How to Clean Soffit Vents (Featuring Power Washer)

If you’ve never tried cleaning your soffit vents with a power washer before, we’ll teach you. Our guide focuses on how to clean soffit vents only using your pressure washer.

Soffit vents, although easily one of the most important parts of your home, is also one of the hardest parts to clean. If you’re looking for an easy way to clean soffit vents, then you best use your pressure washer to do it. 

Of course, you need to learn how to clean soffit vents before you go ahead and do this. You see, soffit vents are rather fragile which is why they’re difficult to clean in the first place. So, if you want to clean soffit vents in the attic, bring out your 1800 psi power washer and follow the steps we’ve provided below: 

What Is Soffit Vent?

Before you learn how to clean soffit vents, you must first understand what a soffit vent is and how it works. Just to give you an idea, a soffit vent is actually a French word pertaining to “something that is fixed underneath.”

That’s why you can usually find soffit vents at the side corners of the roof underneath the porches or columns. They can sometimes be found under stairs or arches. However, it’s mostly found in the roof overhang. As for its purpose, its main function is to protect your rafters from rain. Rafters that get hit by rain water or snow often grow molds, which is not good for your health. The soffit vents prevent the growth of mold or algae. 

Other than that, soffit vents also distribute airflow to your attic. While regulating proper airflow, it also decreases moisture from the ventilation system. 

Dos and Don’ts When Cleaning Soffit Vents with Power Washer

Now that you understand how soffit vents work, we can now proceed to learning the ways on how to clean out soffit vents. Since we like to keep things simple, we perceive the fastest way to clean soffit vents as the best way to clean soffit vents. That said, we’ll be learning about the do’s and don’ts and cleaning soffit vents with a pressure washer.

Do’s

• Soak the Vent

Before anything, you need to soak your vent first. This is done in order to rinse any dirt or debris in the vent. It is only after a good soaking that you can clean it well. 

• Use Detergent

Most of the time, you’ll be dealing with mold and mildew. For that, water alone won’t be able to cut it. You need to use detergent when you pressure wash so that you can force the mold or mildew out.

• Spray from Side to Side

The best way to hit all areas of your vent is to start from one section and spray from side to side. After that, go on to the next section and do that again.

• Clean the Inside

Lastly, make sure that you clean the insides of your soffit vent by spraying right into the vent. However, do not soak it too much as you want to avoid having too much water in the vent. 

Now that we’re done with the do’s of how to clean attic soffit vents, let’s move on to some of the don’ts.

Don’ts

• Start with a Strong Nozzle

You may be tempted to spray with strong pressure at the get-go. However, you should always start with a weak pressure nozzle. As mentioned above, you’ll want to minimize the water you spray into the vent. 

• Spray Directly at the Soffit Vent

We always recommend that you never spray directly at the soffit vent as this may damage it. That’s why we suggest you always spray side to side so the water concentration won’t be so strong. Just focus on the parts near the vent and don’t stick to one part for too long. 

• Use a Ladder

Never ever use a ladder when you clean with an electric pressure washer. Since soffit vents are near the roof, you may be tempted to climb up to clean soffit vents from attic. However, doing this will only put you in danger. The power from the pressure washer may throw you off balance and cause an accident. 

Conclusion

Those are the things to take note of when learning how to clean soffit vents. In order to make things easy, we listed the do’s and don’ts of cleaning these vents. That way, you know exactly what to do and what not to do. 

Hopefully, you find this article useful!