PL7: Plympton old town, estates and everything between
PL7 contains two completely different housing stocks. Plympton St Maurice and Ridgeway hold old slate-roofed stone and render; Chaddlewood, Woodford and Colebrook are estate-built with concrete tile and modern render. The right method depends entirely on which half of the district you are in.
PL7 covers 10 places we work in, 4.2 to 6.9 miles from our base at 58 Reddington Road, Plymouth (Devon, Plymouth City Council, South Hams District Council) - all inside our 20-mile radius of Plymouth.
Towns and suburbs in PL7
Villages and neighbourhoods in PL7
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.
Reached via A38, A374, local lanes off A38, local lanes off A386. Recorded wall finishes: render, painted render, brick. Roof coverings: concrete tile, slate, mix of slate in old town.
Questions we get asked in PL7
- 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.