Wall softwash for Twowatersfoot homes
A38 junction where the Fowey meets the Neot.
We work Twowatersfoot as part of the Dobwalls round, which keeps travel down. Wall softwash is the service most often asked about here because painted stone and render shows growth earlier than brick does.
Quote for a Twowatersfoot property
Monday to Saturday, 8am – 7pm
Shade, damp and run-off
- Where a wall sits below a bank or a raised garden, water arrives at it sideways rather than from above.
- Frost damage opens the surface slightly, which gives the next season's growth somewhere to sit.
- Roof debris shed from a mossy slope lands on the same band of wall year after year.
- Where a wall carries a heavy climbing plant, the fabric behind it is nearly always damper than the rest.
- Lichen prefers hard, alkaline surfaces, which is why it shows on mortar and cills before it shows on render.
- Pebbledash holds water in the shadow of every stone, so it stays damp long after a flat render has dried.
- A conservatory or extension roof abutting a wall throws water back at it every time it rains.
- A blocked weep hole means the cavity drains through the face instead of out of the hole.
- Once lichen is established it holds water itself, which makes the surface beneath it wetter than it started.
Twowatersfoot at a glance
- PL14 covers 8 town hubs and 14 villages or districts in our radius.
- Postcode district: PL14. County: Cornwall. Approx 17.7 miles from the PL3 base.
- Typical roof covering here is slate, which affects what washes down onto the walls.
- Access is usually via A38.
- Recorded character: farming hamlet. A38 junction where the Fowey meets the Neot.
Surfaces this page is written for
- Render that has lost its water repellency absorbs surface water instead of shedding it, which extends every damp spell.
- Bead edges and stop ends on a rendered elevation are the details worth protecting from driven water.
- Masonry paint over render adds a film that traps moisture if the substrate was damp when it was applied.
- Where a painted wall has been patch-repainted, the patches clean at a different rate.
- Loose stones and open joints are recorded and left alone rather than washed.
- Copings on stone boundary walls take the worst of the weather and the worst of the growth.
Reading the surface
- 01Any staining that continues below ground level is a drainage question, not a cleaning one.
- 02Hollow-sounding render is checked by tapping before any water is put onto it.
- 03A short section of hose test shows whether run-off drains away or ponds at the base.
- 04How quickly a splash of water darkens the surface says how porous the finish has become.
- 05A fingernail drawn across the growth says more in a second than a photograph does.
- 06The angle of morning sun on the elevation tells you how long it stays damp.
- 07The direction the growth thickens in points at the source of the moisture.
- 08Where the pattern is a band at the top, the gutter line is doing it.
Planning a full exterior in Twowatersfoot
Solar panels are cleaned separately from the roof slope they sit on, and after it.
Where a soakaway is already struggling, wall work is planned for a drier stretch.
Patio joints are checked before the wall above them is treated, since loose sand washes into puddles.
The number of elevations completed in one visit depends on their area, access, condition and weather.
Before the day in Twowatersfoot
- Tell us if a gutter has been overflowing, because that changes what we look at first.
- 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.
- Warn us about a soft lawn or an unmade drive so boards come on the van.
- Tell us where the drains run if the garden has a soakaway rather than a mains connection.
- Note where hoses can be run without crossing a doorway.
- Say if the property has a flat roof section that we would be working above.
- Say whether the elevation backs onto a public footpath.
Within a short run of Twowatersfoot
Questions Twowatersfoot owners ask
- Do you work weekends?
- We work Monday to Saturday, 8am to 7pm.
- 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.
- Do you need my electricity?
- No. Kit runs off the van.
- Do you treat mortar joints separately?
- The method is set by the mortar because it is nearly always the softest thing on the wall.
- Do you use a pressure washer at all on a wall visit?
- Only on hard surfaces below it, like paving, and never on the wall finish itself.
- 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.
- Will my drive be slippery afterwards?
- Anything walked on is rinsed clear before we leave.
- Can you clean a wall before painting?
- Yes, and it should be done first. Paint over live growth fails from underneath.
Saturday works too
Monday to Saturday, 8am to 7pm, so it need not eat your working week.
To sum up for PL14
If a previous clean did not last, the cause was probably never dealt with. The wall dictates the method. Everything else on this page follows from that one rule. The mortar is the weakest link on most walls, so the mortar sets the pressure.