Painting - Painting Exterior of a House

I want to paint the outside of my house. It has wood siding and stucco on the bottom. Somebody told me to pressure wash it all first. Is this advisable for stucco or wood. It was painted 3 years ago so it is not really dirty.
Pleease advise.

Wood or stucco can be powerwashed. Size of tip and pressure must be appropriate, or you could really damage the surfaces.
Its always a good idea to wash the house before painting, either by powerwasher, or hand.

Wood or stucco can be powerwashed. Size of tip and pressure must be appropriate, or you could really damage the surfaces.
Its always a good idea to wash the house before painting, either by powerwasher, or hand.
I agree 100%

Someone said to use no more than 500psi when power washing the wood, would this be the same for stucco or would it be less. Thank you for your reply I really appreciate it.
Myra

If the stucco is solid, the same pressure for the wood should be fine.

Someone said to use no more than 500psi when power washing the wood...
This intrigues me
None of my machines over the years have had a gauge or anything that tells me exactly how much psi is coming out of the tip
And if it did, if you backed off a bit it would not be accurate anyway
It's usually a high/low type deal and you know the max psi of the machine so I judge it from there

I'd think, and as you can see I have no real way of knowing, that 500psi wouldn't be nearly enough
I won't touch a pw'er that's less than 1750
I can't guarantee it'll have enough oomph if I run into trouble spots
Again, it's not nozzle to the surface here, I only go in close if needed

As I prefer a machine with a min. of 2700, maybe 2200, I'm thinking 500 is real low

Hmmm...perhaps I should post a question in Tools huh?
:)

Slickshift
Some of the high end machines come with gauges. You also can add them but I don't know if they are accurate or just something to judge by. I'm not a fan of a lot of pressure. IMO it is always wise to use the lowest pressure that will do the job. :)

Slickshift
Some of the high end machines come with gauges. You also can add them but I don't know if they are accurate or just something to judge by.

Hmmm...they might give you the pressure at the tip I s'pose
I've been doing it by feel for so long it'd probably mess me up lol

I'm not a fan of a lot of pressure. IMO it is always wise to use the lowest pressure that will do the job. :)
I would have to agree with you there
The least amount needed is always the best

About the higher pressure I have found two things:

1) I have found with a higher pressure I can back off more and cover a larger area quicker (I realize this may not be as important to a H/O doing this once a year)
It also helps for those tricky, hard to reach areas if you can get enough pressure from afar
But I may have higher pressure at the tip( say 1000psi)...but at 4 feet away, the actual pressure on the paint must be lower (than 1000psi)

2) We have some tenacious mold and mildew here
Often by the time I get the call it is often very difficult to remove
Although I may run the machine at 1/2 power and at 12", sometimes I need a real boost for some real bad areas
(I realize this may not be important for other areas of the country)

But I'm not sure about the exact pressure
I suppose I could be using aprox. 500psi on most of the house
(2750max psi machine on 1/2 power @ 12")
But I have no way to tell for sure, or to answer the question
Hmmm...now I'm going to have to figure a way to measure it :)

It is always best to regulate the pressure at the tip by using the tip that will give you the pressure you want while not diminishing the water delivery. If you regulate it with the throttle you also regulate the water at the same time. I always run the machine full blast and switch tips. There is one chart here on page 11.

http://www.dcs1.com/catalog/blaster.pdf.

Thank you all so much for your help, sure is nice to have a site like this for the person trying to do home repairs on their own. Thank you.