PL12 - Cornwall - 5.1 miles from PL3
Trematon walls: method before pressure
Cleaning walls in Trematon is a slow, quiet job done at low pressure. It is nothing like a driveway wash, and on painted render and stone that difference is the whole point.
Quote for a Trematon property
Monday to Saturday, 8am – 7pm
What helps before we arrive
- Tell us if there is a low wall or a step at the base of the elevation that gets slippery.
- Say whether the side passage is wide enough for a wheeled kit trolley.
- Mention whether the drive drains to a soakaway that already struggles in heavy rain.
- Say if any part of the wall has been jet washed before, and roughly when.
- If there are children's toys or a trampoline against the wall, they need to move.
- Unlock side gates the night before if you are not going to be in, because a locked passage stops a whole elevation.
- Say if the property has a flat roof section that we would be working above.
- Note any external socket or garden power run near the base of the wall.
Wall build-ups common in PL12
- Render cleans up well at low pressure and badly at high pressure, because pressure removes the finish along with the growth.
- Where render sits over insulation, the wall is more sensitive still and the mix is weakened accordingly.
- That gets pointed out before work starts rather than discovered halfway through.
- Colour on a painted wall usually returns once the film on top is removed.
- Lime mortar in a stone wall is softer than the stone by design, and that design is worth respecting.
- Treatment on stone is applied in stages so it soaks into the joints rather than running off the faces.
Diagnosis before treatment
- 01Where the pattern is a band at the top, the gutter line is doing it.
- 02A damp meter reading inside a stained corner separates a cleaning job from a building problem.
- 03Efflorescence is distinguished from lichen before anything is applied, since one is salt and one is alive.
- 04The condition of the cills tells you how much water has been running down the face.
- 05The mortar is tested with a key at a discreet point, since soft mortar sets the whole method.
- 06Nearby properties with the same finish are a useful reference for what is normal on that street.
- 07The ground level relative to the damp course is checked before the base of a wall is treated.
- 08The direction the growth thickens in points at the source of the moisture.
Damp, airflow and what feeds growth
- Roof valleys concentrate run-off, so the wall under a valley outlet is loaded more heavily than anywhere else.
- Tree canopy overhead drips long after the rain has stopped and drops organic debris onto the wall face.
- Render that has lost its water repellency absorbs and holds surface water instead of shedding it.
- Rain shadow works both ways: the sheltered face stays dry of rain but also of the washing that rain provides.
- Spores travel on the wind and land everywhere. What decides whether they take hold is whether the surface stays damp.
- Driven rain sticks to a wall face rather than running off it, which keeps the surface wet long enough for spores to settle.
- Wall growth often maps exactly to where a previous extension roof used to sit.
- Render laid over a colder substrate holds surface condensation into the morning.
- Pebbledash holds water in the shadow of every stone, so it stays damp long after a flat render has dried.
What to book before and after the walls
Booking services out of order is the commonest reason a clean seems not to have lasted.
Glass is done last on any multi-service visit, since it picks up whatever the earlier stages put in the air.
A wall treated in autumn goes into winter clean, which is when it matters most.
Solar panels are cleaned separately from the roof slope they sit on, and after it.
How a softwash visit runs
- 1.Ground-level splash marks are worked separately from the main face, since they are silt rather than growth.
- 2.Treatment goes on from the bottom of the elevation upwards, which stops clean streaks forming where liquid runs onto dry surface.
- 3.Rinsing, where it is needed at all, runs top down at a pressure you could hold your hand in front of.
- 4.Where a pond or water feature sits below an elevation, it is covered and the run-off diverted well away from it.
- 5.The lance tip is changed rather than the pressure raised whenever coverage is not even enough.
- 6.Hoses run outside gates where children or dogs are about, and gates are closed behind us each time.
- 7.Work stops if a wall turns out to be wetter inside than out, because cleaning is not the answer to that.
- 8.Mortar joints that have already lost material are pointed out and left alone rather than washed further open.
- 9.A final walk of each finished elevation happens with the property owner where they are home, and by photograph where they are not.
- 10.Treatments are kept away from vegetable beds entirely, with those sections sheeted rather than diluted.
Before you get in touch
- 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.
- Should the gutters be done at the same time?
- Usually. Overflow is behind a large share of wall staining, so clearing it protects the work.
- Do you cover air bricks the whole time?
- Covered while the wall around them is worked and uncovered before we go.
- Will you tell me if the gutters are the real problem?
- Yes, and it is common enough that the gutter line is checked on every wall visit.
- Can you clean a wall before painting?
- Yes, and it should be done first. Paint over live growth fails from underneath.
- What is the difference between this and a wash down?
- A wash down removes what you can see. A treatment removes what is growing, which is not the same thing.
- Do you offer a maintenance visit?
- A lighter top-up treatment every couple of years is much less work than leaving it until it is heavy again.
- Do you clean garages and outbuildings?
- Yes, if they are part of the same visit and take the same method.
Where Trematon sits on our round
- Nearest full coverage hub: Saltash (PL12), Cornwall Council.
- PL12 covers 8 town hubs and 13 villages or districts in our radius.
- Access is usually via A38 and Tamar Bridge.
- Postcode district: PL12. County: Cornwall. Approx 5.1 miles from the PL3 base.
- Recorded character: village. Norman castle village south-west of Saltash.
Also covered near PL12
Get it written down
Scope and price in writing before anything starts, so there is nothing to argue about afterwards.
The short version
The quiet visit is the good one. Noise usually means pressure. A wall is part of a system that includes the roof above it and the ground below it. One elevation done properly is better than four done quickly. Monday to Saturday, 8am to 7pm.