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bumblebeezgw

How do you clean your Screened in Porch?

The pollen. Ughh. Thankfully I don't have any allergies and it only makes me sneeze a bit but the mess this year is exceptional.

Twice now, I have spent almost an entire day hosing off and cleaning the screened in porch. I drag a hose through the house out to the porch as it's three sided and elevated. Then wipe everything down.
I hope I don't have to do it a third time....
Just venting!

Comments (14)

  • autismmom
    10 years ago

    When the man comes once a year to pressure clean our pool deck and outdoor concrete he does the porch too, it has tile in it. The first time he came, he took it upon himself to do the porch it actually hadnt occurred to me. It came out spotless, so I was like, that will work and now he does it every year. The rest of the year we just sweep it all up as best we can. Luckily the tile is pretty forgiving and hides it well.

  • violetwest
    10 years ago

    vacuum?

  • Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I obviously have a lot more pollen than others! We do have a shop vac Oakley, but there is too much to vacuum. We are surrounded by woods....and the pollen sticks, vacuuming doesn't remove it well.

  • maire_cate
    10 years ago

    Bumble- I feel for you. We have the same problem and I'll never do another screened porch. I'll either leave it open so that I can just hose it down or else I'll have a sun room with windows. The pollen coats everything and even makes the screens look like they have a yellow coating on them.

    I just scrub and vacuum the best I can.

  • happy2b…gw
    10 years ago

    Funny you should ask. The pollen this spring has been overwhelming, but in my area I think the worst of it is over. Last weekend the job of cleaning the porch was on my to do list. I was not sure how to tackle the job, but decided to hose the entire space -furniture and all. The floor is tile and the furniture resin wicker. I swept out any standing water and turned on the ceiling fan to dry it up. During the summer, I clean the furniture with windex. The pollen is not noticeable on the floor.

  • Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I love screened in porches, but probably, if had to do it over, would go with a sun room, marie cate. We have a situation here the water drips down as it's elevated but I always do it on a sunny day and run the ceiling fan.
    Kinda sad that during the nicest part of the year I can't open the french doors to the living room.
    I do hose everything off like you River, the resin wicker, cushions, all the pots and plants, the tables, the doodads, the walls, then wipe the floor up with towels. They get thickly coated with the pollen.

  • ratherbesewing
    10 years ago

    First of all, I cover my wicker resin furniture with covers throughout the winter months. I will not remove the covers until all the pollen is gone. IHere in PA, pollen is still going strong. As for the deck flooring,simply hosing off does not remove the pollen. I get down on my hands and knees and scrub! To be honest, I will probably wipe up the floor again before I place the rug down for the season.

  • randita
    10 years ago

    In PA, I cleaned the porch up around mid-May. The worst of the pollen was over by then, and we rarely had warm enough days to use it before then anyhow.

    I shop vacuumed it thoroughly, then washed the walls (vinyl siding) down with a little dish detergent and a long handled car washing brush and hosed them off. I washed down the furniture as well.

    After that, I opened the door and hosed off the floor, using a broom to sweep any standing water out of the door. This took a while, but was not unpleasant on a warm day.

    After that, a couple more vacuums throughout the summer kept it nice enough.

  • caminnc
    10 years ago

    I scrub my porch down with a little soap and water and even hit a few spots with bleach if needed. I wash my windows, walls, floor and furniture all the same day. I rinse with the hose and sweep the water off the floor with a broom. I do take my furniture off the porch to scrub and rinse. When everything is dry I put it all back together. I also change out my fall cushions to summer cushions and add fresh flowers. I only do this once a year and vacuum once a week or so. It is a big job but looks so fresh and clean when I finish.

    Note: I do have a tile floor and I know it is not supper good for the grout but hey, it's the only way I know to get it nice and clean. The pollen is pretty much stuck to everything once it is finished doing it's thing.

    This post was edited by caminnc on Sat, May 4, 13 at 15:47

  • arlosmom
    10 years ago

    You all inspired me to scrub the screened porch today. I swept it well a couple of days ago, then today I hosed it down, scrubbed it with soap and water, and hosed it off again. It looks great. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that most of the pollen is done for the year.

    We love the screened porch. It might be the best thing we added when we built our addition a few years ago!

  • nanny2a
    10 years ago

    We have two screened porches, and spend so much time on the one off our master bedroom that itâÂÂs like an extension of the room. This time of year, however, the pollen is everywhere! Once a year my DH gets out the power washer and power washes all our siding, porches and outdoor furniture. He does the screens, also, after first spraying them down with some cleaning fluid to help loosen the stickiest pollen. We have indoor/outdoor sisal rugs on both porches, too, that get hosed down. Next weekend is power washing day, provided our unseasonably cold weather goes away!

  • momto3kiddos
    10 years ago

    Check into eze breeze panels. We are putting them on our new porch. It may be reasonable in cost since you only have one side that is screened. Basically, they are four price sliding vinyl window panels with screens. You open them all the way up when you are out there and close them to keep out pollen or even some cold in the wintertime. Makes your space more of a year round room.

  • Patricia Reese Muir
    5 years ago
    how to get cement dust off my porch screens, just using a hose does not work, made it worse looking