Pressure Washing in Strathfield

Strathfield's hard surfaces are older and more varied than the average suburb, because so much of the housing is original.

Tessellated tile verandahs are the signature. They are unglazed, laid in a fine grout, and high pressure lifts tiles and strips the grout line in a single pass. Sandstone steps and kerbing on the older properties have the same vulnerability: the stone is soft, and pressure erodes the weathered face permanently.

The staining is distinctly deciduous. Plane and camphor laurel leaf sitting wet on concrete over autumn leaches a brown tannin that soaks in rather than resting on top, and jacaranda flower drop leaves a purple-grey mark that people often assume is permanent. Both need to be broken down chemically before pressure will do anything useful.

Driveways here are long, and the older ones are plain slab or brick paving rather than modern exposed aggregate. Shaded side paths between the house and the boundary hold moisture and grow moss, which on a set of original sandstone steps is a genuine slip risk.

We set pressure by surface and go in low on stone, tessellated tile and old brick paving.

A tessellated verandah is one of the defining features of a Strathfield period home, and it is also the surface most often ruined by well-intentioned cleaning.

Those tiles are unglazed and set in fine grout. High pressure lifts them and strips the grout line, and re-laying a tessellated verandah to match the original pattern is specialist work with a long lead time. The benefit of the right method here is simply that you still have the verandah afterwards.

Sandstone steps and kerbing carry the same risk, and both are original to houses where original detail is a substantial part of the value.

On the driveways and paths, the win is that the staining comes out. Tannin from matted plane leaf and the purple-grey marking left by jacaranda flower both look permanent and generally are not, provided they are broken down chemically before pressure is applied rather than simply blasted.

There is a seasonal logic to it too. Cleaning after the autumn drop clears the material that would otherwise sit wet on the surface all winter, which is when most of the staining actually forms.