PL7 - Devon - 4.4 miles from PL3
Underwood exterior wall softwash, Devon
Underwood property owners usually call about colour rather than dirt. Growth flattens the tone of a render and brick finish long before anyone would call the wall unclean.
The wall finishes we meet around PL7
- A rendered plinth takes more water than the face above it and is usually the first band to look tired.
- Where render sits over insulation, the wall is more sensitive still and the mix is weakened accordingly.
- Lichen on brick roots into the mortar first because mortar is the more alkaline surface.
- Cleaned brickwork exposes the true state of the pointing, which is useful even when it is unwelcome.
Conditions around Underwood that feed growth
- A blocked weep hole means the cavity drains through the face instead of out of the hole.
- Soil banked above the damp course keeps the base of a wall permanently wet.
- Silt washed down from the roof leaves a thin feeding layer on the render below.
- Ground-level render behind a planted border is wet from irrigation as much as from weather.
- A blocked hopper head can soak the same square metre of wall for an entire winter without anyone noticing.
- A wall shaded by its own porch roof for half the day dries at half the rate of the face beside it.
- Airflow through a passage between two houses is fast but the passage itself is in permanent shade.
- Growth on a painted wall often sits on top of a paint film that has already begun to chalk.
- Overflowing gutters feed the top of the wall continuously through the wet months.
Checks made before anything is applied
- 01Where paint is peeling in flakes rather than powdering, adhesion has already gone.
- 02The ground level relative to the damp course is checked before the base of a wall is treated.
- 03Photographs taken before work provide the reference for judging the result later.
- 04How quickly a splash of water darkens the surface says how porous the finish has become.
- 05Nearby properties with the same finish are a useful reference for what is normal on that street.
- 06The elevation is read from the pavement first and from a metre away second.
- 07Where the wall carries a previous coating over render, its edges are inspected for lifting.
- 08Where the pattern is even across the whole face, exposure and aspect are the cause.
What happens on the day
- 1.Where a wall carries a satellite dish or cable run, the fixings are checked before they get wet.
- 2.Kit is set down on a groundsheet rather than on planting or paving joints.
- 3.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.
- 4.The mix is made up in small batches as the work moves, rather than one large batch that stands and weakens.
- 5.On render below a flat roof edge, the drip detail is checked, because a failed one puts the stain straight back.
- 6.Photographs are taken of anything found in poor condition, so it can be shown rather than described.
- 7.Treatment goes on from the bottom of the elevation upwards, which stops clean streaks forming where liquid runs onto dry surface.
- 8.A wall with a visible damp patch inside is treated on the dry areas only until the cause is found.
- 9.Work stops if a wall turns out to be wetter inside than out, because cleaning is not the answer to that.
- 10.Vents serving a boiler or flue are checked and left uncovered, with the elevation around them worked dry.
Access and preparation
- Say if any part of the wall has been jet washed before, and roughly when.
- Mention shared access or a right of way that we will be crossing.
- Tell us about pets in the garden before the day rather than on it.
- Let us know if scaffold or a tower is already up for other work.
- Tell us where the drains run if the garden has a soakaway rather than a mains connection.
- Let us know if anyone in the house works nights and needs quiet at a particular time.
- Say whether the side passage is wide enough for a wheeled kit trolley.
- Say if you would prefer the front done on a different day from the back.
Coverage and travel
- PL7 covers 3 town hubs and 7 villages or districts in our radius.
- Recorded character: estate. Family estate on the Plympton-Colebrook boundary.
- Plympton sits about 0.2 miles from Underwood on our round, so visits are often shared.
- Nearest full coverage hub: Plympton (PL7), Plymouth City Council.
- Typical roof covering here is concrete tile, which affects what washes down onto the walls.
Practical questions answered
- 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.
- Is a second visit ever needed?
- For heavy lichen, a lighter second application later beats increasing pressure on the first.
- Will the drive get messy?
- Anything below the elevation is rinsed off before we finish.
- Do you clean UPVC panels and door surrounds?
- They are wiped by hand rather than sprayed.
- What about the windows afterwards?
- Frames and glass in the spray path are wiped as the masking comes off.
- How long does a visit take?
- A typical two-elevation job is a few hours. A full wrap-around on a larger property is a day.
- 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.
- 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.
Neighbouring places we work
Tell us what did not last
If a previous clean came back quickly, that is useful information before we quote.
Summary
The quiet visit is the good one. Noise usually means pressure. The wall is nearly always sound. What has changed is what is living on it. Method, dwell and patience beat pressure and speed on every wall finish we work on.
Quote for a Underwood property
Monday to Saturday, 8am – 7pm