Sundance was built out by CBH off Ustick and Meridian Road between about 2003 and 2007, which means hardboard and engineered lap siding, a stone or brick wainscot, and twenty years of pressurized irrigation hitting the bottom four feet of every wall. That band is the job here.
On a Sundance lot the sprinkler heads sit close to the house — these are compact CBH lots and the beds run tight against the foundation. That is untreated canal water off the pressurized irrigation system, and it is silty and hard. Twenty seasons of it leave a distinct band across the bottom three or four feet of siding: a chalky tan-white mineral film, and on walls where an iron-heavy head throws against the boards, a rust-orange stain that fans out in the shape of the spray arc. Detergent and low pressure take the mineral film off. The rust does not come off with soap at all — it needs an oxalic treatment, which we carry. We will tell you at the walkthrough which one you have, because mineral and iron are not the same job and should not be quoted like they are.
Value-built homes from 2003 to 2007 out here wear hardboard or engineered-wood lap siding, usually with vinyl in the gables and cultured stone or brick at the base. The hardboard is the reason we soft-wash. That board is compressed wood fiber under a paint film. Drive real pressure at it, especially at a butt joint or along the bottom edge, and water gets behind the paint — the board swells, the edge furs up, and the paint lets go a season later. So we run low pressure at $0.18 a square foot and let dwell time and detergent do the cleaning instead of force, then rinse top down. The same setup is safe on vinyl and on fiber cement. Most of these plans are a mix of two or three materials, and one method covers all of it.
The shaded elevations are where the green shows up. The trees planted at build-out are twenty-plus years old now, so the shade on the north and northeast side of a Sundance house is real shade — those walls stay damp into the afternoon through spring, and algae and mildew set into the paint texture and the lap seams. It reads as a gray-green haze that looks like plain dirt until you are a few feet from it. Pressure knocks the surface layer off and it is back inside four months, because pressure does not kill the organism. Our mix kills it, dwells, then gets rinsed off. That is the whole reason a soft wash on a shaded wall holds and a rented pressure washer does not. Fences and eave boards on that side usually want the same treatment while we are set up.
The south and west elevations have the opposite problem. Twenty seasons of Treasure Valley sun oxidize the paint film on hardboard and the pigment on older vinyl, and that leaves chalk on the surface. Here is the test you can run yourself before you call anyone: rub a dark cloth or your palm across the wall. If it comes away with white powder, that is oxidation, not dirt. Washing removes the loose chalk and the wall comes out cleaner and far more even — but oxidized siding does not return to its original color from washing, and anybody who tells you it will is selling you something. On vinyl that far gone the honest answer is paint or replacement. We will say so on the walkthrough. What a wash does buy you is a clean, chalk-free surface, which is what a painter needs anyway.
House washing is $0.18 a square foot on wall area, and that covers siding, soffit, fascia, and the trim around the windows. We pre-wet and rinse the beds and lawn as we go — the mix is hard on plants if it dries on them, and on lots this tight the landscaping is directly under the work. Most Sundance homes are a morning. If you want glass done the same visit, we clean windows with 100% pure deionized water, and it goes after the wash, not before. Memberships are Monthly or Quarterly, no contract, with a 7-Day Rain Guarantee. Same-day and next-day slots open most weeks. Reflekt is locally owned and fully insured, started in 2025 by Hunter Stevens and Ethan Seusy, 4.9 stars across 115+ Google reviews. Call (208) 453-6760.
Free, no-obligation estimate in under 60 seconds.
Get My Free EstimateStill wondering about something? Call or text us at (208) 453-6760.
Soft washing is the correct method for hardboard, not a weaker substitute. The cleaning comes from detergent and dwell time rather than force, so grime and mildew lift without water getting behind the paint film at the butt joints and bottom edges. Real pressure on twenty-year-old hardboard is how you end up with swollen board edges and paint failing a season later.
Not with soap. That orange is iron out of the pressurized irrigation water, and detergent will not touch it — it needs an oxalic acid treatment applied directly to the stain and rinsed. We carry it. The white-tan film in the same band is different, that is mineral scale, and it does come off in the normal wash. We will look at your wall and tell you which you have before quoting.
Less often than most companies will tell you. The sun-side walls on these homes usually go two to three years between washes. The north and northeast walls are the ones that need it yearly, sometimes more, because of the shade off the mature trees. If the only dirty part of your house is one shaded elevation, ask us to wash that side and skip the rest — we will quote it that way.
Because pressure removes algae but does not kill it. What is left in the paint texture and the lap seams regrows as soon as that wall stays damp again, which on a shaded Sundance elevation is most of the spring. A soft wash uses a mix that kills the organism, sits long enough to work, and then gets rinsed. That is why the same wall stays clean two or three times longer.
We can remove the loose chalk, and the wall will look noticeably better and more uniform. But that powder is the paint or vinyl pigment breaking down from sun exposure, not dirt sitting on top, so washing does not restore the original color. If it is heavy, the real fix is paint. A wash still makes sense first, since paint will not bond to a chalked surface anyway.
House washing runs $0.18 a square foot of wall area, which covers siding, soffit, fascia, and window trim. Most homes here are a single morning. We hold same-day and next-day slots open most weeks, so a Sundance address is usually easy to fit. Memberships are Monthly or Quarterly with no contract, and the 7-Day Rain Guarantee covers rain inside a week. Call (208) 453-6760.
Free estimate in 60 seconds. Same-day and next-day slots available.
Get Free Estimate Now