Neighborhood
Faubourg Marigny
The Marigny is dense, historic, and largely painted timber, with the added constraint that a lot of it sits within sight of the street.
The Marigny is dense, historic, and largely painted timber, with the added constraint that a lot of it sits within sight of the street.
The Marigny is dense and historic, mostly painted Creole cottages and shotguns built right up to the sidewalk. Facades sit in full public view, so the finish matters, and they also collect street-level grime that a suburban wall never sees: exhaust film, foot traffic, and everything the street throws at a wall a few feet from it.
Street film needs a cleaning solution rather than force, because the paint underneath is often old and layered. We soft wash the facade and hand-detail the trim and ironwork. Steps and stoops opening straight onto the sidewalk take a firmer pass, since they are usually stone or concrete.
A facade set right on the sidewalk collects things a set-back suburban wall never sees: exhaust residue, brake dust, and the general grime thrown up by traffic and foot traffic a few feet away. That is a greasy, mineral film rather than a living growth, and an algae solution does very little to it. It needs different chemistry, and on old paint it needs that chemistry applied gently.
Most Marigny facades carry both problems at once, street film low down and organic growth higher up and in the shaded detail, which is why one product across the whole elevation gives a patchy result.
The detail holds what the flat areas do not. Shutter louvres in particular trap damp and growth on every slat edge and cannot be reached with a broad spray at all. They are hand work, and on operable shutters the hinges and hardware want keeping dry. Stoops and steps opening straight onto the sidewalk are usually stone or concrete and can take a firmer pass, so the pressure changes within a few feet.