Pressure Cleaning in Wembley

Pressure Cleaning in Wembley: the short version

High pressure suits hard, sound, non porous surfaces. It is wrong for aged tile, brittle terracotta, soft render and anything containing asbestos. More on our pressure cleaning page.

What that means for pressure cleaning in Wembley

Sand is abrasive and gets everywhere on exposed blocks, so surfaces here carry a gritty deposit that responds well to volume rather than force.

Free draining ground means runoff soaks away readily, which simplifies the job considerably compared with clay or wetland blocks.

Runoff has nowhere to drain on saturated ground, so managing where several hundred litres ends up is a real consideration rather than an afterthought.

Local conditions in Wembley

Wembley sits on Spearwood dune sand over TAMALA LIMESTONE. Limestone near the surface changes how footings were formed, rock, variable bearing and awkward excavation for any new work and older homes may be founded directly on it. Free-draining sand above, hard and irregular rock below, is a specific combination worth understanding before extending or underpinning.

Two major wetlands sit against the suburb, LAKE MONGER on its edge and HERDSMAN LAKE beyond its northern boundary. Blocks toward the lakes sit on LOW ground with a high, seasonally variable water table and that is where drainage problems, subfloor damp and slab-edge moisture show up.

Apartment buildings are progressively replacing older houses, so inspections split between early-to-mid century houses and recent medium-density strata. Establish which, since they share almost no common ground; and near redevelopment, a dilapidation record is worth having.

We cover the whole of the Town of Cambridge. Around Wembley that takes in Perth, Churchlands, Herdsman, Glendalough and Spearwood. Short drives keep pressure cleaning affordable on smaller jobs and most of ours are smaller jobs.

Materials and specification

Ask any operator four questions before booking. What pressure, what nozzle, what standoff and whether they treat growth before washing. Vague answers mean somebody who chose a setting once and never reconsidered it, which is how aged tile gets stripped.

A little about Wembley

Wembley sits on the Spearwood Dunes, west of the Bassendean Dunes on the Swan Coastal Plain; Underneath These Dunes IS Tamala Limestone Became part of the new Town of Cambridge in 1994; ~4.5km², ~12,061 pop; 5km WNW of the CBD An upper-middle-class, Medium-Density suburb; more young families have moved in and NEW Apartment Buildings Have Started TO Replace Older Houses; main shopping on Cambridge Street; the Wembley Hotel dates from 1932 None of that decides what your roof needs. It does tell us what to expect before we get the ladder out in Wembley.

What the work involves

• Match nozzle and standoff to the surface. A pencil jet concentrates enormous force into a tiny area and will carve concrete. A fan tip spreads the same energy across a band. Doubling the distance from the surface dramatically reduces impact force
• Work down, never uphill under laps. On any roof or overlapping surface, driving water uphill forces it behind and underneath. That damage is invisible on the day and appears as a stained ceiling weeks later
• Protect surrounds and manage the runoff. Plants covered, windows and fittings protected and the considerable volume of dirty water directed somewhere sensible rather than into a soakwell it will block

Before you commit to anybody

Ask what happens if the scope changes. On older Wembley roofs things become visible once work starts and that is normal. What is not normal is discovering the variation on the invoice. It should be photographed, priced and discussed before anybody acts on it.

Getting a quote in Wembley

Ring 0421 768 842. Somebody who has been on roofs will come and look at yours, photograph the findings and price the job itemised rather than by the square metre. Quotes on Wembley homes stay open for a reasonable period so nobody is rushed.