PL17: mining-country granite around Callington
PL17 is old mining country on the Cornish side of the Tamar. Granite cottages and painted render in the villages, a small market town at Callington, and a lot of properties tucked into the wooded valleys that run down towards the river.
PL17 covers 9 places we work in, 10.2 to 15.7 miles from our base at 58 Reddington Road, Plymouth (Cornwall, Cornwall Council) - all inside our 20-mile radius of Plymouth.
Towns and suburbs in PL17
Villages and neighbourhoods in PL17
Valley shade is the driving factor
Harrowbarrow, Metherell and Luckett sit low in wooded valleys. They get less direct sun, more leaf litter and a longer damp season than anywhere on higher ground a mile away.
The visible result is heavy algae on north and east elevations, moss on low-pitched roofs, and gutters that block every autumn without fail.
Granite with painted dressings
The typical building here is granite rubble with painted render or lime around the openings. Those painted bands are where growth shows first, and they are also the most fragile part of the elevation.
We treat the whole wall to an even standard rather than cleaning the granite hard and the paintwork softly, which is what produces a patchy finish.
Callington town properties
In the town itself the stock is mixed - render, some brick, concrete tile on newer builds. Straightforward softwash territory, and the results come up quickly.
Reached via A388, A390. Recorded wall finishes: painted render, granite, stone. Roof coverings: slate, Cornish slate.
Questions we get asked in PL17
- Why is only the bottom half of my wall green?
- Splash-back and rising damp keep the lower section wetter for longer. It is the usual pattern on valley properties.
- Do overhanging trees really make that much difference?
- Yes. Shade plus leaf drip is the single biggest cause of fast regrowth in this district.
- Can you treat a roof that is only slightly mossy?
- Yes, and it is the easiest point to deal with it - before the moss mat gets thick enough to hold water.