TQ7 - Devon - 17.2 miles from PL3
Treating growth on cob and painted render in Chillington
Chillington is a village within the TQ7 area, roughly 17.2 miles out from PL3 and one of 36 places we cover in that district. Its cob and painted render walls behave in a predictable way once you know the exposure.
Chillington is listed as a small A379 village near Kingsbridge, with cob and painted render under slate. For that construction, coating integrity comes before appearance. The check follows the rendered skin around corners and openings to find cracks, exposed cob, dense repair patches or failing paint. Road-facing and sheltered elevations are considered separately because their deposits and drying conditions may differ, although no treatment choice is made until the surface is tested. Where the finish is intact, a discreet trial can establish response; where it is weak, cleaning pauses so repair advice can take priority over cosmetic change.
Quote for a Chillington property
Monday to Saturday, 8am – 7pm
What helps before we arrive
- Let us know if anyone in the house works nights and needs quiet at a particular time.
- Say whether the side passage is wide enough for a wheeled kit trolley.
- Clear the base of the elevation of pots, ornaments and loose paving where you can.
- If parking needs a permit or a bay suspension, tell us early.
- Point out where the render was patched, since patches clean differently from the original.
- Tell us about any previous treatment that came back quickly, and how quickly.
- Tell us if there is a low wall or a step at the base of the elevation that gets slippery.
- Tell us about any planting you particularly care about at the base of the wall.
Wall build-ups common in TQ7
- Cracks in render change the staining pattern, because water then sits behind the face as well as on it.
- Bead edges and stop ends on a rendered elevation are the details worth protecting from driven water.
- A test patch low down and out of sight is how failing paint is found deliberately.
- Gloss-painted details like cills are wiped rather than sprayed.
- Where cob has been cement-rendered at some point, that render traps moisture and the wall behaves badly.
- Thatch or deep eaves above cob change how much of the wall ever gets wet.
Diagnosis before treatment
- 01Where a wall meets a roof abutment, the flashing is looked at first.
- 02The ground level relative to the damp course is checked before the base of a wall is treated.
- 03How quickly a splash of water darkens the surface says how porous the finish has become.
- 04The elevation is read from the pavement first and from a metre away second.
- 05Efflorescence is distinguished from lichen before anything is applied, since one is salt and one is alive.
- 06The mortar is tested with a key at a discreet point, since soft mortar sets the whole method.
- 07The state of the pointing is judged at the most exposed corner, not the most convenient one.
- 08Colour matters: green suggests algae, black suggests fungal spotting, grey-white crust suggests lichen.
Damp, airflow and what feeds growth
- A wall behind a dense fence panel is in still air permanently, and still air never dries anything quickly.
- Where two properties share a wall of different finishes, the finishes weather at different speeds and look mismatched.
- Soil banked above the damp course keeps the base of a wall permanently wet.
- Guttering that has dropped at one end holds standing water and drips continuously at the low point.
- Once lichen is established it holds water itself, which makes the surface beneath it wetter than it started.
- Concrete render plinths wick moisture upward from the ground more readily than the face above them.
- Roof valleys concentrate run-off, so the wall under a valley outlet is loaded more heavily than anywhere else.
- Black spotting on white render is a different organism from the green film beside it, and it clears at a different rate.
- Roof debris shed from a mossy slope lands on the same band of wall year after year.
Order of work, top down
Driveways come after walls so that run-off from the elevation is rinsed away as part of the drive work.
A first clean is heavier work than the ones that follow, so the interval afterwards can be longer than people expect.
Solar panels are cleaned separately from the roof slope they sit on, and after it.
If a decorator is due, the wall clean goes in first and is given time to dry fully.
How a softwash visit runs
- 1.Where a wall runs straight down to a lawn, a run of sheeting is pegged along the base instead of relying on dilution alone.
- 2.Where a property is rendered onto insulation, extra care goes into avoiding water at the bead edges.
- 3.Steps and thresholds get a plain water rinse at the end so nothing is left slippery.
- 4.Anything that has to be moved - bins, planters, a bike - goes back exactly where it was found.
- 5.Where a wall carries a satellite dish or cable run, the fixings are checked before they get wet.
- 6.Any garden furniture within the spray arc moves before the mix is made up, not while the lance is running.
- 7.Where a wall has been previously jet washed, the damaged band is treated at a reduced strength.
- 8.Expected rain is considered before application because the treatment needs suitable dwell time on the wall.
- 9.Where a property has solar panels on a wall-facing slope, the array is sheeted before treatment starts below.
- 10.Paving, steps and paths below the elevation are rinsed clear at the end of the visit.
Questions Chillington owners ask
- Does anyone need to be home?
- No. It is outside work. Access to the elevations, ideally an outside tap, and windows shut for the visit.
- What happens to the growth after it dies?
- It loses its grip and weathers off over the following weeks, which is why the wall keeps improving.
- How is a quote put together?
- By elevation area, surface type and access, written down before anything starts.
- Do you treat garden and boundary walls on their own?
- Yes, where the method matches and access allows.
- Can you quote from photographs?
- For most straightforward jobs, yes. Awkward access is worth a look in person.
- Can I get the roof done at the same time?
- Yes, and the roof goes first so what comes off it does not land on clean walls.
- What if there is a wasp nest under the eaves?
- We stop and leave that section. It gets picked up after the nest has been dealt with.
- Is the water mains-fed?
- From your outside tap where there is one. Where there is not, we bring it with us.
Where Chillington sits on our round
- Typical roof covering here is slate, which affects what washes down onto the walls.
- Access is usually via A379 and A381.
- Postcode district: TQ7. County: Devon. Approx 17.2 miles from the PL3 base.
- TQ7 covers 7 town hubs and 29 villages or districts in our radius.
- Typical wall finish here is cob and painted render, which sets the cleaning method.
Within a short run of Chillington
Small job, same care
A porch, a plinth or a single gable is still worth doing properly.
To sum up for TQ7
Nothing on this page needs a site visit to price if you can send a couple of clear photographs. One elevation, two elevations or the whole property. The method does not change, only the time it takes. Doing the roof, gutters and walls in the right order is most of the value.