Pressure Washing in St Ives

Blocks in St Ives are generous, and the paved area that comes with them is correspondingly large: long driveways from the street, wide aprons, and paths running down the side and around the rear.

Tannin is the distinctive local stain. Eucalypt and turpentine leaves sitting wet on concrete leach a brown pigment that penetrates rather than sitting on top, and it is worst where litter collects and stays damp, which on these blocks means the shaded southern side and anywhere under the canopy line. Plain water and pressure alone will lighten it but not lift it; the concrete needs a treatment that breaks down the organic staining first.

Moss is the other issue and, on a sloping driveway or a set of steps, the more dangerous one. Under the heavy canopy here, surfaces stay damp for days after rain, and through winter a shaded path can develop a genuinely slippery film.

The surfaces vary more than they first appear: plain slab on the older builds, exposed aggregate and stencilled concrete on the renovated properties, and sandstone flagging where the block falls away. We set pressure by surface and drop it right down for stone and older pavers.

Most St Ives owners assume the brown discolouration on their driveway is permanent. It usually is not, and that is the single most useful thing to know about cleaning hard surfaces here.

Tannin from wet eucalypt litter penetrates concrete rather than sitting on top, which is why hosing and even ordinary pressure washing only lighten it. Treated properly, with a product that breaks the organic staining down before pressure is applied, most of it lifts. The difference between that and resurfacing a long driveway is thousands of dollars.

The safety case is just as strong. Shaded paths and sloping driveways under this much canopy carry a moss film for most of winter, and on a steep drive that is a genuine hazard for anyone walking it.

Because blocks here are large, hard surfaces represent a big share of what a visitor actually sees. A clean driveway and entry path lift the presentation of the whole property more than almost any other single job.

Setting pressure by surface protects the sandstone flagging that turns up on the older properties.