Red Algae, Moss & Render Cleaning in Adamstown, Co. Wexford
Period houses and modern builds side by side, and the same three things growing on both. From the road they look like one problem. They are three, and they want three different answers.
Old walls and new walls behave differentlyA stone or lime-rendered wall holds damp in a way a modern polymer render does not, so the same field and the same weather produce quite different growth on two houses fifty metres apart.
Field dust flatters nobodyAgricultural dust settles over everything out here and makes a sound wall look grown over. It is worth establishing which you have before anyone quotes for treating it, because one is a considerably smaller job.
Depth tells you mostMoss stands proud of the surface and can be lifted with a finger. Red algae is a flat orange stain with no thickness. Dust wipes. Those three tests, from standing on the road, settle nearly every case.
The three we find most on Adamstown walls.
Inland farmland damp and hedgerow shade keep these walls wet well into the day, and field dust settles on top of whatever is growing. Moss takes the old stone and the shaded bases, red algae marks the damp elevations, and the two together leave a general darkening that reads as age.
Moss
On walls it goes for the bottom courses, the shaded base and anywhere old lime render or stone holds damp. It has real depth — you can lift a piece with a finger, which is the test — and on period walls it needs treating rather than scraping, because scraping takes the surface with it.
Red algae
Trentepohlia, the orange staining people take for rust running off something. Nothing is rusting. It is an alga carrying an orange pigment, it favours whichever elevation stays damp longest, and it clears well under treatment, which is a relief to anybody who has spent a season looking for a leak.
Organic staining
The residue of years rather than one living thing: algae, spores and a great deal of field dust, layered and darkened. Out here it is frequently most of what you are looking at, which is good news. It lifts far more readily than anything actually rooted in the wall.
Working out which of the three you have.
The wrong name buys the wrong treatment, and on an old wall that can cost more than the cleaning.
1. Send what you can see
A photograph from the road and a word about the age of the house. On period walls the age matters as much as the growth, because it changes what can safely be done.
2. We name it
Moss needs treating right down into it. Red algae needs time to soak. Dust needs a wash down. Three jobs, three timescales, three quite different figures.
3. You get it plainly
You get told what it is in plain terms and what shifts it. Where it turns out to be mostly dust, we say so, and the job is a much lighter one than the wall suggests.
Worth a look before you decide.
A short read and a one-minute check, both free.
Guide
Read about red algae
The orange staining, explained.
What Trentepohlia is, why damp elevations suit it, why it is so consistently mistaken for rust, and what clears it.
Free check
Try the Render Check
Growth, or just field dust?
The Render Check walks you through telling them apart from the ground in about a minute. The answer changes the size of the job considerably.
Around Adamstown.
We cover Adamstown along with Newtown, Oldcourt, Kellystown and Coonoge, through the farmland and the hedgerow-shaded lanes either side of the village.
The same growth, elsewhere.
Whatever is on the render is usually on the roof and in the gutters as well, and out here that includes the outbuildings.
Roof cleaning
The same organisms, on slate and tile
Roof cleaning
Gutter cleaning
Hedgerow leaf fills them faster out here
Gutter cleaning
Putting a name to it.
What gets asked once somebody has stood back and had a proper look.
How do I tell algae from lichen from dirt?
Depth and pattern. Algae is a flat film with no thickness to it, green or orange depending on the species. Lichen is crusted, raised slightly and will not budge, because it is bonded in. Ordinary grime sits heaviest where rain runs and thins out where it does not. A photograph settles it faster than a description.
Is the red staining rust?
Very rarely. What looks like rust on render is nearly always a red algae called Trentepohlia, which carries an orange pigment. The way to tell is what it does next: rust stays put and spreads from a source, while algae keeps colonising outward across damp elevations.
Is there anything you won't softwash?
There is. Any surface that is already failing gets a proper look before we agree to treat it — render that is blown or cracked, paint that is lifting, mortar that has gone. Cleaning those shows the problem up rather than solving it, and we would rather say so than take the work.
Would you ever tell me not to bother?
We do. If the render is blown, the paint is already lifting or the wall wants a repair first, cleaning it shows the problem up rather than fixing it. You will hear that plainly. It costs us the job and it is still the right call.
Everything that grows on a wall.
Each organism, what it does to render and stone, and what shifts it. The whole library sits on the main softwashing page instead of being repeated here.
Show us and we will tell you.
A photograph from the road is more use to us than any description, and quicker for you.
Talk to us
Phone: 089-949-1525
WhatsApp: Send a couple of photos
Email: info@eireshine.ie
- Mon–Fri08:30 – 19:30
- Saturday10:00 – 18:30
- Sunday12:00 – 18:30
Cannot tell what it is?
Send it through and you will get the name of it, along with a straight view on whether it is far enough along to be worth treating. Often it is not.
Send whatever you can get from the road, and tell us roughly how old the house is.