Winterizing Outdoor Surfaces with Wet & Forget

When winter ends and spring finally rolls back around, the color we’re all looking for is green. Growing grass, budding trees, and leafy foliage are all the signs of warming months. However, if you’re not careful, you may find your porch, driveway, and other exterior surfaces speckled with a different type of greenery: mold, mildew, and algae.
These organic growths can fester and grow on surfaces over the winter months. Access to moisture from snow and other precipitation paired with the absence of excess sunlight provides fertile ground for unsightly stains.
Fortunately, there is a way to keep algae, mold, and mildew from growing and spreading over the coldest season: Wet & Forget. With Wet & Forget Outdoor products, you can easily winterize outdoor surfaces and prevent these pesky foes from starting your spring on the wrong foot.
Outdoor Surfaces to Winterize With Wet & Forget
Algae, mold, mildew, and other organic growths generally cause two concerns. The first is cosmetic. Organic growths create unsightly stains that leave things looking old, musty, and unattended. Even worse, the presence of organic growth could harm your home’s resale value or get your homeowner’s insurance canceled.
To prevent ugly stains like these from marring your home’s exterior beauty, consider winterizing these surfaces with Wet & Forget:
- Roof
- Siding
- Lawn decorations
- Driveways
- Sidewalks and walkways
Some surfaces are easy to forget when listing off your winterizing concerns. Specifically, we’re talking about those stored over the winter months. Out of sight, out of mind could mean you go out of your mind when you see what mold and mildew have done to these surfaces come spring.
Things as small as outdoor furniture and as big as RVs or boats are the concern here. Because these things are often stored and forgotten, they tend to be kept in places without access to sunlight and where moisture can become a true foe. In these environments, mold and mildew are likely to grow and thrive.
So, before you store these items away for winter, make sure you treat them with Wet & Forget:
- Outdoor furniture
- RVs
- Boats
- Sports equipment, like basketball hoops
Finally, the other concern is injury. Algae, specifically, can cause surfaces to become slippery. That means family, neighbors, and holiday guests could slip and fall on your driveway or walkway. While they may simply experience a classic case of stumble-based embarrassment, they could also injure themselves. And if a bruised hip forces Aunt Judy to forgo her typical holiday baking routine, what chance is there of a merry season?
To help prevent your driveway from turning into a frozen slip and slide, winterize these surfaces with Wet & Forget:
- Driveways
- Walkways
- Sidewalks
- Porches
- Patios
- Decks
Wet & Forget Outdoor Products to Winterize Outside Surfaces
Our Wet & Forget Outdoor product line is designed to make winterizing your outdoor surfaces easy. They require no scrubbing, contain no bleach, and allow you to say “no” to dangerous pressure washing. Each Wet & Forget Outdoor product is powerful enough to only require an application every 12 months (depending on your local weather and climate) yet gentle enough to be safe on virtually every outdoor surface:
- Artificial and fabric surfaces: Artificial turf, fabric, outdoor carpet.
- Decking and flooring: Composite, PVC, rubber, teak, vinyl, and wood.
- Decorative and specialty surfaces: Aluminum, marble, screens, and steel
- Finishes and coatings: Painted surfaces, stained surfaces, stucco
- Pavement and hardscaping: Asphalt, brick, clay, concrete, slate, and stone.
- Other plastics and metals.
Each of our Wet & Forget Outdoor products offers specific benefits that can help you depending on your specific task. Having all three on hand can help you tackle a variety of jobs, but in many cases, a single product can help you winterize.
Our most straightforward product in this line is Wet & Forget Ready-to-Use. The spray is pre-mixed and comes with everything you need for small-scale (60 to 180 square feet) outdoor surface winterizing. The high-capacity built-in sprayer makes it easy to quickly treat exterior surfaces. Consider it for small driveways, sidewalks, porches, patios, and outdoor decorations.
Next up is Wet & Forget Concentrate. A single one-gallon container makes six gallons of outdoor cleaning spray. Simply combine one part Concentrate with five parts water in your preferred pump sprayer to make the ideal outdoor surface cleaning and winterizing solution. This is ideal for people with larger areas to treat and who are looking for the biggest bang for their buck.
Finally, we have the Wet & Forget Xtreme Reachâ„¢ Hose End. This attached nozzle screws into your hose and helps you treat up to 2,000 square feet of outdoor surfaces. We’ve designed the nozzle to make it easy to tackle large-scale jobs.
The spray can reach distances of up to 30 feet, perfect for treating roofs or second-floor siding with your feet still on the ground. You can also use the fan tip setting for a broader spray pattern that allows for quicker application. (We also sell the Xtreme Reachâ„¢ Hose End Refill so you can save time, money, and plastic when your first bottle runs out of spray.)
How to Winterize Outdoor Surfaces with Wet & Forget
For the most part, applying Wet & Forget Outdoor products is the same regardless of which sprayer you use.
You’ll want to wait to apply for a dry, mild day without rain, snow, or wind in the immediate forecast and for at least four to five hours after application. (Wet & Forget Ready-to-Use and Wet & Forget Concentrate both work best when temperatures are at least 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Wet & Forget Xtreme Reachâ„¢ Hose End works best when temperatures are a bit warmer, at least 55 degrees Fahrenheit.)
You’ll also want to apply to surfaces that are clear and dry. Surfaces slicked with rain or snow may cause the spray to run off before it gets a chance to dig deep and attack organic growth where it hides. If applying to a boat, make sure the boat surfaces are also completely dry before application.
Then, spray your outdoor surfaces. The spray gets to work immediately, then combines with wind and rain to gently lift organic growth spots over time. A single application can last up to a year or more, depending on your local weather and climate. If your surfaces are especially stained with algae, mold, and mildew, consider a second application a month or so after your first.
When applying, make sure you are at least 100 feet from any pond, lake, stream, or river. This is especially important when applying to boats.
Greet Spring the Right Way by Winterizing Outdoor Surfaces with Wet & Forget
To keep your outdoor surfaces safe and stain-free over the winter months and beyond, treat them with Wet & Forget. Our line of outdoor products can help prevent unsightly stains and slipper surfaces caused by organic growth. Pick up a bottle (or two!) today at your local retailer or online.