Soft washing is how exterior walls should be cleaned in Santa Fe: low pressure, the right solution, adequate dwell time, and a gentle rinse. It handles the organic growth and film that pressure cannot remove without damage — and on stucco and adobe it is the only appropriate method.
Quick answer
Soft wash kills mildew, algae, and bacteria on exterior surfaces using low pressure (~500 PSI) and a biocidal cleaning solution.
The checklist is the same everywhere. What is on your glass is not. These are the conditions that actually shape this job in Santa Fe — each one is true here and false in plenty of other towns we serve.
Stucco and adobe are porous by design — they are supposed to breathe. High pressure drives water past the surface into the assembly behind it, and it does not dry out from there. The result appears weeks or months later as blistering, staining, or a moisture problem that gets blamed on something else. Soft washing puts the work on the chemistry instead of the force, which cleans more thoroughly and leaves the wall intact. In Santa Fe this is not a preference, it is the correct method.
On nearly every Santa Fe property, the north and shaded elevations carry visible organic growth while the sunny sides look fine. Shade holds moisture, and moisture grows algae and mildew on any surface that will hold it. Pressure removes the visible layer and leaves the biology, so it returns fast. A soft wash with the correct solution kills the growth rather than just knocking it off, which is why the result lasts a season or two instead of a few months.
Flat and parapet roofs across Santa Fe drain through canales — spouts that channel an entire roof's water through one point and drop it down the outside wall. There are no gutters on those buildings to clean. What they do need is canale and scupper clearing before monsoon season, because a blocked canale puts roof water where it does not belong. Where that water column passes a window, it also leaves a hard narrow stain that returns every storm until the drainage is addressed, not the glass.
Santa Fe sits at 7,199 feet with genuine snow load, and that changes what winter does to a window. Meltwater carrying dissolved mineral runs across glass during the day and refreezes overnight in the glass-to-frame joint, stressing seals and driving deposits into the edge where they are hardest to reach. Ice dams push water back under roofing and down into window heads — the stain a homeowner notices at the top of a frame in February usually started as a drainage problem in October. We do not put water on exterior glass below about 35 degrees here, and we schedule around freeze windows rather than forcing them.
Low-pressure (~500 PSI) wash of every exterior surface — vinyl, fiber-cement (Hardie), stucco, painted wood, brick, masonry. Hardware-friendly: trim, gutters, soffit, and fascia all included.
Biocide application — sodium hypochlorite-based solution (the standard for soft-wash) that kills mildew, algae, lichen, and the black/green biological staining you see on shaded north-facing walls.
Plant and lawn protection — surfactant rinse during application, then full rinse-down at the end so nothing carries to your landscape.
Window pre-coat — we coat windows with plain water before the biocide so any drift doesn't streak the glass. We can also include the windows in the same trip — soft wash + window cleaning is a popular combo.
Optional add-ons: deck soft-wash, fence soft-wash, full-property bundle with driveway pressure wash.
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Plant covers, lawn pre-rinse, window pre-coat (plain water). Pets indoors. We tape any wall outlets or vents that need protection.
Top-down soft-wash with the biocidal solution. Dwell time 5-15 minutes — long enough to kill the biological staining, not long enough to damage paint.
Plain-water rinse from top to bottom to remove all solution and dead biological material. We watch for any streaking and re-apply if needed.
Walk-around to confirm clean coverage, plants and lawn rinsed, no overspray on neighbors. Before/after photos emailed.
Most Santa Fe properties land between $405 and $910 for this service. That band is derived from real Santa Fe jobs, not a national average — which is why it differs from the number you would see on our page for a neighboring town. Here is how the job profiles break down:
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Historic village corridor southwest of downtown with older adobe and acequia-fed lots inside a growing commercial strip.
Acequia Madre, Camino del Monte Sol, Garcia Street; original adobe with irreplaceable glass and lime plaster — hand cleaning only, no poles and no pressure.
Gallery row. Storefront glass that has to be spotless at opening, north-facing display windows, and a foot-traffic schedule that means early-morning service.
Converted warehouse and modern commercial glass with big storefront spans; the district's newer buildings have the largest uninterrupted panes in the city.
Institutional and residential mix at the top of the ridge, fully exposed south and west — the strongest UV load in town on the biggest windows.
Large custom homes northwest of town, mostly on well water with high hardness and expansive glass framing the Jemez views; usually quarterly.
See every neighborhood and the full local guide on our Santa Fe window cleaning page.
Colorado's freeze-thaw cycle is brutal on siding and stucco — water gets into hairline cracks during the day and freezes at night, expanding the cracks and creating perfect conditions for algae and mildew to colonize. Annual soft-wash kills the colonization at the root.
North-facing walls get little direct sun and stay damp longer after snow or rain — that's where Front Range homes show the worst biological staining. Soft-wash is the only safe way to clean these surfaces without damaging the substrate.
Heavy hail (Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland) — hail-dimpled siding catches more biological growth in the dimples. Post-hail soft-wash slows the colonization significantly.
Pressure washing uses force; soft washing uses chemistry at low pressure. Hard surfaces like Santa Fe driveways and walks take pressure fine. Walls — stucco, adobe — should never take it, because pressure drives water into the assembly where it causes damage that shows up later. Soft washing cleans those surfaces more thoroughly and does not put moisture where it does not belong.
A season to two years depending on exposure. North and shaded elevations regrow first because they hold moisture. The reason a soft wash lasts longer than a pressure wash is that the solution kills the organic growth rather than just removing what is visible — pressure leaves the biology behind and it comes back within months.
Soft wash uses low pressure (~500 PSI) and a biocidal cleaning solution. Pressure wash uses high pressure (~3,000 PSI) and mechanical force. Soft-wash is for siding, stucco, painted wood — anything that high pressure could damage. Pressure wash is for concrete, brick, and other durable hard surfaces.
Most homes run $300–$800. A typical 2-story 2,000 sqft home is $400–$550. Bundling with window cleaning saves 10-15% on both. Larger homes (3,000+ sqft) or full-property bundles run higher.
No, when done properly. We pre-rinse plants and lawn before applying the biocide, use a surfactant during application, and do a full final rinse so nothing accumulates. Plants are the same green color when we leave as when we arrived.
It kills the current colonization completely. New algae will eventually colonize again — typically 12-18 months in Colorado, faster on north-facing walls in shaded yards. Annual or bi-annual soft wash keeps it at bay.
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