Fall Promotion!!!

Yes, you read that correctly-- we at Johnny Tsunami Wash are offering our first blog promotion for our faithful followers!

Fall is officially here in Western Washington and it's in full force! Unfortunately, all those pretty changing leaves can clog gutters and that fall rain can end up causing some pretty costly damage!

For some reason, the requests for roof and gutter cleanings tend to drop once fall rolls around. People think that once the rains start, it's like washing your car-- it's gonna get wet anyway, what's the point of having it cleaned again?

We're here to tell you this is a terrible misconception! It's more important this season than ever to make sure your home stays clean and maintained because this is the time of year gutters get cloggy and roofs get leaky!

And just to show you how important this is, we are offering a special Fall gutter and roof cleaning DISCOUNT: 10% off of any roof or gutter cleaning until the end of November! Johnny already offers some of the lowest prices in town so make sure you take advantage and get your house primed for fall.

To receive your discount and a free estimate, call (360) 440-6301 and mention you read it on the blog. Johnny'll know what it means.

Clean Windows = Caring

We have an unfortunate dilemma here in Washington (at least the Western half). The copious amounts of rain make the scenery here lush and beautiful but it also makes our windows streaky. How can we admire our habitat when our windows are too grimy to see out of? It would almost be a catch-22 were it not for Johnny Tsunami! Johnny has perfected the art of a streak-free window cleaning and he uses an eco-friendly formula on both the inside and out of your windows so that you don't have to worry about pets or animals inside or out (or people!).

Clean windows are very important for businesses to have. After all, your business building gives future customers their very first impression of your business. And what exactly do streaky, grimy windows say about a company? If you don't care about your windows, what do you care about? Johnny has spent some time recently with a Silverdale business that understands the importance of first impressions and clean windows. Johnny offers a window cleaning maintenance schedule for a time frame of your choosing, so that you can keep those streak-free windows clean, even in the winter. This particular Silverdale business is on one of our maintenance programs and it really shows.

Johnny also did a window cleaning in Bremerton recently as well. Homes, like businesses, can make either a good first impression or a bad one, and clean windows are key. Even if you don't care about making a good impression, we think it lifts the spirits to be able to see outside every once in awhile, at least.

Fall Rain Brings Clogged Drains

I've talked about gutters before and how important it is that they're clean and functional but with the advent of the Washington rainy season (A.K.A. "fall, winter and spring), I thought I would reiterate just how important it is to have clean gutters.

Do you know if your gutters are clean? Most people can't tell until they have small gardens growing in them. What you might not be seeing could be the beginnings of a clogged gutter. Leaves and debris settle on the bottoms and destroy the functionality of your gutters.

So what, you ask? Allow me to explain.

What functioning gutters do: Sweep the rainwater away from the foundation of the house.

What non-functioning gutters do: Clogged gutters can overflow and damage your landscaping and if it gets too full, can actually rip off of your house, causing costly repairs. During the winter time, that damage can be even more detrimental, as the standing water can freeze, fill up your gutters, reach your roof and actually get under it. Once it starts to melt, considerable damage is done to your floors, ceilings, furnishings, you name it. And we all know that with wet homes comes mold, so you'll have that to deal with on top of everything else. If you have wooden gutters, standing water can cause wood rot. If left untreated, this could spread to surrounding areas.

Obviously, the cons of not cleaning your gutters can be pretty costly and it's such a simple fix. Johnny Tsunami has gutter maintenance programs to ensure those gutters stay clean and functioning year-round. They're already affordably priced and the money it will potentially save you is no small sum.

Don't let your holiday season be ruined by faulty gutter repairs. Check out our Johnny Tsunami Wash gutter page and see how Johnny can help you.

GUTTERS, GUTTERS, GUTTERS-- JOHNNY TSUNAMI WASH

In other news, where in Washington has Johnny been this past week? He did a roof cleaning on a cedar shake roof in Silverdale along with some gutter cleanings, and he's also busy in Kingston and Seattle. Hopefully, we'll have some pictures to treat you with later this week.

Roof Care 101: Help Your Roof Live a Long, Happy Life

Roofs, not unlike people, can have a wide range of lifespans. Some roofs go on to have full, useful lives while others, sadly, must be replaced before their time. And when that happens, the price to replace your dead roof is enough to make any homeowner cry. Thankfully, there are preventative measures to ensure you get the most time and use out of your roof.

According to the National Roofing Contractors Association, the typical roof is designed to last about twenty years. Some, of course, can last much longer or shorter depending on where you live, the type of roof you have, weather conditions in your area and even the slope of your roof. However, maintenance can add a full ten years onto the life of your roof.

Here in Washington, our roofs suffer from an algae and moss malady. Moss eats away at the shingles of your roof, leaving holes that weaken it until the only solution is to have it replaced. Once it has been eaten away, even the best pressure washer will not be able to resuscitate it. Johnny was out working on such a roof this past week and saw some very extensive and irreversible damage. We hope the following images (though traumatizing) will help other homeowners prevent other such tragedies from occurring.

The holes are where the moss has eaten extensively at the shingles.

Even cleaned, the damage to the roof is very apparent.

This roof will need to be replaced in the near future. If only they had called on Johnny Tsunami before it came to this!

Thankfully, we don't see too many roofs at that point. Maintenance is key in preventing an early roof death and Johnny Tsunami Wash is certainly the best pressure washer for the job! Since we don't want to end this post on a sad (though informative) note, we'll end with some photos of folks who know the importance of good roof maintenance.

This is a before shot of a roof in the Kitsap area.

Same roof after Johnny got to it-- it looks brand new! Having your roof cleaned can actually raise the value of your home and after seeing this picture, you might have an idea of why that is.

Of course, metal roofs need to be maintained as well. Here is a before shot of a metal roof Johnny worked on.

The metal roof after, looking much improved!

Johnny Tsunami Wash even offers annual maintenance programs to ensure your roof stays clean and healthy for as long as possible. Like the old cliche' says, "A roof cleaning a year keeps the replacement... not near?" Or something to that effect.  And don't forget to check out our website at www.johnnytsunamiwash.com for additional information.

Johnny Tsunami is THE Bremerton Roof Cleaner!

Johnny had two jobs out in Bremerton the past week, doing roof cleanings and sidings and since pictures say so much more than words in the business of roof cleaning...

Before Roof Cleaning

After Roof Cleaning

Before Roof Cleaning

After Roof Cleaning

Before Siding

After Siding

This is a different Bremerton home Johnny did, showing the zinc sulfate treatment Johnny offers after the initial cleaning is done if you want that extra protection from moss and algae. You might have to click the picture to see it, but the white snowy looking stuff on the roof is the zinc sulfate treatment.

 For those of you wondering, here's a little bit about what we do procedurally:

First, Johnny treats the roof with a pre-soak of peroxide based solution, which helps loosen the moss for the non-damaging low pressure treatment. A lot of times, pressure washers will ignorantly blast away at the clingy moss using higher pressure, unknowingly damaging the delicate roofs they're working on. With Johnny Tsunami's peroxide pre-soak, moss is loosened up just enough so that Johnny can remove it with a low pressure spray that's easy on your roof and because the active ingredient in this eco-friendly solution is only active for a short time, it won't damage your trees or natural wildlife that we in the Northwest take pride in.

After Johnny removes the moss and algae from your roof, if you desire the extra protection, he can put down a zinc sulfate treatment which keeps that roof gunk from coming back, as seen in the last picture. Because after all that cleaning, you wouldn't want that moss and algae creeping back, now would you?

Word of the Week

Well, it's the final blog of the week, so I thought I would give you a "word of the week" blog post.

And today's word of the week is:

1. korker (noun): the footwear used by a professional roof cleaner; may come with attachable cleats or foam bottoms.

Here is a picture from korkers.com:

I figured I couldn't call them "grippy shoes" forever so I had Johnny explain a little more about them. The bottoms are interchangeable depending on the type of roof you're cleaning, so for say a certain Silverdale cedar shake roof, Johnny uses the cleat bottoms to grip the roof without damaging it. For a slick metal roof, Johnny uses the attachable foam inserts so he doesn't slide around on wet algae. You can also use them for fishing so you don't slide around on slippery rocks or for projects involving ice. Interesting stuff.

Also interesting, the word "corker" with a "c" means "an excellent or astonishing person or thing" according to Wikipedia. So I guess we could say Johnny is a corker in korkers.

And now you've learned two new words to boot. Yes, I just made a shoe pun.

Don't Have a Bummer Summer

Today was what my friend and I refer to as a "Seattle" day. Basically all that silly little phrase means is that it was the perfect day to walk Seattle-- sunny, hot, clear-- perfect, in other words. And, ironically enough, Johnny Tsunami had a window washing job in West Seattle today on an apartment complex, which meant a lot of windows.

I realize I've been talking about the weather a lot lately.

As most western Washingtonians know, summer in Washington is comprised of one nice week in mid- to late August and then the usual overcast, "partly sunny skies" the rest of the time. And when the sun comes out, boy so do those Washingtonians, ready to play and get their yearly dose of Vitamin D.

Unfortunately though, that's also the best time to get your pressure washing, window cleaning, gutter cleaning and all other home exterior maintenance out of the way because you don't have to worry about the rain making the roof slick and unsafe or smearing up your freshly cleaned windows. So on those hot sunny days, you have a very important decision to make:

Do you finally drag your pressure washer out of the garage and try to work...

...Or do you save it for another time and soak up some rays?

With the help of Johnny Tsunami Wash, you don't have to choose. Johnny is more than glad to do the work while you enjoy the sunshine. Nobody wants to clean hundreds of windows while their family and friends are sitting beach-side watching a game of volleyball.

Well, nobody except Johnny. But he gets his fair share of sun on all those rooftops anyway.