When a crew pressure washes or soft washes your home, the water and cleaning solution has to go somewhere. For most homes in Kitchener-Waterloo, that means draining toward storm sewers, gardens, or natural waterways. The environmental choices a company makes in this moment matter — and we want our customers to know exactly what choices we make and why.
Why Eco-Friendly Practices Matter in Exterior Cleaning
Exterior cleaning uses water and chemical agents at scale. A typical soft wash of a home exterior uses 30–80 gallons of cleaning solution and hundreds of gallons of rinse water. The runoff from this process carries whatever was on the surface — algae, mold spores, biological matter — plus the cleaning agents themselves into the surrounding environment.
Conventional exterior cleaning products can include surfactants that don't biodegrade readily, phosphate-based compounds that promote algae growth in waterways, and solvent-based agents that persist in soil. In the Waterloo Region, where the Grand River watershed connects our properties to downstream ecosystems, the cumulative impact of poor practices across hundreds of homes is not trivial.
Responsible exterior cleaning doesn't require sacrificing effectiveness — it requires choosing the right products and applying them correctly. The most effective soft wash solutions (sodium hypochlorite-based) are also among the most environmentally defensible options available, because they break down naturally and completely. The ecological risk in exterior cleaning comes primarily from poor product choices and careless application, both of which are preventable.
Biodegradable Cleaning Solutions
The primary cleaning agent in soft washing — and the most effective biocide available for exterior surface cleaning — is sodium hypochlorite (bleach). There's a common perception that bleach is harmful to the environment, but the chemistry is more nuanced than that perception suggests.
When sodium hypochlorite contacts organic matter and sunlight, it breaks down rapidly into sodium chloride (salt), water, and oxygen. In diluted concentrations (the 1–3% solutions used for most residential soft washing), this breakdown happens within hours of application in normal conditions. The end products — salt and water — are naturally occurring and environmentally benign at residential application volumes.
The surfactants (soap-like agents) that allow the solution to adhere to surfaces rather than running off immediately are where product choice matters most. We use biodegradable surfactants that break down in soil and water rather than persisting as environmental contaminants. We specifically avoid surfactants containing phosphates, which can feed algae blooms in waterways, and conventional surfactants like SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate) in favour of plant-derived alternatives.
For window cleaning, we use purified water (deionized or reverse-osmosis-filtered water) as the primary cleaning agent. Pure water has an extremely high cleaning affinity — it actively attracts and holds dissolved mineral ions and organic particles, cleaning glass without any added soap. When pure water dries on glass, it leaves no residue because there are no dissolved minerals to deposit. This approach eliminates cleaning solution runoff entirely for window work.
Water Conservation Techniques
Pressure washing and soft washing are by nature water-intensive. However, professional equipment used correctly is significantly more water-efficient than DIY methods.
Commercial pressure washing equipment operates at higher PSI and GPM (gallons per minute) than consumer machines, which means a professional can clean a driveway in a fraction of the time a homeowner would take with a consumer washer — and actually uses less total water to achieve a superior result, because the job is done correctly in one efficient pass rather than multiple slower passes.
For soft washing, our application equipment uses low-volume, high-efficiency nozzles designed for solution application at 30–60 PSI — compared to the 2,000–4,000 PSI used for hard surface pressure washing. This dramatically reduces water consumption per square foot of surface treated. Soft washing a full home exterior typically uses less water than pressure washing a single driveway.
We also plan water-intensive jobs around weather conditions. When rain is forecast within 24–48 hours of a job, we factor this into our planning — rain immediately after application can dilute soft wash solutions before they've completed their work, meaning less effective results and a higher likelihood of retreatment being needed. Efficient application means the job is done right once, reducing total water use over time.
Pro Tip: If you're environmentally conscious and considering exterior cleaning, soft washing is actually the more eco-friendly choice compared to pressure washing for most surfaces. It uses less water, achieves longer-lasting results (so less frequent retreatment needed), and the cleaning agents biodegrade rapidly.
Protecting Your Landscaping
Your gardens, lawn, and landscaping are the most immediately visible potential casualty of exterior cleaning runoff. Bleach-based soft wash solutions, even in the dilutions used for soft washing, can harm plant tissue if they contact foliage or roots at sufficient concentration.
Our standard procedure for all soft wash jobs includes pre-wetting all landscaping within the runoff zone before applying any cleaning solution. This serves two purposes: it dilutes any cleaning solution that contacts plant surfaces, and it saturates the soil so that runoff is more likely to stay at the surface (where it continues diluting) rather than being rapidly absorbed into the root zone.
After the cleaning solution has been applied and the biological matter killed (typically 5–15 minutes dwell time), we thoroughly rinse all treated surfaces and the surrounding landscaping with clean water. This final rinse dilutes and washes away any remaining cleaning solution from plant surfaces and the soil surface.
For properties with particularly sensitive plants — recently established transplants, known sensitive species, or chemical-free vegetable gardens adjacent to the work area — we discuss this with homeowners in advance and can adjust our approach, including barrier placement or additional pre-wetting and post-rinsing steps.
Runoff and Storm Drains
In Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, and Guelph, the majority of storm drains connect directly to local waterways — not to wastewater treatment facilities. This means that what goes into a street storm drain reaches the Grand River system relatively quickly and with no treatment.
We are conscious of this in our work. For pressure washing jobs on driveways and hard surfaces, we direct runoff away from storm drains where possible, using water brooms and directing flow toward permeable ground (lawn, garden beds) where the soil can filter the runoff before it reaches waterways. This is particularly important for degreaser-treated surfaces, where the degreaser and the dissolved petroleum products it's removing should not enter waterways.
Ontario's Environmental Protection Act and the Clean Water Act both contain provisions relevant to commercial cleaning operations and runoff. The Region of Waterloo's stormwater management policies prohibit the discharge of contaminated runoff to the storm sewer system. We operate in compliance with these requirements and train our crew on proper runoff management procedures.
Ontario Environmental Context
Ontario's environmental framework for exterior cleaning is established through several overlapping regulatory instruments:
- Ontario Environmental Protection Act: Prohibits the discharge of contaminants into the natural environment in a manner that may impair the quality of the natural environment for any use.
- Region of Waterloo Stormwater Management: The Region's stormwater management program prohibits non-stormwater discharges to the municipal storm sewer system, including wash water from commercial cleaning operations that contains cleaning chemicals.
- Pest Control Products Act (Federal): Governs the use of biocidal agents (including sodium hypochlorite used as a biocide in soft washing). Proper dilution and application according to label requirements is a legal requirement, not just a best practice.
We stay current on these requirements and apply them in our daily operations. Our staff receive training on proper chemical handling, appropriate dilution ratios, and responsible runoff management as part of their onboarding.
What D&D Does Differently
Our commitment to responsible exterior cleaning is practical, not just philosophical. Here's what it looks like on every job:
- Biodegradable surfactants only: We never use phosphate-based or persistent surfactants in our cleaning solutions
- Plant pre-wetting as standard practice: Every soft wash job includes pre-wetting of surrounding plants before solution application
- Post-rinse of landscaping: Thorough rinse of all plants and hardscape after treatment
- Runoff direction away from storm drains: Where practical, we direct wash water toward permeable surfaces rather than storm sewer entry points
- Minimal water approach: We train our crew to achieve results efficiently, which means less water used per job
- Chemical storage and transport compliance: All cleaning agents are stored and transported per WHMIS requirements
We believe that being a good business in Waterloo Region means taking care of the community and environment we operate in. These practices are part of how we do that.
"We clean homes in the community where we live. The water that leaves a job site on our property ends up in the same watershed our families enjoy. That makes responsible chemical practices personal, not just professional."
— David, D&D Home Services Co-Founder
Our Eco-Friendly Practices: The Summary
- ✓ Biodegradable surfactants — no phosphates or persistent compounds
- ✓ Sodium hypochlorite breaks down to salt and water — it's more environmentally sound than commonly thought
- ✓ Plant pre-wetting before every soft wash application
- ✓ Post-rinse of all landscaping after treatment
- ✓ Storm drain awareness — directing runoff to permeable ground where possible
- ✓ Ontario regulatory compliance — EPA, Clean Water Act, Region of Waterloo stormwater standards
