Exterior Cleaning in the Upper North Shore

Canopy, Slope and Shade Across the Upper North Shore

Across the Upper North Shore, the trees set the workload. Remnant Blue Gum High Forest and turpentine through St Ives and Wahroonga, and the blackbutt, peppermint and angophora along the Hornsby gullies, drop leaf, bark and twig all year rather than in one autumn burst. Gutters never stay clear for long, strips of bark dam the runs, and with large parts of Hornsby and St Ives mapped as bushfire prone, dry litter in a gutter is fuel as well as a blockage.

The terrain makes the work harder to reach. In Hornsby and Turramurra, blocks fall away from the street into gullies, so a house that is single storey at the front is often two storeys at the back, above a slope, retaining wall or bush. Turramurra sits high on the ridge and takes noticeably more rain than the coastal and inner suburbs.

Shade does the rest. The concrete tile on the 1960s to 1980s brick homes grows thick moss on shaded roof planes, south-facing walls carry a green-black mould film, and long driveways pick up tannin stains and a slippery moss film. Solar arrays can lose hours of sun to the canopy and collect dry litter beneath the panels, while sap and pollen coat the big windows that face the bush. In Wahroonga, original slate, Marseille terracotta, roughcast render and sandstone all call for low pressure.

Recent work: every job we do comes with before-and-after photos. See recent results from around Sydney in our before and after gallery.