Soft Washing in Cremorne

Wall finishes change quickly as you walk through the suburb. Inter-war flats in the Cremorne Conservation Area are typically dark brick, while the houses around them are face and rendered brick on sandstone foundations, with timber verandahs and Arts and Crafts detailing. On the point you also find shingled gables, fibre cement sheeting and roughcast render. Gloucester and Windsor on Wulworra Avenue, built in 1939-40, are restrained Art Deco with elaborate polychromatic brickwork, where the colour pattern is the whole point of the facade.

Where you are in the suburb decides what is on those walls. Along the ridge, Military Road, home of the 1935 Art Deco Orpheum, is a major regional thoroughfare and a busy bus corridor. Buildings there stand right at the street edge behind continuous awnings, with apartments above the shops, so soot film collects on upper facades that nobody can reach from the footpath. Council warned in 2023 that a lane merge on Falcon Street could mean delays along it in peak periods.

Move downhill and damp takes over. Established gardens press up against walls in the conservation area, and on the slopes above Shell Cove, Mosman Bay and Willoughby Bay a rear wall can spend much of the day out of the sun, giving mould and algae their chance. Waterfront houses add a coating of salt from the harbour.

North Sydney's heritage controls ask owners to retain face brick where it is a characteristic feature, and rendering it is not permitted unless that was how the building was first finished. So a grubby brick wall in a conservation area has limited options, and washing is the one that leaves the original surface intact and readable.

For flat owners there is a budget argument too. Repainting a rendered block is a large decision for an owners corporation, and a facade that looks ready for it may only be dirty. Removing the film shows the true condition of the paint, so any spending that follows is based on evidence. If repainting does go ahead, painters then start from a clean wall.

Military Road shopkeepers and building owners get a different return. An upper level can read as grey from across the road even when the shopfront below is well kept, and washing the facade brings the two back together. Commercial and strata facades can be washed just as houses are.

Biodegradable products are safe around gardens, pets and children, a practical point in a suburb valued for its established front gardens. Eaves and fascias are included, and before-and-after photos give committees and landlords a clear record for their files.