Stucco Soft Wash Before and After: Gray Streaks Gone From a Block-Vent Wall

The photos below are from a real job. Here is what was on the wall, what changed, and what to look for on your own.

By Paps Exterior Cleaning · September 20, 2026

Before

After

Left: before. Right: after. Photos from a Paps Exterior Cleaning job. The after photo was taken from a slightly different angle.

What the photos show

This is a textured stucco wall with a run of decorative block openings, a hose line running up the corner, and lawn along the base. In the before photo the wall is dull gray and green. The darkest staining sits low on the wall and around the openings, and there are dark streaks running down the face.

In the after photo the wall is one even tan color, top to bottom. The dark streaks and the green cast are gone, and the texture of the stucco is intact.

Why we soft wash stucco

Stucco is rough and porous, and it is usually painted. A hard blast of pressure can chip the surface, strip paint, or push water into places it should not go. Soft washing uses low pressure and a cleaning solution to lift the growth off instead of blasting it off. That is the approach we use on stucco, painted siding and roofs, and we save higher pressure for hard surfaces like concrete.

“Paps Cleaning soft-washed our house, its fascia and our lanai. The improvement in the overall look was incredible. The soft-wash of the lani screens removed all of the algae that had built up.”James R. Ferguson, Google review

What to check on your own walls

• Look low. Staining usually shows first near the ground and in shaded spots where the wall stays damp.
• Look near the lawn edge and anywhere a sprinkler hits the wall.
• Run a hand over a dark patch. If it feels slick or powdery, that is growth on the surface, not the color of the paint.

If a wall looks like the before photo, it can be cleaned. Take a picture and send it with your quote request and we can tell you what it needs. We soft wash commercial buildings too: see our commercial roof and building cleaning.