Valley damp and field dust settle on every wall around here, but what happens next depends entirely on what the wall is made of. Dash holds it, smooth render shows it, and K-Rend needs the lightest hand of the three.
A softwash is not one job done six ways. What is on the wall changes the dilution, the dwell time and the pace.
If you are unsure what you are looking at, send a picture. Identifying render is our end of the job, and it costs you nothing to ask.
Almost every disappointing render clean comes down to treating the second as though it were the first.
Everything sitting on the face of the render — the visible film, the loose grime, the softer growth. All of that comes away readily and the wall looks transformed the same afternoon. What washing cannot reach is anything anchored below the surface, and on a shaded elevation that is most of what is actually there.
The solution soaks into the surface layer and works on the living structure in it — the rooting, the spores, the holdfast that lichen puts down into masonry. That living layer decides how long your wall stays clear, and force cannot reach it. So it is the part we treat.
One solution, six different ways of using it.
A photograph tells us the substrate, and the substrate decides everything after it. If it turns out to be mostly field dust we say so, and it becomes a much lighter job.
A textured wall needs the solution to reach into the texture, so it gets longer. A polymer render needs less and gentler. Painted masonry is handled around protecting the coat.
Ground below rinsed, and a clear account of how the wall will look tomorrow and by the end of the week. Most of the difference is already there when we pack up.
The one people find most useful here, and a check you can run yourself.
Ask each of them how they intend to handle your particular finish. On dash and K-Rend the answers separate the quotes far more than the figures do.
The Render Check walks you through telling them apart from the ground in about a minute, and the answer changes the job considerably.
Whatever is on the render is on the boundary walls and the outbuildings too, and it responds the same way.
Mostly about what it is and what that means.
All fine, and worth doing at the same time as the walls. They carry the same growth, and they sit right above the surface you are paying to have cleaned.
Yes, and it is the right approach for them. Polymer renders have a working surface layer that sheds water, and force can mark that layer permanently. A low-pressure treatment asks nothing of the finish at all, which is why it suits K-Rend where anything harsher does not.
Lichen is raised, crusted and will not budge, because it is bonded into the surface. Staining is flat, follows the pattern of the weathering and has no texture. Lichen wants dwell time; staining usually lifts far more readily.
Far less than a pressure washer, which is one of the incidental benefits of doing it this way. It is a low-pressure application rather than a machine running at full tilt for hours.
What goes on each finish, how long it wants and why low pressure suits render. The whole account is on the main softwashing page.
A photograph of the wall is enough — identifying the finish is our end of it.
Phone: 089-949-1525
WhatsApp: Send a couple of photos
Email: info@eireshine.ie
Send a photo and we will tell you what it is, how it should be handled, and whether what you are seeing is growth or just field dust.
One shot close enough to see the texture is ideal.
