How often each part of your house needs cleaning

Windows: four to eight weeks

Regular is cheaper than occasional here, because frames and rubbers never build a stubborn film and each visit stays quick. Four weekly suits coastal, roadside and tree-shaded properties where salt, traffic film and sap accumulate fast. Eight weekly is fine for a sheltered inland house. Twice a year produces glass that never really looks right, because the frames are always playing catch-up.

This guide sits under our Wall Cleaning & Softwash work, covering 20-mile radius of Plymouth.

Gutters: once a year, twice under trees

Annual clearing is the baseline and the highest-value item on the list, because the consequences of failure are structural rather than cosmetic. Add a second visit where deciduous trees overhang, and clear after any roof work or roof clean. Properties with heavy roof moss need more frequent clearing regardless of trees, because the moss keeps washing down.

Render and painted walls: two to four years

A sunny, exposed elevation can look respectable for four years or more. A north-facing wall under trees may want doing every two. The economical approach is to have the shaded elevations treated more often than the sunny ones rather than doing the whole house on one cycle. Light maintenance treatments in between extend all of these considerably.

Roofs: every five to ten years, with checks between

A roof clean is a substantial job and should not be an annual event. Done properly, with gutters kept clear and overhanging branches trimmed, most roofs go many years between full cleans. What should happen annually is a look: slipped tiles, ridge mortar, valleys and the state of the moss. Cleaning a roof more often than it needs is wear for no benefit.

Patios: annually if shaded, every two years if open

The driver here is safety rather than looks. Green film on a shaded patio is slippery by mid-autumn and stays that way until spring. An annual treatment before winter is a small job. An open, sunny patio can comfortably go two years, and longer if it is swept regularly and the furniture gets moved about.

Driveways: every one to two years

Block paving benefits from annual attention because the joints are where the problem starts and it compounds. Concrete and tarmac can generally go two years. Anything under trees or on the shaded side of the house moves to the shorter end. Sealed block paving stretches the interval and makes each clean easier.

What shortens every interval

Shade, overhanging trees, coastal salt exposure, a plot that sits in a hollow, poor drainage, a busy road and a roof already carrying moss. If several of these apply, assume the short end of every range. Conversely, an exposed, sunny, well-drained plot away from trees will comfortably beat all of them.

Bundling work sensibly

Some jobs are much cheaper done together because the access is shared. Gutters with a roof clean. Soffits and fascias with the walls. The patio at the same time as the drive. Planning the year so the access-heavy items coincide is worth more than shopping around on any single item, and it means fewer separate visits.