Most Randolph-Robertson ranches wear three claddings at once — brick across the front, painted lap siding on the gables, stucco or T1-11 on a later garage. Each one stains differently here: a hard sprinkler band low on the walls, green algae on the shaded north side, chalked paint where the west sun hits.
Drive Randolph-Robertson and you see the same three claddings over and over: brick or brick veneer across the front third of the house, painted wood lap siding or board-and-batten on the gable ends and side walls, and a strip of stucco or later T1-11 on a garage addition. Very few of these ranches were built with vinyl — vinyl here is a replacement, usually one wall someone re-sided after a remodel. That mix matters because it can't all be washed the same way. Brick takes soap and a rinse without complaint. Sixty-year-old painted lap siding does not; it wants low pressure, a longer dwell, and a rinse that runs down the lap instead of driving up under it. We change the mix wall by wall on the same house instead of running one setting around the whole thing.
Almost every ranch on this stretch of the Bench with an original in-ground system has a sprinkler line — a hard, chalky band roughly eighteen inches to three feet up the wall where heads have been throwing water at siding for years. Valley irrigation water is hard and often carries fine silt, and afternoon sun bakes it onto the wall. That band is not dirt, and it does not come off with soap and a rinse. It needs a dedicated mineral treatment worked into the band and given time to sit, and on painted wood some of it has etched into the paint film — it will lighten, not vanish. We'll tell you which one you have at the estimate. The permanent fix is usually moving or swapping two heads, which costs less than washing the same stripe every spring.
The north and northeast walls are where the green shows. These ranches have short eaves — often twelve to eighteen inches on a 3:12 roof — so the shaded side of the house gets almost no drying sun from October through April, and the mature street trees over these low rooflines keep it damper still. What grows there is a green-black algae film, heaviest in the bottom four feet and under window sills where the wall stays wettest longest. Pressure will strip it, and it will strip the paint with it. We soft-wash instead: a surfactant and sodium hypochlorite mix applied at low pressure, left to dwell, then rinsed. That kills the organism rather than knocking the visible layer off, which is why it stays clean for a couple of seasons instead of greening up again by spring.
South and west walls have the opposite problem. Full Treasure Valley sun on paint that may be two or three repaint cycles old breaks down the binder, and the pigment powders off the surface — rub the wall and your hand comes away white or beige. Homeowners read that dull, faded look as dirt and expect a wash to bring the color back. It won't. Washing removes the loose chalk, the wall genuinely looks better for it, and it's the right prep before a repaint. But the color underneath is the color you have. If your hand comes away coated after a swipe, what that wall needs is paint, not another wash. We'd rather say so at the estimate than take the money and leave you looking at a tired west wall.
House washing runs $0.18 per square foot, soft-wash, safe on brick, stucco, hardie, vinyl and painted wood. Most Randolph-Robertson ranches are single-story with roughly 1,200 to 1,900 square feet of wall, and the low rooflines mean the whole envelope is reachable from the ground — no lift, no scaffolding, usually a half day. Gutter faces get washed at the same time, since the same north-side algae streaks the fascia. If you want windows done too, we clean glass separately with 100% pure deionized water and do it after the wash, because house-wash soap left on glass dries spotted. Memberships are monthly or quarterly with no contract, same-day and next-day slots are common, and the 7-Day Rain Guarantee covers a return trip if weather undoes the work.
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Partly, and how much depends on the surface. On brick and stucco a mineral treatment usually takes the band off completely. On painted wood lap siding, years of hard water has often etched into the paint film — it will lighten noticeably but a faint shadow can stay. We check it with a test patch before quoting so you know which result you're paying for, not after.
Yes, that's exactly what it's for. Soft washing does the work with the cleaning solution and dwell time instead of pressure — we run the same pressure as a garden hose against the wall. What damages old lap siding is a pressure washer wand driving water up behind the laps and into the sheathing. If your paint is already peeling or cracked, we'll flag it before we start, since washing can lift loose flakes.
For most houses here, every two years is enough on the shaded walls, and the sunny walls can often go longer. If the green is back within a year, that usually means moisture is being added — sprinkler overspray hitting the north wall, a downspout draining against the foundation, or shrubs planted tight to the siding. Fixing that source beats putting the wall on a yearly cleaning schedule.
Not if it's handled right, and it's a fair question given how tight the foundation plantings are on these ranches. We pre-wet plants and lawn before the solution goes on, tarp anything sensitive, and rinse everything down again as we finish. The pre-wet is the part that matters — it dilutes anything that drifts. Mature Bench shrubs and established grass handle it without issue when that step isn't skipped.
Brick collects dirt and algae just like siding does, especially on the shaded side and along the bottom course where sprinklers hit. It hides it better because the color is busy, so people skip it. If we're already on-site, washing the brick front adds little time and evens the whole house out — a clean gable over a dingy brick face looks worse than leaving both alone.
Yes, and that's the order we'd recommend: house wash first, glass after with 100% pure deionized water. Reflekt is locally owned, founded in 2025 by Hunter Stevens and Ethan Seusy, fully insured, and running 4.9 stars across 115+ Google reviews. Call (208) 453-6760 for a quote on the Bench — same-day and next-day slots are usually open in Randolph-Robertson.
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