Case Study · Soft Washing · Healthcare Facility
Rady Children's Hospital, soft-wash exterior
A multi-day exterior cleaning at one of San Diego's busiest pediatric medical campuses. Pressure washing would have stripped paint and damaged sealants. Soft washing handled the algae, mildew, and grime without touching the substrate.
The work
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Same wall, same lens. Soft-wash chemistry kills the biological growth; low-pressure rinse carries it off. No paint damage, no stripped sealant, no etched stucco.
Why soft-wash
Hospitals aren't a pressure-washing job
The default play for a contractor with one rig is to point it at any dirty surface. On a hospital exterior — painted stucco, finished concrete, EIFS panels, single-ply roof membranes — that approach causes thousands of dollars of cosmetic damage that becomes the facility's problem to fix.
Soft washing trades pressure for chemistry. A low-pressure delivery puts a cleaning solution (typically sodium hypochlorite plus surfactants) on the surface, lets it dwell long enough to kill the algae, mildew, and biofilm, then rinses off at garden-hose pressure. The surface comes back to original color without the substrate being touched.
For Rady the constraints were typical for a hospital campus: schedule around operational windows, no overspray on staff or pediatric patient areas, no chlorine smell lingering past the rinse cycle, and complete documentation of products used.
Hospital work is its own discipline
Healthcare facility cleaning isn't general commercial cleaning
A healthcare campus has rules that don't show up on an office park. Operational windows shift around clinical schedules. Pedestrian and ambulance traffic doesn't pause. EPA compliance for exterior wastewater isn't optional. Documentation of every product used has to match what facility audits expect.
We treat hospital work as a separate practice from general commercial cleaning. Commercial Cleaning of San Diego, Inc. is a member of the California Society for Healthcare Engineering (opens in new tab) — the statewide trade association for healthcare facility engineers and approved vendors, affiliated with ASHE under the American Hospital Association. See the membership details on our About page for what that connection means operationally.
Client quote
"The results were amazing, and the process was smooth and safe for our facilities."
The work in motion
Watch the soft-wash transformation
A short walkthrough of the equipment, chemistry, and result. Hit play to load the video — until then it's just a poster image, no YouTube payload.
Side-by-side
The whole job at a glance
Same wall, same lens — no slider needed.
Property that needs this kind of work?
We'll come walk the site, scope the work around your operational windows, and quote it honestly. No pushy follow-up, no contract until you've seen the plan.