Soft Washing in Strathfield

Two things dirty a wall in Strathfield, and neither is coastal.

The first is particulate. The suburb is bounded by major road and rail corridors, and the fine soot and brake dust they generate settles on every exposed surface. It builds as an even grey film rather than a patchy one, which is why owners often describe the render as having faded rather than as being dirty. Street-facing elevations always show it first.

The second is ordinary biological growth on the shaded sides, helped along by the dense deciduous canopy that keeps southern walls damp through autumn and winter.

What makes the method matter here is the building stock. Strathfield's Federation and inter-war homes are largely face brick laid in lime mortar, with rendered and painted detailing. Lime mortar is intentionally softer than the brick around it, and a pressure washer will scour it straight out of the joints. Repointing a heritage facade costs many multiples of the clean that damaged it.

We use low pressure and a biodegradable solution with proper dwell time, which lifts both the particulate film and the mould without touching the mortar, the paint or the original brick face.

Owners here often assume a dull, grey facade means the paint has aged. Frequently it has not. It is carrying a film of traffic particulate that will wash off, and the difference between a cleaned wall and a repainted one is thousands of dollars.

That is the first benefit, and it is immediate: establishing whether you actually need to repaint. A great many Strathfield facades come up close to original colour once the film is lifted.

The second is protecting what is underneath. These are period homes, and the face brick is laid in lime mortar with rendered and painted detailing over it. That fabric is expensive to repair and, on the finer examples, difficult to match. A wash that removes soot and mould without touching the mortar keeps an original facade original.

There is a presentation argument that carries real weight in this market. Strathfield trades on the quality of its housing stock, and a facade that reads as maintained supports a valuation in a way that is hard to quantify but easy to observe.

Low pressure with dwell time does the work here, not force.