Bickleigh's wall cleaning & softwash specialists

What we see on Bickleigh properties

If the wall cleaning & softwash at your Bickleigh property has started looking tired, you're not alone. Septic-served properties make it worth thinking about runoff before any cleaning starts. Bickleigh sits in Devon at PL6, close enough to yelverton that we regularly share visits.

Small village north of Plymouth beside Bickleigh Barracks and the Plym woods, which shapes how wall cleaning & softwash on painted render and stone and natural slate and concrete tile actually plays out around PL6. We're frequently in and around PL6, so booking-day flexibility is easier than people expect.

We never sub-contract out — the crew that quotes the job is the crew that does the job. We keep two vans on the road, which is why illness or weather rarely pushes a booking more than a day or two. Softwash and pressure washing are two different jobs with two different rigs — we don't try to force one to do the other. Second-home owners tend to book us on annual visits with a photo pack rather than being on site. Every visit finishes with a five-minute tidy — sand brushed in, debris bagged, tap turned off. Water usage is metered and quoted realistically — we never charge for water we didn't use. We book the last Friday of each month as a catch-up day, so short-notice fixes rarely wait more than a fortnight. Emergency gutter clears after a storm get slotted in the same week, not the same month. Wall softwash finishes with a plinth rinse in every case, which is where the streaks would otherwise settle. Windows include the frames, the sills, the trickle vents and the cill drain holes, always. Runoff is diverted with drain bungs where soakaways feed straight into wildlife ponds. We photograph at three points during a wall softwash — plinth, mid-elevation and eaves — for the record. Long-run gutters get flushed from both ends after clearing, not just one end. Winter drive seals are cured under a tarp and a heater for the last two hours so overnight rain doesn't spoil the finish. Every re-clean under our guarantee is done inside seven days, no argument about who was right.

Materials & methods we'd use here

Most Bickleigh properties we treat have painted render and stone walls and a natural slate and concrete tile roof. That changes a few of the choices we'd make.

• Method

  Quaternary ammonium surfactant added so biocide clings to your painted render and stone elevation in Bickleigh - noted on painted render and stone - worth combining with the gutters if they're due at the same time.

• Method

  Low-volume rinse from a high-flow tank - critical on the softer finishes you see across stone cottages and military married quarters - noted across natural slate and concrete tile - handled with the same rig we use for coastal properties.

• Method

  Suitable for K-Rend, Weber and silicone renders — common on the newer rural village properties around PL6 - noted on stone cottages stock - the reason our reviews mention 'no surprises' more than anything.

• Method

  Lime render handled with a half-strength mix and a longer dwell — important on older Bickleigh stock - noted at exposed exposure - and it's exactly the sort of job the fleet was set up for.

Where it usually starts in Bickleigh

• Render staining at the plinth on rural village properties along the A386 - at exposed exposure - a job that suits softwash first, pressure never.
• Black biofilm on painted render and stone where the prevailing wind blows in off Small village north of Plymouth beside Bickleigh Barracks and the Plym woods - in the West Devon Borough Council patch - usually easier once the outside taps are back on in April.
• Pebbledash gone blotchy where a gutter has overflowed all season on stone cottages and military married quarters - 5.7 miles from PL3 - the sort of thing owners notice from the road first.
• Surface lichen on the south side of painted render and stone - common on rural village stock in PL6 - at roughly 50.447,-4.104 - the difference between a two-year finish and a five-year one.
• Discolouration where downpipes meet painted render and stone - near-universal on rural village properties this far from PL3 - on painted render and stone - worth combining with the gutters if they're due at the same time.

Nearby areas we also cover

Things Bickleigh customers ask us first