TQ6: Strete and Stoke Fleming on the exposed coast
TQ6 is our smallest district: two coastal hamlets on the cliff road above Start Bay, around nineteen miles out. Painted render and slate taking the full force of onshore weather, with almost nothing between the buildings and the sea.
TQ6 covers 2 places we work in, 18.9 to 19.4 miles from our base at 58 Reddington Road, Plymouth (Devon) - all inside our 20-mile radius of Plymouth.
Two villages, one very specific problem
Strete and Stoke Fleming sit high above the bay on a road that funnels onshore wind straight at the seaward elevations. Those walls get salt and driven rain; the sheltered side of the same house can look almost untouched.
There is no clever method that changes the exposure. What we can do is clean and rinse properly so the salt is actually removed rather than redistributed.
Slate that has taken decades of wind
Coastal slate weathers at the edges and the fixings corrode faster in salt air. We treat these roofs from ladder or pole and avoid loading them, because a slate that has been up here for eighty years does not need a person on it.
Realistic intervals at the coast
Anyone telling you a seafront elevation will stay clean for five years is guessing. Exposed coastal walls need doing more often, and knowing that up front is more useful than a longer promise.
Questions we get asked in TQ6
- Is it worth cleaning if it will just come back?
- Yes - removing salt and growth protects the paint and render, which is the expensive part to replace.
- How far out is this from your base?
- About nineteen miles, so inside the radius but worked as a planned day.
- Do you treat the seaward side only?
- Often, yes. It is usually the only elevation that needs it.