Softwash for walls in and around Sydenham Damerel
cob and stone walls, slate roofs, 15.9 miles from the yard.
Sydenham Damerel sits in the PL19 district about 15.9 miles from our base in PL3, and the walls here are typically cob and stone. That finish decides the method long before anything else does.
The Devon detail
- Recorded character: farming hamlet. Tamar-valley farming parish.
- Typical roof covering here is slate, which affects what washes down onto the walls.
- PL19 covers 5 town hubs and 12 villages or districts in our radius.
- Tavistock sits about 2.4 miles from Sydenham Damerel on our round, so visits are often shared.
- Nearest full coverage hub: Tavistock (PL19), West Devon Borough Council.
cob and stone and what it needs
- Cleaning stone reveals natural colour variation, which some owners expect to be uniform and it never is.
- The rinse on stone is gentle enough that nothing is driven into an open joint.
- A cob wall relies on staying dry inside, so any method that soaks it is the wrong method.
- Growth on cob is usually treated in light passes with long gaps rather than one wet application.
Application, dwell and rinse
- 1.Mortar joints that have already lost material are pointed out and left alone rather than washed further open.
- 2.External light fittings are switched off at the consumer unit before the elevation around them is treated.
- 3.Boundary walls and gate piers are treated in the same visit only if they take the same method as the house.
- 4.Paving, steps and paths below the elevation are rinsed clear at the end of the visit.
- 5.Guttering above a worked elevation is checked for standing water, because a drip mid-treatment ruins an even finish.
- 6.Ridge and verge debris that has landed on the wall head is brushed off dry before anything wet goes on.
- 7.Where a property has solar panels on a wall-facing slope, the array is sheeted before treatment starts below.
- 8.On thin-coat systems the lance is kept moving, because holding it still in one place is how a shadow mark gets left behind.
- 9.Anything that has to be moved - bins, planters, a bike - goes back exactly where it was found.
- 10.Ground-level splash marks are worked separately from the main face, since they are silt rather than growth.
The survey we do in Sydenham Damerel
- 01The elevation is read from the pavement first and from a metre away second.
- 02A damp meter reading inside a stained corner separates a cleaning job from a building problem.
- 03Old repair patches are identified early, because they take treatment differently from the surrounding finish.
- 04Where paint is peeling in flakes rather than powdering, adhesion has already gone.
- 05Whether the property is exposed or sheltered is judged on the day, not from a map.
- 06Hollow-sounding render is checked by tapping before any water is put onto it.
- 07Cracks are traced to their ends, because a crack that runs to an opening behaves differently from one that stops.
- 08Where the pattern is a band at the top, the gutter line is doing it.
Where wall work sits in a Sydenham Damerel visit
Roof work always precedes wall work, because everything released from the slope lands on the elevation below it.
Driveways come after walls so that run-off from the elevation is rinsed away as part of the drive work.
Patio joints are checked before the wall above them is treated, since loose sand washes into puddles.
Where only walls are being done, the gutter line is still checked, because it is the usual culprit behind the worst staining.
What to tell us in advance
- Mention any planned decorating so the drying window can be built into the date.
- Say if there is a wasp or bird nest under the eaves, and we will plan around it.
- Say if any part of the wall has been jet washed before, and roughly when.
- Clear the base of the elevation of pots, ornaments and loose paving where you can.
- Let us know if scaffold or a tower is already up for other work.
- Note where the electricity meter and consumer unit sit relative to the wall.
- Mention any glazing you already know is cracked before work starts.
- Warn us about a soft lawn or an unmade drive so boards come on the van.
Asked most often in PL19
- What if I only want the front done?
- That is the most common request on this kind of job.
- Is timber cladding treated the same way?
- No. Cladding takes a weaker mix, and pressure is avoided entirely because it raises the grain.
- Will it damage the pointing?
- No. That is exactly what pressure does and softwash avoids.
- Will the colour come back?
- If the original finish is sound, the colour underneath is usually still there and comes back with the growth removed.
- Can lichen be removed completely?
- The organism is killed, and what is left weathers off. Deeply rooted lichen on stone can take a season to fade.
- Do you clean garages and outbuildings?
- Yes, if they are part of the same visit and take the same method.
- When does a treated wall show its final appearance?
- Some change can be visible after treatment, while remaining dead growth may continue to weather away over the following days.
- 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.
Close to Sydenham Damerel
Sydenham Damerel wall softwash, in short
Killing growth and removing growth are two different jobs, and only one of them lasts. Access and surface type decide the plan far more than the size of the house does. Ask what will be used and how long it will be left on. The answers tell you everything.
Not sure whether it is walls or gutters?
Send a picture of the staining pattern. Where it sits usually tells us what is causing it.
Quote for a Sydenham Damerel property
Monday to Saturday, 8am – 7pm