The Ranking
Our top 6 pressure washing companies in Edmonton
Edmonton houses take a beating that has little to do with the summer heat. Months of road sand, gravel and salt spray coat siding and garage doors, and when the snow banks melt in April the city turns dusty for weeks. Poplar and cottonwood fluff sticks to wet siding in early summer, spruce sap marks decks, and north facing walls on vinyl houses pick up green algae and black mildew where they never dry out. Roofs shaded by the mature elms and spruce of older neighbourhoods can grow moss. Because water freezes on contact for much of the year, most crews only wash from spring thaw into October, so spring and early fall book up fast.
The method matters as much as the company. Pressure washing, with a surface cleaner or wand, suits concrete driveways, sidewalks, patios and garage floors. Vinyl siding, stucco, painted wood and asphalt shingles usually call for a soft wash, where a detergent does the work and the rinse is at low pressure. High pressure on siding can force water behind the panels, and on stucco or shingles it can strip the surface. Ask every company which method it will use on each part of your house. Shine Above, for example, states that it does not wash stucco at all, while Pane Relief and Gorilla list stucco on their soft washing pages.
Runoff is regulated. Edmonton's EPCOR Drainage Services Bylaw (Bylaw 18100) allows run-off from washing a single family or duplex home to reach the storm sewer, but it bars hazardous and prohibited substances from the system, and other properties face tighter rules. Ask what detergent the crew uses, whether it is safe for lawns and flower beds, and how it keeps wash water and debris out of the street drain. Gorilla says it sets drain guards to catch oil and sediment.
There is no provincial licence specific to pressure washing that we could find for Alberta. The City of Edmonton does require businesses operating in the city to hold a business licence, including most out of town firms, so ask to see it. Ask for a certificate of liability insurance and a WCB Alberta clearance letter, which protects you if a worker is hurt on your property. Paneless, All Clean, Shine Above and Redeemed state WCB coverage on their sites; Gorilla and Pane Relief do not, so ask them directly.
We started with more than 80 companies from Google Maps. Most Edmonton washing outfits run from a home in a residential neighbourhood or show no street address on Google at all, and we excluded both, along with firms in Sherwood Park, St. Albert and other suburbs. The six below passed every test.
