Softwash for walls in and around North Prospect
painted render and brick walls, concrete interlocking tile roofs, 2.2 miles from the yard.
This page is about one job in one place: cleaning painted render and brick walls in North Prospect, Devon. Softwash means chemistry and dwell time doing the work rather than pressure.
The Devon detail
- Typical roof covering here is concrete interlocking tile, which affects what washes down onto the walls.
- Postcode district: PL2. County: Devon. Approx 2.2 miles from the PL3 base.
- Stoke sits about 1 miles from North Prospect on our round, so visits are often shared.
- Access is usually via A374.
- Typical wall finish here is painted render and brick, which sets the cleaning method.
painted render and brick and what it needs
- Thin-coat systems are thinner than people assume, and a jet held still in one place leaves a permanent shadow.
- Patched render takes treatment differently from the original, which is why patches are identified before work starts.
- Lichen on brick roots into the mortar first because mortar is the more alkaline surface.
- Brick plinths below a damp course carry ground moisture and stay damper than the face above.
- 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.
Application, dwell and rinse
- 1.External drains below the work are covered with a grate mat and cleared before we leave.
- 2.Any garden furniture within the spray arc moves before the mix is made up, not while the lance is running.
- 3.A short rinse of the whole face at the end removes residue rather than removing growth, which is a different job done at a different pressure.
- 4.Hoses run outside gates where children or dogs are about, and gates are closed behind us each time.
- 5.Application is by low-pressure fan, closer to a garden sprayer than a washer, and the wall is wetted evenly rather than saturated in patches.
- 6.Where a pond or water feature sits below an elevation, it is covered and the run-off diverted well away from it.
- 7.Photographs are taken of anything found in poor condition, so it can be shown rather than described.
- 8.Where a wall runs straight down to a lawn, a run of sheeting is pegged along the base instead of relying on dilution alone.
- 9.Anything found broken before we arrived is photographed before work starts, not after.
- 10.Vents, extractor terminals and trickle vents get taped, because water pushed into them is the one thing that turns an exterior job into an interior one.
The survey we do in North Prospect
- 01A slow walk of the gutter line from the ground finds most of the causes worth fixing.
- 02Where paint is peeling in flakes rather than powdering, adhesion has already gone.
- 03The state of the pointing is judged at the most exposed corner, not the most convenient one.
- 04The mortar is tested with a key at a discreet point, since soft mortar sets the whole method.
- 05Where the pattern is vertical and narrow, plumbing is looked at before chemistry is.
- 06Colour matters: green suggests algae, black suggests fungal spotting, grey-white crust suggests lichen.
- 07Where the pattern is even across the whole face, exposure and aspect are the cause.
- 08The condition of the cills tells you how much water has been running down the face.
Where wall work sits in a North Prospect visit
If a decorator is due, the wall clean goes in first and is given time to dry fully.
Solar panels are cleaned separately from the roof slope they sit on, and after it.
If windows were cleaned recently, tell us, and they get sheeted rather than redone.
Rendering or repair work should always finish before cleaning starts, never the other way round.
What to tell us in advance
- Note where hoses can be run without crossing a doorway.
- Tell us where the drains run if the garden has a soakaway rather than a mains connection.
- Point out any window that does not seal properly, so it gets sheeted rather than sprayed near.
- Tell us if a fence panel is loose, because sheeting gets pegged to something solid.
- Mention any planned decorating so the drying window can be built into the date.
- Say whether the elevation backs onto a public footpath.
- Say whether the side passage is wide enough for a wheeled kit trolley.
- Mention any glazing you already know is cracked before work starts.
Straight answers before you book
- Will you tell me if the job is not worth doing?
- Yes. If the staining is in the substrate rather than on it, cleaning will not change much and we will say so.
- Do you clean boundary walls too?
- If they take the same method as the house, yes, in the same visit.
- Is there a smell?
- There is a mild one during application that clears within a few hours.
- Will the drive get messy?
- Anything below the elevation is rinsed off before we finish.
- Will the wall need doing again next year?
- Not usually. How long it holds depends on shade, run-off and airflow rather than on the treatment.
- Is a second visit ever needed?
- For heavy lichen, a lighter second application later beats increasing pressure on the first.
- Will my drive be slippery afterwards?
- Anything walked on is rinsed clear before we leave.
- Is timber cladding treated the same way?
- No. Cladding takes a weaker mix, and pressure is avoided entirely because it raises the grain.
Other Devon places on the same round
The essentials
Written scope first means nothing is discovered late. The point is not a clean wall for a fortnight. It is a wall that stays clean because the roots went with the surface growth. If a previous clean did not last, the cause was probably never dealt with.
Not a hard sell
If the job is not worth doing yet, we will tell you that and you can call us next year.
Quote for a North Prospect property
Monday to Saturday, 8am – 7pm