Patio Cleaning in Leatherhead
Patio Cleaning in Leatherhead: dirt, algae and black spots lifted off paving and natural stone, with the method chosen to protect it. Leatherhead is served from Horley, alongside Dorking, Epsom and Ashtead. The first step is a free, no-obligation quote.
- Paving, natural stone and slabbed patios
- Removal of built-up dirt, algae and black spots
- Method chosen to protect the surface
- Tidy finish, ready to use
Patio Cleaning for homes and businesses in Leatherhead
Patio cleaning on clay pavers is not the delicate job most people assume, because clay is the toughest paving material most people have in their garden. If your Leatherhead patio or path is clay, it is not a facing brick that happens to be laid flat: paving clay is fired far harder, which leaves it dense, very low in water absorption and about as frost resistant as paving gets.
The colour is the clay, so it cannot wear off
Clay pavers take their colour from the clay itself and from the firing, so it runs right through the body of the unit. There is no pigmented surface layer to lose. That is why a clay drive laid twenty years ago still looks like itself while concrete blocks of the same age have greyed off, and it is why manufacturers describe clay paving as colourfast rather than fade resistant.
Practically, that means cleaning cannot fade a clay patio. Wear rounds the arrises and softens the edges over decades, and the colour stays where it is. It also means the variation between individual pavers, which years of even grime tend to hide, comes back into view once the patio is clean.
Which of the two is actually the tough one
Freeze and thaw damage comes from water getting into a unit and expanding. Paving clay is fired at high temperature specifically to close the pores, so it takes on very little water and has little to freeze, which is why clay paving is quoted with service lives beyond a hundred years. Concrete paving is the material that generally has to be specified as frost resistant. Clay arrives that way.
Where clay does flake is the exception rather than the rule, and it is always a paver that was already damaged. Once the fired surface has been cracked, chipped by a spade or broken by ground movement, water reaches the less dense material behind it and frost will lift the face away in thin scales. So the survey on a clay patio has one job: find the handful of units that have already been breached. The clay itself needs no protecting from the cleaning.
Silt in the joints is a separate job from the surface
The joints on clay paving fill with fine silt washed off the surrounding garden. It packs hard, it sets, and it becomes the rooting medium that moss and weeds want, which is why a chemical-only clean on a silted patio never seems to last.
Silt has to be physically lifted out of the joint and the joint refilled afterwards. Applying a biocide over the top of it kills the green and leaves the seed bed exactly where it was. That is the difference between a patio that stays clear for a season and one that stays clear for years.
How we work
- 1Free 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.
- 2Protect 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.
- 3Set 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.
- 4Treat 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.
- 5Rinse 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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Real results
Patio Cleaning: before & after
Genuine before and after results from recent jobs across Surrey, Sussex and Kent.
Customer reviews
What our customers say
Dirty South Power Wash were absolutely fantastic from start to finish. They're extremely friendly, professional, and reliable, making the whole process completely stress free. I had my decking soft washed and the results were amazing, it genuinely looks like new and has been brought back to life. You can really tell they take pride in their work and pay attention to detail. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone and will definitely be using their services again in the future!
No fuss, just excellent - from start to finish. Friendly to deal with, clear communication all the way, came when they said they would, did an excellent job. Would use again without a doubt.
Great service, really pleased with our garage roof. All the moss has gone and left nice and tidy. Great guys too. Thanks!
Did a fantastic job on a garage roof clean/moss removal, looks good as new! friendly & professional highly recommend 👏🏼
Really pleased with our driveway😊
They done an amazing job and great price
Good to know
Patio Cleaning in Leatherhead: your questions answered
Are clay pavers cleaned differently from concrete block paving?
The difference is worth knowing before anyone starts. Clay pavers are fired hard, so they are dense, they take on very little water and the colour runs right through them. Concrete blocks are cast, generally more absorbent, and coloured in a face layer over a grey body. In practice that makes clay the more forgiving of the two, and it makes the concrete block the one where a careless pass shows.
Some of my pavers have gone crumbly and pale in patches. What is that?
Frost has got into a paver that was already broken open. Fired paving clay takes on very little water while its surface is intact, so it shrugs off frost year after year. Chip that surface with a spade, crack it through ground movement or damage the arris, and water reaches the material behind, freezes, and lifts the face off in thin scales. That will be a handful of units around the edges or where something heavy has been dropped, and the rest of the patio is untouched.
Why do the weeds come straight back on my patio?
The answer is in the joints rather than on the surface. Fine silt washing off the garden packs into the joints and sets hard, and that is the rooting medium the weeds and moss are using. A treatment kills what is growing and leaves the seed bed untouched, so it all starts again. Lifting the silt out and refilling the joint is what changes it.
Will cleaning fade my clay paving?
No, because there is no surface colour layer to remove. Clay takes its colour from the clay body and the firing, so it goes all the way through the paver. What people sometimes read as fading is the opposite: cleaning reveals variation between individual pavers that a uniform layer of grime had been hiding, so the patio looks more varied than it did the week before.
Is winter a bad time to clean a clay patio?
Less of a problem than it is on concrete or sandstone, and still worth thinking about where units are already chipped or cracked. Sound clay takes on very little water, so a hard frost after a wash asks very little of it. A paver that has already been broken open is the one that will take water in, and that is the one to avoid soaking before a cold snap.
Patio Cleaning in Leatherhead, done properly
Free, no-obligation quotes across Surrey, Sussex and Kent. Send a few photos and we will do the rest.