By the time the snowbanks finally melt in Greater Boston, the outside of most homes looks tired. Rock salt has dried into white crusts on the front steps, plow sand has drifted into every corner of the walkway, and the north side of the house has picked up a green or gray film that was not there in October. None of it is a disaster, but it all gets harder to remove the longer it sits through spring pollen and summer humidity.
The easiest way to get ahead of it is a slow walk around the property with a notepad, starting at the front door and ending at the trash bins. This checklist follows that route. For each stop you will find what to look for, what most homeowners can do themselves on a Saturday, and the signs that it is worth calling in help.
Start at the ground: walkways, steps and the driveway apron
Salt and sand are the first things to deal with in a New England spring. Calcium and sodium chloride leave a chalky residue on concrete, brick and stone, and if it stays wet and dry over and over it can slowly roughen the surface. Plow sand is gentler, but it gets tracked inside on every pair of shoes and grinds into hardwood floors and entry rugs.
What you can do yourself: sweep everything with a stiff push broom, then rinse with a garden hose. A bucket of warm water and a deck brush handles most light salt staining on steps. Check railings and the bottom few inches of the front door, since salt spray reaches higher than people expect.
When to hire: if the walkway still looks blotchy after a rinse, if there are dark mildew patches in shady spots, or if the driveway has oil and tire marks that a hose does not touch, that is a pressure washing job. If you have been typing "pressure cleaning near me" into your phone every April, it usually means the DIY rinse is no longer enough. A pro can clean the whole run of driveway, walkways and steps in one visit so the surfaces dry evenly instead of looking patchy.
Entries, doors and the outside of your windows
The front entry is what you and your guests see every day, so it is worth a closer look. Wipe down the door, the frame and the hardware, and check the trim around it for gray streaks where meltwater ran down all winter. Storm doors collect a surprising amount of grime along the bottom track.
Windows are next. After a winter of road spray, salt mist and furnace soot, the outside glass on most Boston homes has a dull film that makes rooms feel darker than they are. Ground floor windows are a reasonable DIY job: a bucket of mild soapy water, a squeegee and a lint free towel. Pull out screens, brush off the dust and pollen, rinse them gently, and let them dry fully before putting them back.
When to hire: second and third floor windows, windows over a porch roof, or a whole house where the outsides have not been touched in years. Ladder work on old wooden porches is where a lot of spring injuries happen. This is also where many people searching for window cleaning in Boston end up asking for exterior house cleaning instead, because the windows, trim and doors all look better when they are done together.
Siding: mildew, pollen and the north side problem
Walk all four sides of the house and look closely at the siding. Vinyl and painted wood siding often grow a green or black film on the shady, north facing walls and behind shrubs where air does not move. In late April and May, a yellow layer of tree pollen settles on top of whatever winter left behind.
What you can do yourself: a soft brush on an extension pole and a mild cleaner made for siding will handle small areas you can reach from the ground. Rinse from the bottom up when scrubbing and from the top down when rinsing, so streaks do not set.
When to hire: large areas, two or three story walls, or siding where the film keeps coming back. Most pros treat siding very differently from a driveway, because high pressure can force water behind vinyl or damage old paint, so this is not a job to blast with a rental machine. Ask any company you call how they approach your specific siding.
Decks, patios and triple-decker porches
Wood decks and stone patios spend the winter under wet leaves and snow, which is exactly what mildew likes. Look for slippery green patches, dark rings where planters sat, and gray, fuzzy wood on the boards that get the least sun.
Porches deserve their own line on the list, especially on the triple-deckers you see all over Boston, Somerville and Dorchester. Each level usually has its own porch, and the upper ones collect pollen, bird droppings and grit that nobody has reached since last fall. Shared porches and back stairs in multi-family buildings are often nobody's job, which is why they tend to look the worst.
What you can do yourself: sweep, clear out leaves from between boards, and scrub small spots with a brush and a bucket. When to hire: full decks, stairs with mildew that makes them slippery, or upper porches where you would be working at height. For landlords, cleaning the porches, back stairs and entries in one visit before tenants start using them in May is usually simpler than chasing each one separately.
Trash and recycling areas, plus a few things to just check
The area around the bins is easy to forget until it smells. Rinse the pad or ground where the bins sit, wash out the bins themselves with a hose and a bit of dish soap, and let them dry in the sun with the lids open. In multi-family buildings in places like Brighton and Allston, a clean trash area also helps keep pests from settling in once the weather warms up.
While you are walking around, look up and note a few things that are not cleaning jobs but are worth checking: gutters and downspouts full of leaves or pulling away from the house, roof shingles or flashing that shifted in a storm, and any spot where water pools against the foundation. Those belong to a gutter or roofing specialist. Getting them fixed before you wash the siding means the siding stays clean longer.
Inside and out: why spring is the time to do both
Here is something most homeowners notice after the first warm weekend: once the windows and entries are clean, the inside suddenly looks dusty. Winter brings dry heat, closed windows and months of boots and coats by the door, so the inside needs its own reset. A spring deep clean covers baseboards, inside of windows and sills, kitchen and bathroom detail work, and all the dust that settled on the tops of things while the house was closed up.
Pairing the two makes sense. Doing the exterior first means you are not tracking sand and pollen back into a freshly cleaned house, and cleaning the window glass inside and out the same week gives you that clear, bright look all spring. Whether you are in a brownstone in Boston, a single family home in Newton, or a house out in Milford with a long driveway, the order is the same: outside surfaces first, then the inside.
If you want a hand with any part of this list, from salt stained steps to the siding to a full spring deep clean inside, send a few photos of the areas on WhatsApp to (857) 258-6271 or use the free quote form. Estimates are free, there is no visit fee, and we answer in English or Portuguese.
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