Building exterior washing

What we wash on a commercial building

Most buildings are a mix of surfaces, and they do not all get washed the same way. This is the usual list when a property owner or manager calls us:

• Vinyl, aluminum and steel siding, including the green that sets in on shaded walls
• Cladding and panel systems on commercial and institutional buildings
• High rise exteriors
• Soffit, fascia and trim
• Concrete, block, brick and masonry walls
• Concrete walkways and steps leading up to the doors

Soft wash or pressure, depending on the surface

Not every surface wants full pressure. Cladding, painted steel, stucco and older wood can all be damaged by someone treating them like a concrete pad. On those we go low pressure with the right cleaning product and let the product do the work, then rinse it off. That is soft washing. It kills the growth instead of knocking the top of it off, so the wall stays clean longer, and it does not force water in behind panels or lift the paint.

Hard surfaces are a different job. A concrete walkway or a block wall can take more pressure, and sometimes needs it to cut through years of ground in grime. Brick and older masonry sit in the middle. The face of the brick is tough, but the mortar between it is not, and on an older building that mortar is softer than anything used today. Too much pressure takes it right out of the joints.

So we read the surface first and pick the pressure after. We have been doing it that way since 1997, and it is the difference between a building that looks clean and a building that looks clean and still has all its paint and mortar.

The green is not dirt

That grey green film on a north facing wall is biological. It is algae, and in our climate it is basically guaranteed, because we have damp air and long stretches without direct sun on that side of a building. Blasting it off with pressure alone knocks the surface layer down and leaves the rest to come straight back. Treating it properly is what makes a wash last.

Booked around your business hours

Nobody wants a wash going on over the front door while customers are trying to get through it. Early mornings, evenings and weekends are normal for us, the same as they are for the fleets we wash. Tell us when the building is quiet, which doors have to stay open, and anything else that cannot be in the way, and we plan the job around that.

We bring our own water on the truck. There is no outside tap to find, no hose run through a door and nothing added to the building's water bill. It also means a building on a job site, or one where the water is shut off, is not a problem.

Safe on the beds and the lawn

Almost every commercial building has planters, beds or a strip of grass right under the wall being washed, and whatever comes off the building lands there. The products we use are environmentally safe and will not harm plants, grass or animals. The beds get wet down before, covered where they need to be, and rinsed after.

Anywhere in Nova Scotia

Commercial work is not limited to the HRM. Our residential washing stays inside the Halifax Regional Municipality, but building, fleet and heavy equipment work runs across the whole province. If the building is in Nova Scotia, it is in range. If there are company trucks or vans at the same address, we can wash those on the same trip.

Property managers and repeat work

Most building work we do is on a cycle, because exteriors do not stay clean and everybody would rather book it than think about it. If you look after several buildings, it is worth walking us through all of them at once so we can tell you which ones actually need doing this year and which can wait.

We carry insurance and WCB coverage, and we are a BBB Accredited Business. If the owner, the board or the site needs paperwork on file before anyone sets up, ask and we will send it.

Before the building gets painted

If the exterior is due for paint or a new coating, the wash comes first. Paint will not hold on a wall with algae, chalk or dust on it, and no amount of good paint fixes bad prep. When the old coating has to come off as well, we do paint prep and stripping as its own job.