Patio Cleaning in Crawley

Patio Cleaning for homes and businesses in Crawley

Crawley was built out as a planned town, and concrete slab paving was the patio material of the day, so plenty of it is still in service. Concrete is the most forgiving patio surface there is, which is exactly why it gets treated worst: it takes a heavy clean without obvious damage, so people keep doing it that way until the surface has visibly worn.

Concrete is tough, but it is not indestructible

Concrete slabs take considerably more pressure than sandstone or limestone, and they come up well. What repeated heavy cleaning does is wear the cement paste off the top and expose the aggregate underneath, so the slab gets rougher, greyer and more absorbent every time.

A rougher slab holds dirt better and greens over faster, so each aggressive clean makes the next one arrive sooner. Cleaning concrete firmly but evenly, with a surface cleaner rather than a close lance, gets the same result without that slow decline.

Slabs that have settled and rocked

A lot of older concrete patios were laid on sand or straight onto the ground, and after enough seasons individual slabs settle, tip or rock underfoot. Cleaning makes that noticeably more obvious, because the uniform green film that was disguising the levels is gone.

A rocking slab is also the one place where pressure can cause harm, since water gets underneath and washes bedding material out. We work carefully around any slab that moves, and we will point out the ones that need re-bedding.

How we work

1. 1
   Free quote and stone identification

   The single most important step. Indian sandstone, limestone, porcelain, Yorkstone, concrete slab and clay pavers all behave differently under a washer, and getting this wrong is what causes the damage you see on badly cleaned patios.

2. 2
   Protect the borders and check the pointing

   Furniture and pots moved, nearby planting protected, and a look at the pointing. Slurry-pointed joints and loose mortar will lift under pressure, so we find that first and tell you instead of discovering it halfway through.

3. 3
   Set the pressure to the softest thing on the patio

   We work to whatever is most delicate, not whatever is toughest. Soft sandstone gets a gentler pass than the concrete edging next to it, even though both are getting cleaned in the same visit.

4. 4
   Treat black spot and lichen with chemistry, not force

   Black spot lichen roots into the stone. You cannot blast it off without taking the surface with it, so it needs a treatment and time to work. How much will shift, and how much may need a second visit, gets said before the job starts.

5. 5
   Rinse down, sweep and walk it with you

   Everything rinsed off, the silt cleared, furniture back, and a walk round so you can see the result and hear what we found while we were in there.

Black spot lichen roots into the stone, so it needs a treatment and time rather than more pressure. How much is likely to shift can be judged on the slabs themselves.

Other services in Crawley

Patio Cleaning near Crawley