Exterior cleaning in Plympton
Plympton is an old market town that now sits inside Plymouth, east of the A38, about four and a half miles from us. The housing splits cleanly in two: Georgian townhouses around St Maurice, and 1970s estates with modern detached homes around them.
That split decides the method. Painted brick, natural stone and slate in the old town need a gentler approach than the render and concrete tile on the estates.
Old town: slate, lime and narrow lanes
Around the old town the roofs are natural slate, often on original battens, and the walls are stone or lime-based render. Both want treating rather than washing, and access is frequently a lane rather than a drive.
We carry hose rather than driving the van up to the wall in these streets, which takes longer but avoids the argument with the neighbours.
Estates: concrete tile and moss
Concrete interlocking tile is porous and it grows moss thickly, particularly on the shallow-pitched garage and extension roofs that estate housing is full of. Moss holds water on the tile, and in a hard frost that water is what breaks the surface up.
We treat rather than scrape wherever we can, because scraping wet moss off concrete tile takes the top skin with it.
Driveways and block paving
PL7 has more block paving than most of our districts. Block takes a rotary flat-surface clean well, but the sand needs replacing afterwards or the blocks work loose - that is part of the job, not an extra.
Questions from Plympton
- Should moss be scraped off a concrete tile roof?
- We avoid it. Scraping damp concrete tile removes the surface skin and shortens the life of the roof. Treating and letting it fall is gentler.
- Will cleaning my block paving wash the sand out?
- It disturbs it, yes, which is why we re-sand as part of the work.
- Can you get to a property up one of the old lanes?
- Usually. We run hose from wherever we can legally park.