Exterior cleaning on the Northern Beaches

Ocean air works on every surface here. Rendered and painted walls pick up a grey salt film that dulls the colour, while the southern and shaded sides turn green with algae and black with mould, especially on fibre cement eaves and under wide verandahs. Terracotta roofs grow lichen, Colorbond collects a gritty coating on the windward side, and sandstone fences near the water show white salt bloom. Gutters fill with needles from the Norfolk Island pines along the beachfronts and leaves from gums on the bush edges, and solar panels pick up a pollen and salt layer that drops their output. Most homes need a wash every year or two.

A vetted tradie chooses the method by surface. Render, painted weatherboard, fibre cement and sandstone get a soft wash: a cleaning solution is applied, allowed to dwell, then rinsed at low pressure, and high pressure stays on concrete and hard paving. Houses built before 1990 are checked for asbestos cement first, because that material must never be pressure washed or sanded; if a tradie suspects it, work stops and you are told. Up on roofs and at gutter height the WHS Regulation calls for fall controls, so expect anchors and a harness, edge rails or long poles worked from the ground. Run-off is captured or sent to a lawn or garden, never a stormwater grate, because the drains here reach the beach.

Tell us the house type, the surfaces, the storeys and where a vehicle can park, and add photos of the worst walls. We pass the job to tradies in the network who already clean on the Beaches, and whoever picks it up rings you and quotes directly. A good written quote names each surface, the method and pressure, how wash water will be contained and whether gutters, roof or panels are included. Homeowners are not billed for any of this, and every quote can be declined. Wind and swell days are usually avoided for the upper storeys, so allow for a weather window.