Patio Cleaning in Horsham

Patio Cleaning for homes and businesses in Horsham

Two patios can be the same stone, the same age and the same size, and one of them takes twice as long to clean. The difference is almost always the surface texture. A riven slab, split along its natural bed so the face is rippled and pitted, holds onto everything. A sawn slab with a flat machined face lets most of it wash straight off. On a Horsham patio sitting under tree cover, that distinction stops being academic.

Riven stone keeps what sawn stone sheds

Riven paving has a face full of hollows, ridges and open pores. Every one of those is somewhere for dirt, spores and sticky residue to sit, protected from the rain that would otherwise rinse it away. Sawn and honed slabs are close to flat, so debris sits on top and has nothing to grip.

The practical consequence is that a riven patio needs slower, more methodical work and more dwell time from any treatment, because the product has to reach into the texture rather than just wet the top. Cleaners who charge by the square metre tend to treat both the same, which is why riven patios so often come up looking patchy: the high points are clean and the hollows are not.

None of that is an argument for one over the other. Riven stone has the grip and the character, and sawn stone has the crisp look; they simply need different amounts of time spent on them.

Honeydew, sap and the sticky black film

Aphids feeding in a tree canopy drop honeydew onto whatever is below, and sooty mould then grows on the honeydew. That is the sticky, blackish film you get on furniture and paving under certain trees in summer, and it is a different problem from ordinary algae.

It needs a degreasing approach, not a biocide, because the mould is living on a sugar residue. Treating it as ordinary green growth is why some patios never quite come clean under a tree. Combine that residue with a riven surface and you have the hardest thing on the patio to shift, sitting in the part of the stone a quick pass never reaches.

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.

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Patio Cleaning near Horsham