Soft Washing in Crows Nest

Two kinds of dirt meet in Crows Nest, and they follow the road pattern. Along the Pacific Highway and Falcon Street, both named in the planning controls as major sub-arterial thoroughfares, facades take a grey film from passing traffic. The strip has been dealing with cars for a long time: council's historian links its growth as a commercial centre to the traffic that followed the Harbour Bridge in 1932. Shops here are built to the street boundary with no setback, so the wall sits right beside the source.

Above the awning, that film is easy to leave for years. At 29a Willoughby Road, the 1929 detailing survives over the shopfront, and the two-storey parapet line along Willoughby Road and the highway is a feature of the centre. Ledges, mouldings and sills hold soot where rain does little to rinse them.

In the side streets the problem is biological. Holtermann Estate cottages are close together on narrow lots, with face brick, weatherboard or render over sandstone foundations and verandahs shading the front wall. Side passages can stay damp, and mould and mildew tend to establish there first, along with eaves and fascia boards.

Flats add scale rather than complexity. Apartments make up much of the housing here, from small 1940s blocks such as 196a West Street to much newer buildings, and their facades are usually a strata decision.

When brick turns dull, paint can seem like the quick answer. In the Holtermann Estate conservation areas it is the wrong one: painting or rendering face brick is named as uncharacteristic, and once done it is very hard to reverse. A low-pressure wash takes off the growth and grime and shows what colour the wall really is, without the force that damages mortar.

Painted surfaces gain too. Weatherboards and rendered walls that look tired are often just dirty, and washing tells you whether the coating is still sound. If repainting is due, your painter starts with a clean surface, and if it is not, you have saved yourself the job for now.

On a shop, the upper facade does a lot of quiet work. North Sydney's signage controls favour small signs and the traditional parapet shopfront in the Crows Nest village, which leaves the building itself to carry the frontage. Clearing soot from the parapet and window surrounds lifts the whole shop, and the same service extends to commercial and strata buildings.

Front cottage gardens are a recognised part of these streets, and the biodegradable, eco-friendly products are safe around gardens, pets and children. Before-and-after photos supplied with every job help landlords and committees show owners what their money achieved.