Mid-City

Exterior cleaning in Mid-City

Mid-City runs a genuine mix on a single block: raised centre-hall houses, shotguns and doubles, mid-century infill, and converted commercial frontage. It is common to have a soft old painted facade next door to modern brick. That mix is the defining feature of working here, because the right pressure changes from property to property rather than being set once.

What we focus on here

• Soft washing for painted wood and plaster
• Brick washing matched to mortar age
• Storefronts and mixed-use frontage
• Driveways, walkways, and gutters

Reading the building before choosing the method

We look at what the wall actually is before deciding anything: painted timber and plaster get a low-pressure soft wash, brick is limited by the age of its mortar rather than the hardness of the brick, and concrete takes a surface cleaner. Getting that wrong on an older Mid-City facade turns a wash into repainting or repointing.

Reading a wall before touching it

The mix here means the first thing we do is work out what a surface actually is, because the answer changes the method entirely. Painted timber and lime plaster take low pressure and a cleaning solution. Brick is limited by the age of its mortar, not the hardness of the brick, and pre-war lime mortar erodes out of a joint far faster than people expect. Modern stucco and cement render tolerate more. Concrete takes a surface cleaner.

Getting that judgement wrong on an older Mid-City facade turns a wash into repointing or repainting, and both cost more than the cleaning did.

Commercial frontage on the avenues

Where Mid-City turns commercial the problem changes from organic growth to street film: exhaust residue, foot traffic, and everything thrown up off the road. That is a different chemistry, and it usually wants a degreasing approach rather than an algae solution. It also wants scheduling around trading hours, which we can work outside where a business needs it.