, you can use water and bleach to scrub off the buildup and rinse it off. Otherwise, caring for your wood siding often entails applying water-resistant sealant and repainting or restaining the wood. As with the care guidance above, leave this to the experts if you’re unsure what you’re doing. At best, you have a bad paint job. At worst, you’ve left your siding exposed to moisture and pests.

How to Care for Fiber Cement Siding

There’s not much more required for fiber cement if you want to clean it, even though it’s different from the materials above. A soft brush and some warm water are more than enough to keep your home looking spic and span. Aside from this, the only real concerns are touching it up every so often when parts start to peel and caulking any areas that could let air and water into your home (basically, doors and windows).

How to Care for Metal or Aluminum Siding

Wash all metal siding with a soft cloth and some water and dish soap. If your paint is starting to chip away or fade, you can use some exterior paint designed for your metal siding. Denting is another concern, but you may be able to take care of these on your own if they’re small enough. If denting is significant, you can have a professional come out to take care of it.

Different types of siding will have different vulnerabilities, thereby requiring different approaches to care. Make sure you’re caring for your siding properly with the guide above! If you live in Long Island, NY or a surrounding area and need siding services, make your first call to King Quality.