Soft Washing in Willoughby

Willoughby's housing is more varied than its bungalow streets suggest. In the 2021 Census just over half of occupied dwellings were separate houses, about one in ten were semis, terraces or townhouses, and almost a third were flats or apartments. The former Channel Nine studios site, vacated when the network moved to North Sydney in 2020, is being redeveloped for housing and adds to that mix. Each type brings its own surfaces, from the face brick of the older bungalows to the render and paint on many townhouses and apartment blocks.

What settles on those walls depends on the street. Homes fronting Eastern Valley Way or Penshurst Street can collect a grey traffic film on their street elevations, and the Gore Hill Freeway runs along the suburb's southern boundary. On the quieter grid streets the dirt is organic: sap and honeydew from verge trees spotting eaves and fascia, and dark mould on walls the canopy keeps in shade.

On face brick, mould and traffic film together flatten the natural variation between individual bricks, and that variation is a large part of a bungalow's character. On render and paint the same growth shows as streaks and patches.

Our biodegradable solution is given time to work and then rinsed gently, which keeps force off the mortar, paint and render, and it is safe around gardens, pets and children.

For owners of face brick homes, the main outcome is much of the original colour back without anything being done to the brick itself. A wall that has turned uniformly dull often prompts talk of painting or rendering, and once face brick is painted it becomes a coating to maintain for the life of the house. Washing first shows what condition the brick is genuinely in, and can settle that question.

Rental housing is a large part of the suburb, with around 31 per cent of homes rented at the 2021 Census. A clean exterior helps when a property is being re-let or prepared for sale, and the before-and-after photos supplied with every job give owners and property managers a clear record of the work.

On townhouse and apartment complexes, one method across every elevation gives a strata committee a consistent result rather than a patchwork. Because soft washing removes mould, algae and grime without damaging paint, render or mortar, it suits buildings where a coating repair would otherwise come out of shared funds.

Eaves and fascia are part of the wash too. On interwar bungalows the eaves are shaded nearly all day, collecting mould and old webs out of sight, and clearing them changes how the whole front of the house looks from the footpath.