Exterior Care — Wellington, NZ

Eight things we take off, and how.

Green walls, lichen on the pitch, a drive that has gone black in the shade, a tag on a roller door. Each one wants a different amount of pressure — and in most cases far less of it than people expect.

The list: 8 services, from a soft wash to a scheduled commercial cycle.
Covering: Wellington City, Porirua and the Hutt Valley.
Quoting: From a photo, in writing, with the inclusions spelled out.

Index

Start with the one you came for.

01 — Soft wash

House washing

The wall that has gone green. Cleaned at low pressure, so nothing is driven in behind the cladding.

Wellington grows mould on whichever elevation the sun never reaches. On a south wall that is usually all of it, from the soffit down.

This is a soft wash. A cleaning solution does the work and is rinsed off at close to garden-hose pressure. High pressure on cladding forces water past the lap joints and into the wall cavity, which is a far more expensive problem than the mould was.

Surface: Weatherboard · plaster · brick
Method: Soft wash, low pressure
Site: Domestic

02 Roof treatment

Moss on the north pitch, treated and left to die back rather than scraped off wet.

A treated roof is not clean the next morning. The moss and lichen die, go brittle and wash off over the following weeks of rain. That is the process working, not the job being unfinished.

Scraping or blasting lichen off a tile roof takes the surface coating with it. On coloursteel it strips the paint film. Treatment is slower to look right and far kinder to the roof.

Surface: Coloursteel · concrete tile · Decramastic
Method: Chemical treatment, no scraping
Site: Domestic · Commercial

03 — Surface clean

Concrete & driveways

Where the machine actually comes off the trailer. Driveways, paths, patios and steps.

A rotary surface cleaner is a disc spinning two jets under a shroud. It leaves an even finish instead of the striped zebra pattern you get from waving a wand around by hand.

Wellington concrete carries three separate things: black algae in the damp shade, orange-brown iron staining where the aggregate bleeds, and salt bloom near the water. They do not all answer to the same treatment, so the drive gets looked at before anything is switched on.

Surface: Concrete · paver · exposed aggregate
Method: Rotary surface cleaner
Site: Domestic · Commercial

04 Decks, fences & steps

The black film that turns lethal underfoot after rain.

Anything permanently in shade on a Wellington section grows it. Timber steps and painted decks are the usual offenders, and they are also where people fall.

Timber is washed at pressure low enough not to raise the grain. Raising the grain means the deck has to be sanded before it can be stained, which turns a wash into a much bigger job.

Surface: Timber · painted deck · retaining wall
Method: Soft wash + treatment
Site: Domestic

05 — Clear & flush

Gutter clear-out

Emptied and flushed, plus a look at where the overflow has been running down the wall.

A blocked gutter shows itself as a dark vertical stripe down the cladding under the joint. Cleaning the stripe off without clearing the gutter means it returns with the next southerly.

Gutters are flushed through, so the downpipes are confirmed running rather than just the trough emptied.

Surface: Spouting · downpipe
Method: Clear + flush
Site: Domestic · Commercial

06 Graffiti removal

Tags off block, brick, roller door and painted render.

What comes off cleanly depends almost entirely on the substrate. Sealed block is straightforward. Raw porous brick has taken the pigment down into the surface, and the honest answer there is often a reduction rather than a removal.

Send a photo before anyone commits to a result. This is the service where a photo saves the most wasted time.

Surface: Block · brick · roller door
Method: Solvent + controlled pressure
Site: Commercial · Council

07 — Wash down

Pre-paint preparation

So the painter quotes for painting, not for arguing about adhesion.

Paint does not bond to a chalked, mouldy or salt-loaded surface. A wash-down removes the chalk layer and the spores so the coating goes onto the substrate rather than onto the dirt.

Painters are welcome to book this directly. Talking to the painter about what the coating system needs beats guessing at it.

Surface: Pre-coating substrate
Method: Wash down + neutralise
Site: Domestic · Commercial

08 Commercial & body corporate

Apartment blocks, carparks, forecourts and rental portfolios on a cycle.

Property managers generally want the same building done on a cycle rather than a panic call when a tenant complains. That gets scheduled off the building, not off the phone call.

Work in a live carpark or loading bay is planned around the hours the site is actually quiet.

Surface: Multi-unit · hardstand
Method: Scheduled cycle
Site: Commercial

Method

Four things we won't do.

Most of the damage done to a Wellington exterior is done by cleaning it too hard. These are the four places that shows up, and what happens instead.

We will not blast a roof clean.

A machine will take lichen off a tile in an afternoon and the surface coating with it. On coloursteel it lifts the paint film straight off the sheet. Treatment is the slower answer — the growth dies, goes brittle and leaves over the following weeks of rain. A roof that looks finished on the day has usually been paid for out of the roof.

We will not run high pressure over cladding.

Much above garden-hose pressure and water goes past the lap joints into the wall cavity, where nobody can watch it dry. Mould on the outside of a board is a surface problem. Water behind the board is a building problem. So the solution does the work and the hose only rinses it off.

We will not tell you a tag lifts off raw brick.

On sealed block the pigment sits on top and comes away. On porous brick or bare concrete it has soaked down into the surface, and what is honestly available is a reduction — a ghost, much lighter than the tag was. That gets said before anyone starts rather than after.

We will not price a roof nobody has looked at.

A number given down the phone for a pitch nobody has seen is a number that moves once someone is standing on it. Send a photo, or the roof gets looked at first. What comes back is a price for the work in that photo, and it says what is in it.

Point a camera at the worst of it.

One photo of the wall, the pitch or the drive, taken far enough back to get the whole thing in frame. A written price for the work in that photo comes back the same way.

Get a quote

Wellington City, Porirua and the Hutt Valley.