How do you price the work?

By elevation area and access, put in writing before anything starts.

How soon after rain can you work?

As soon as the surface is not running with water.

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.

Do you cover air bricks the whole time?

Covered while the wall around them is worked and uncovered before we go.

Is thin-coat render different from sand and cement?

Yes, and it is more sensitive. Thin-coat systems get a weaker mix and a longer dwell rather than more pressure.

Will the colour be even afterwards?

Working bottom-up and one elevation at a time is what keeps it even.

Do you take the waste away?

There is very little on a wall job. What comes off the surface is rinsed to a drain that can take it.

What happens if it rains on the day?

Light rain is workable. Persistent rain moves the visit rather than compromising the treatment.

PL14 - Cornwall - 14.1 miles from PL3

Trewidland wall cleaning without high pressure

Trewidland sits in the PL14 district about 14.1 miles from our base in PL3, and the walls here are typically painted render and stone. That finish decides the method long before anything else does.

Quote for a Trewidland property

Monday to Saturday, 8am – 7pm

What helps before we arrive

Mention any planned decorating so the drying window can be built into the date.
Note any external socket or garden power run near the base of the wall.
Unlock side gates the night before if you are not going to be in, because a locked passage stops a whole elevation.
Say whether the elevation backs onto a public footpath.
Tell us if a fence panel is loose, because sheeting gets pegged to something solid.
Let us know whether the gutters have been cleared in the last couple of years.
If a security light or camera covers the elevation, tell us so it can be isolated.
Point out ground-floor windows that are painted shut, as they need different masking.

Wall build-ups common in PL14

A rendered plinth takes more water than the face above it and is usually the first band to look tired.
Coloured through-render fades gradually, so what looks like dirt on an older wall is sometimes age in the finish.
Chalking paint is a rougher surface than new paint, which is why older painted walls green faster.
Colour on a painted wall usually returns once the film on top is removed.
Loose stones and open joints are recorded and left alone rather than washed.
Treatment on stone is applied in stages so it soaks into the joints rather than running off the faces.

Diagnosis before treatment

01How quickly a splash of water darkens the surface says how porous the finish has become.
02Where the pattern is a band at the bottom, splash from the ground is doing it.
03Weep holes are counted and checked for blockage while the wall is being read.
04Photographs taken before work provide the reference for judging the result later.
05The underside of the soffit is checked, because staining there rarely stays there.
06Cracks are traced to their ends, because a crack that runs to an opening behaves differently from one that stops.
07Any staining that continues below ground level is a drainage question, not a cleaning one.
08A slow walk of the gutter line from the ground finds most of the causes worth fixing.

Damp, airflow and what feeds growth

Old sealant around window heads cracks and lets a thin trickle run down the face below.
Overflowing gutters feed the top of the wall continuously through the wet months.
Sheltered courtyards feel pleasant and dry slowly, which is a bad combination for a wall.
Render that has lost its water repellency absorbs and holds surface water instead of shedding it.
A split downpipe puts a single wet stripe down an elevation, and that stripe goes green months before anything either side of it.
Nutrients from a nearby feeding lawn or planting drift onto a wall and give growth something to work with.
Black spotting on white render is a different organism from the green film beside it, and it clears at a different rate.
Spores travel on the wind and land everywhere. What decides whether they take hold is whether the surface stays damp.
Lichen prefers hard, alkaline surfaces, which is why it shows on mortar and cills before it shows on render.

Why order matters more than speed

Where a soakaway is already struggling, wall work is planned for a drier stretch.

Gutters are cleared between the roof and the walls, so the first heavy rain does not restain a finished elevation.

Small repairs to pointing are best done after cleaning, when what needs doing is visible.

If windows were cleaned recently, tell us, and they get sheeted rather than redone.

How a softwash visit runs

1.Render beads and stop ends are inspected as work reaches them, because a lifted bead traps water behind the finish.
2.Boundary walls and gate piers are treated in the same visit only if they take the same method as the house.
3.The lance is held at a distance and an angle that lets the fan open fully instead of hitting the wall as a jet.
4.Painted elevations get a small test patch first, low down and out of sight, so failing paint is found deliberately rather than by accident.
5.Airbricks are covered for the duration and uncovered before we leave, without exception.
6.Guttering above a worked elevation is checked for standing water, because a drip mid-treatment ruins an even finish.
7.On thin-coat systems the lance is kept moving, because holding it still in one place is how a shadow mark gets left behind.
8.A pass is made along the wall head where it meets the soffit, since that band greens first and is seen least.
9.The colour keeps improving for a fortnight after the visit as dead growth loses its grip and weathers away.
10.The same operator works a whole elevation so the application rate stays consistent across it.

Questions Trewidland owners ask

How do you price the work?: By elevation area and access, put in writing before anything starts.
How soon after rain can you work?: As soon as the surface is not running with water.
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.
Do you cover air bricks the whole time?: Covered while the wall around them is worked and uncovered before we go.
Is thin-coat render different from sand and cement?: Yes, and it is more sensitive. Thin-coat systems get a weaker mix and a longer dwell rather than more pressure.
Will the colour be even afterwards?: Working bottom-up and one elevation at a time is what keeps it even.
Do you take the waste away?: There is very little on a wall job. What comes off the surface is rinsed to a drain that can take it.
What happens if it rains on the day?: Light rain is workable. Persistent rain moves the visit rather than compromising the treatment.

Guides worth a look first

Where Trewidland sits on our round

Nearest full coverage hub: Liskeard (PL14), Cornwall Council.
Typical roof covering here is slate, which affects what washes down onto the walls.
Typical wall finish here is painted render and stone, which sets the cleaning method.
Access is usually via A38 and A390.
PL14 covers 8 town hubs and 14 villages or districts in our radius.

See everywhere we cover in PL14

Within a short run of Trewidland

Send the postcode and finish type

Those two things get you a written price without a site visit in most cases.

Send the details 07830 242403

To sum up for PL14

Shade is not a fault in a house, but it is the reason one elevation always looks worse. The safest method is the one set by the weakest material on the wall, not the strongest. Wall growth is a moisture problem wearing a dirt costume. Treat the growth, sort the water, and the interval stretches out.