What we soft wash
Soft washing is the right way to clean any wall finish a pressure washer would damage. Around Prescot and across Merseyside, that covers a lot of houses:
- Coloured render systems: K Rend, monocouche, silicone and acrylic, the through-coloured finishes you see on the newer estates around Prescot, Whiston and Halewood
- Pebbledash and roughcast, standard on interwar semis from Huyton through to St Helens
- Painted render and painted brickwork on older terraced streets
- uPVC and composite cladding
- Rendered garden walls, porches and extensions
Roof tiles need the same low pressure approach, and that is covered on our roof cleaning page. If you’re not sure what your walls are finished with, just ask and we’ll tell you what it is and how we’d clean it.
Why render goes green, red and black
Merseyside gets a lot of weather off the Irish Sea, and render holds on to that moisture, especially on north-facing walls and anywhere shaded by trees or a neighbouring gable. Damp render is a perfect surface for growth. Green algae shows up first, usually low down and under the window sills. The orange and red staining you see on render all over the region is an airborne alga that thrives on modern through-coloured finishes. Black spot lichen arrives later and is the most stubborn of the lot, because it roots into the surface rather than sitting on top of it.
None of that means your render has failed. It does mean the wall is staying wet, and the longer the growth sits there, the more moisture it traps against the house.
How we clean it
- Survey. We check the render type, its condition and what is actually growing on it. Cracked or blown render gets flagged before we start, not discovered afterwards.
- Protection. Plants and grass under the working area are soaked with clean water first and rinsed again after. Anything delicate gets covered.
- Treatment. We apply a softwash solution at low pressure and let it dwell. The solution does the work, killing the algae and lichen at the root instead of shaving the top off it.
- Rinse. A gentle rinse from top to bottom carries the dead growth and the residue away.
Green and red staining usually comes off on the day. Heavy black spot lichen dies with the treatment and then weathers off over the following weeks, and a really stubborn wall sometimes needs a second visit. We’ll tell you up front which result to expect on yours.
Why we won’t jet wash your render
Putting a pressure washer on render is one of the most common mistakes in this trade. High pressure scars the texture of K Rend and monocouche and leaves stripe marks that are there for good. It knocks the stones out of pebbledash. It peels paint. Worst of all, it drives water through hairline cracks into the wall behind, so you swap a green wall for a damp one. Whether you call it jet washing, power washing or pressure washing, the machine is the same, and it does not belong on render. If a quote for your walls is suspiciously cheap, ask exactly what pressure they plan to use.
We do plenty of pressure washing, on driveways, patios and paths where the surface can take it. Walls get soft washing. Knowing which method belongs on which surface is most of the job.
Get a free fixed quote
Get in touch through the contact form and tell us what the staining is like and how high we need to reach. We’ll come back with a free quote and agree a fixed price in writing before any work starts. We cover render cleaning in Prescot, Knowsley, St Helens, east and south Liverpool, Widnes and everywhere within roughly 15 miles.
