Ask about insurance limits, water source, chemistry, plant protection, roof access method, crew composition and warranty. Those seven questions to ask a pressure washing company in Tampa will tell you more in five minutes than an hour of reading reviews, because every one of them has a right answer that an experienced operator gives instantly and an inexperienced one has to invent on the spot.

None of this is about distrust. It's that exterior cleaning looks simple from the outside and isn't, and the gap between crews is enormous and invisible until something goes wrong on your property.

1. What are your insurance limits, and can I see the certificate?

Not "are you insured." Anyone will say yes. Ask for the actual general liability limit and ask for a certificate naming your address.

Why it matters: the realistic bad day in this trade is not a scratched wall. It's water intrusion through a window seal, a destroyed landscape bed, chemical overspray on a neighbor's car, or a ladder going through a lanai screen. Those are five-figure events. A crew carrying a minimum policy is not covered for the thing most likely to happen.

2. Where does your water come from?

If the answer is "your spigot," ask what happens if your well can't keep up — which is common in Lutz, Odessa and Keystone. A properly equipped crew runs a buffer tank so the pump never starves, and a starved pump surges, which is how you get pressure spikes on a surface that was supposed to get a gentle wash.

3. What chemistry are you using on each surface, and at what dilution?

This is the question that separates professionals from guys with a trailer. There is no universal mix. Roof, painted stucco, vinyl, aluminum cage frame, pavers, travertine and wood all need different chemistry at different concentrations, and several of them are actively damaged by the wrong one:

• Painted or stuccoed walls need a low-concentration soft-wash blend, not a roof mix
• Natural stone needs pH-appropriate chemistry — the wrong acid etches travertine permanently
• Aluminum and anodized finishes react badly to high-alkaline products
• Sealed pavers need a maintenance wash that won't haze the sealer

A crew that can't tell you what they're putting on your house shouldn't be putting anything on your house.

[PHOTO: crew pre-wetting and tarping landscape beds before a roof treatment — Hyde Park]

4. How do you protect the landscaping?

The right answer is specific: beds get pre-wetted before anything is applied, sensitive plantings get tarped or bagged, and everything gets rinsed again afterward. Runoff gets managed, not ignored.

We wrote a whole piece on why experienced roof cleaners prioritize plant protection, because on a high-end property the mature landscape is frequently worth more than the cleaning job several times over. A hedge that took twelve years to fill in does not grow back on a schedule that helps you.

5. How will you access and clean my roof?

If you have tile, the only acceptable answer involves ladders, lifts and reach — not walking the field tile, and not pressure. If you have shingle, ask about pressure and chemistry concentration anyway.

"We'll just get up there and run the wand over it" is the answer that produces cracked tile, stripped granules and a voided manufacturer warranty. Our roof cleaning process is no-pressure on tile for exactly this reason.

6. Who is actually showing up — employees or whoever's available?

Ask whether the people doing the work are your company's trained employees, how long they've been with you, and whether anyone on site has done this specific surface before. Then ask who you call if something looks wrong on day two.

High turnover and day-labor subcontracting is how a company ends up with a great reputation and an inconsistent product. The crew matters more than the equipment.

7. What does your warranty actually cover, and for how long?

Get specifics. A reasonable warranty on exterior cleaning covers re-treatment of areas that come back within a defined window — not "satisfaction guaranteed," which means nothing and promises nothing. Also ask what happens if something is damaged: who assesses it, who repairs it, how fast.

Three answers that should end the conversation

For the sake of being direct:

1. "We'll pressure wash the roof." On tile, that's damage. On shingle, that's granule loss.
2. "We don't need to protect the plants, we use a safe product." Everything used in this trade needs runoff management. Everything.
3. "We can do it today." Good crews in Tampa Bay are booked out. Immediate availability in October — the busiest pre-season month of the year — is information.

[PHOTO: before/after of a two-story stucco elevation showing an even, streak-free soft wash — South Tampa]

It really is harder than it looks

If you've tried this yourself, you already know. Getting an even result on a two-story elevation means understanding why soft washing works, where the overlap lines fall, how long a product can dwell before it flashes in Florida sun, and how to get a ladder onto a paver driveway without staining it. That's not a knock on anyone who's attempted it — it's genuinely a trade, and the people who do it well have done it thousands of times.

Ask us all seven. We'll answer every one of them on the phone before we ever quote the job, and we'll put the answers in writing. Our full scope is on the exterior cleaning and residential services in Tampa pages.

Wild West Washing is a veteran-owned company serving Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas. Call 813-957-1174 for a free quote.