System: Specialist Access

Returning Cotswold stone to its former glory

The Grove is a prestigious residential estate, situated on the southern edge of the Cotswolds. The building was constructed around 14 years ago and residents felt that it was starting to look a little tired. In particular, the render, stonework sills and coping stones had become badly scarred with green, red and black algae so needed to be cleaned.

The development comprises 18 privately owned apartments and 4 town houses with beautiful communal gardens and private parking. The exterior walls of the building are a mix of pale gold Cotswold stone and a soft cream render which are both visually appealing and in-keeping with local building style; residents were very keen to see their property restored to its former glory.

Winning the contract

The RTM board had investigated various options for addressing the staining on the walls before determining that cleaning was the best option. As well as wanting to achieve a successful outcome, access, height and terrain were all of concern. They had approached a number of exterior building cleaning companies to provide a quote and all were invited to carry out a test clean on the walls –  which they said was ‘enlightening’. Of the participants, one could not remove the algae and one damaged a flat’s ceiling by encroaching through vents. That left two contenders and we won the contract because of the high standard of our work, our professional approach and our competitive rates.

A ‘Belt and Braces’ approach

We clean a lot of algae and have a tried and tested formulae. We used a combination of steam cleaning, then a special biocide wash, followed by a second pass with steam cleaning. The results were amazing – with both the golden stone and cream render being brought back to their original colour and the building looks brilliant as can be seen in the images shown.

Here’s what one member of the board said; “OneFifty (formerly The Jet Washing Company) did a superb job. The access equipment arrived spot on time as did their operatives. They were very professional and extremely helpful with virtually no disruption to residents. The finish is amazing. I would be very happy to show you their workmanship and results at The Grove and we will certainly use them again in the future”.

If you would like to know more about removing algae – of any colour – give us a call – we would be pleased to be of help.

Cleaning a Grade II listed building

Being a harbourside city Bristol’s residents can enjoy the sound and sight of seagulls wheeling and diving in the sky. But have you ever thought about the flipside of having these beautiful birds share our city? Its guano (seagull poo) and a whole lot of other sticky, feathery mess that nesting birds create, and if you are managing a building in the centre of Bristol it’s a problem that you will be very familiar with.

We recently carried out cleaning on a Grade II listed residential building in the centre of the city to remove guano. The General (thus named because it used to be the Bristol General Hospital) is a prestigious residential development located on the waterfront. The building is of significant historic interest and has been beautifully restored by City and County – a company with a reputation for restoring historic buildings and creating outstanding homes.

Maintaining high standards

The apartments provide a unique blend of old and new. Elegant and stylish interiors look out over the docks or onto a pretty interior courtyard with a water fountain. Of course, the residents of The General expect their property to be maintained to the highest standards, but being right next to the waterfront, the seagulls have been doing their worst! So, we were asked to come and clean the historic stone and remove the seagull droppings.

Best for cleaning historic buildings

When it comes to cleaning historic or listed buildings, extra care needs to be taken as the stone may be vulnerable. We use steam cleaning, a cleaning system that is used throughout the world for cleaning historic buildings and monuments of note. It is an excellent option because it has a far lighter impact on the surface material than standard jet washing systems. Being able to precisely control both the pressure and the temperature of the steam jet makes it ideal for cleaning delicate stonework and enables us to achieve a far superior clean whilst mitigating the risk of damage.

We used a cherry picker to access the high window ledges and clean the sills, brick work and stone leaving the surfaces looking as good as new. Our staff are experienced at high-level cleaning and are fully IPAF trained so customers can rest assured that HSSE is fully covered off.

If you would like to know more about our process for cleaning historic buildings please give us a call. We would be happy to visit your premises and carry out a test clean to demonstrate exactly what we are able to achieve.

Transformational cleaning at a fraction of the cost of repainting

The Water’s Edge occupies a prime waterfront position in the exclusive Knap area of Barry in Wales. These attractive, white rendered apartments have stunning views over Heritage coastline, including the Bristol Channel and the Somerset coastline. Unfortunately, there is a downside of this wonderful location.

The front of the buildings is constantly exposed to the elements and gets thoroughly battered by the salty sea winds. As a result, the white stone render becomes weathered rather more quickly than it might in a more sheltered position. On the other hand, the back of the building, which is North facing, is in complete shade. While this might protect it from the harsh elements, it also means that it does not get the benefit of direct sun light and the surface remains damp. Damp and shade are the perfect conditions for red algae to grow and thrive in. The spores are airborne and they quickly take hold, growing into the render and creating pinky-red streaks and patches.

A three-phase project

This was a challenging project for a number of reasons. First of all access was restricted. We needed to use a cherry picker to reach some of the high, recessed areas of the building and could only gain entry via an underpass with restrictions to both width and height.

Secondly red algae is not easy to remove! A test clean confirmed that a ‘belt and braces’ three-step process would achieve the best outcome. So, we did a first pass, to clean the surface layer of algae, using steram cleaning. This unique cleaning system delivers a powerful clean while still being really gentle on the render.

Although it looked much better after the first pass, the surface still appeared patchy, so we applied a special colour render wash to even out the surface followed by second pass with steam cleaning to complete the cleaning process. Since red algae is persistent, we also applied a growth inhibitor to help discourage further growth.

The building façade was actually the most straight forward part of the job. We simply cleaned the render using steam cleaning, one pass was all that was required to transform the building and return it to its former glory.

The Water’s Edge development looked absolutely fantastic once we had finished and the residents were delighted with the outcome – the pictures show the before and after and you can see what a difference cleaning made. The cost of cleaning the building was less than a third of what it would have cost to repaint it, moreover, repainting would not have dealt with the red algae, which would have simply grown back.

If you would like to know more about render cleaning, or removing algae – of any colour – give us a call, we would be pleased to be of help.

Quick and convenient cleaning for fast food favourite – McDonald’s

We carry out regular jet washing for McDonald’s restaurants. This usually involves cleaning the outdoor seating areas, coral patios and drive-thru areas, however recently we also cleaned the roof of their Melksham restaurant.

McDonald’s aims to give customers the best possible experience when they visit their restaurants. Recent innovations include new interior décor, touch screen ordering with table service and digital menu boards at their drive-thru’s. As experts in their field, their managers also recognise the importance of keeping their premises looking as attractive on the outside as they are on the inside – and that’s where we come in!

We work with the team that owns and manages 12 McDonald’s restaurants in Bristol and the South West. They first commissioned us to clean the car park and drive-thru area at their Chippenham branch, and were so pleased with the outcome that they commissioned us to carry out regular ongoing cleans for all their restaurants.

The reason for cleaning the roof in Melksham was that moss and lichen were starting to grow on the tiles. Spores and seeds – which are air-airborne – get blown onto roofs and, given the right conditions, can take hold and start to grow. Moss particularly likes a damp, cool environment so a north facing roof near to trees and vegetation can be particularly affected.

We used steam cleaning to clean the roof – which allows us to achieve unbeatable results without the use of harmful chemicals. Our experienced team can adjust pressure to achieve a really, effective clean without damaging the tiles. Work was carried out out-of-hours to minimise impact on customers. In fact, we completed the job and were off the premises well before staff arrived for their early morning shift.

Area Supervisor, Mark Pickering said; “I’d just like to say thank you for your work in Melksham. Your team were a credit to you, nothing was an issue with them. The roof looks great!”

If you would like to know more about roof cleaning or removing moss and lichen give us a call – we would be pleased to be of help.

We can do it when we B&Q it

There is kudos in working for a big, well-known brand so we were pretty chuffed when B&Q got in touch and asked us to clean their store at Imperial Park, Bristol.

One of the main challenges of cleaning the façade of a busy major retail store is that work must be done out of hours to avoid interfering with customers’ shopping times. That is no problem for our crew, we are used to extremely early starts and late night finishes. Also, with our fully self-contained Trailerjet XL system we don’t need access to mains services – we can literally turn up, plug in and get on with the job.

Using our heads!

Working at night does require good lighting to enable us to see what we are doing and make sure that any difficult staining is removed. We had originally planned on flood lighting the project with huge outdoor angled lights. On this occasion however we found that the lights were creating too many shadows, making it hard to clearly judge how the cleaning was progressing. So we used our heads – and I mean that quite literally in that we switched to using super powerful, head-mounted torches that gave a far better, more focussed light. This allowed us to ensure that the cleaning was done to a consistently high standard across the whole building exterior and that nothing was missed.

The huge store was cleaned over two weekend nights and on both nights everything was cleared up and packed away ready for the store to open the next morning. There was no interruption to business, no hassle – just a brilliant, shiny clean building exterior and another very satisfied client!

For more information about our jet washing services contact Max or Andy Morris on 0333 234 1445 or email info@onefifty.co.uk

Our system works its magic on wood, brick, render and cement

St George’s Heights is a modern apartment block located in Redfield, in South Bristol. The building façade is made up of four different substrates; wooden cladding, brick work, cement and K Rend render. Each of these surfaces requires a slightly different method of cleaning which was no problem for our cleaning system.

Our versatile cleaning system can be easily adapted and adjusted to suit whatever surface needs to be cleaned.

  • On the timber clad areas, we used steam cleaning on a very gentle setting to ensure that we did not damage the surface. We have used the system to clean wooden surfaces many times before so knew exactly what settings would work to get the best results. You simply could not achieve the same outcome using high pressure cold water washing because the pressure required to achieve an acceptable level of cleaning would have completely shredded the surface.
  • On the coping stones, which are made of solid cast cement, we used a powerful hot wash. The cement can easily withstand the heat and pressure and it achieves really excellent results.
  • A large percentage of the façade has been treated with K Rend, a high quality external coloured silicone render used by builders and developers to create a durable weather-proof building façade. K Rend incorporates silicone water repellents as part of its cement based system, which repels water while still allowing the substrate to breathe. This helps to preserve the look of the render by slowing down algae growth. None the less, over time algae will develop, creating ugly black stains typically under the eaves of the roof and beneath window ledges.

Steam cleaning is ideal for cleaning render. It allows us to finely adjust pressure in order to achieve a gentle but effective clean.  We also use a special render wash to enhance the cleaning process and it delivers outstanding results.

For more information about our flexible jet washing services contact Max or Andy Morris on 0333 234 1445 or email info@onefifty.co.uk

What’s a six tonne spider got to do with jet washing?

We have acquired a reputation for problem solving, especially when it comes to cleaning buildings with tricky access. In truth, we rather relish a challenge – maybe that’s why we get called in.  One Glass Wharf is a good example as it required various specialist access equipment including a six tonne spider!

One Glass Wharf is an award-winning office building located in Bristol’s business quarter. The building forms the centrepiece of a major urban regeneration scheme near Temple Meads Station. It has a prominent waterfront location and features a striking undulating terracotta, zinc and glass façade as well as two wall ‘slices’ made of white composite stone. Over time the white stone was becoming increasingly blackened by algae and, since it was critical that this iconic building be kept looking immaculate at all times, the property managers responsible for maintaining the building called us in to clean the stone.

ACCESS REQUIRES HEIGHT AND REACH

There were a number of unusual challenges associated with cleaning One Glass Wharf. Firstly, a section of the roof is recessed and required specialist access equipment to allow us to reach up to a height of 30 metres and outwards over the roof area, something that is quite tricky to achieve. In addition to this we needed to set up access equipment in an extremely restricted space – a narrow alley that runs between the two stone walls – in order to reach certain sections of the walls.

PROBLEM SOLVING IS WHAT WE ARE GOOD AT

We use a lot of different types of access equipment to reach the places other jet washing companies can’t (or don’t want to!). This includes various mobile elevated work platforms (MEWPs); scissor lifts, cherry pickers, spider lifts and boom lifts including articulated knuckle booms and telescopic (straight) booms. We have both the knowledge and the experience to assess a project and select the most appropriate access equipment to allow us to get the job done efficiently and safely. Plus we are accredited IPAF operators and our team is fully trained in the safe use of mobile access towers (PASMA).

ONE GLASS WHARF

For One Glass Wharf we used a truck mounted platform with an articulated boom to access the front of the building, while a compact six tonne spider crane was neatly located in a narrow alley way to allow us to reach the required height on the side of the wall ‘slices’. Our steam cleaning system is ideal in these circumstances; it does not lose power, even at 32 metres, whereas most other cold water jet washing systems certainly would. It also allows us the power and control required to achieve the highest standards of cleaning.

Even though we knew that steam cleaning would be perfect for this type of substrate, we still carried out a test clean on a small area of the white stone slice to demonstrate what we could achieve prior to undertaking the job. After cleaning we applied an approved biocide prohibitor to the surfaces to protect the stone and help slow down algae regrowth.

One Glass Wharf looked brilliant once we had completed the clean. Will Mellor of Capital Properties was delighted with the outcome. He said, “ I was amazed by the brilliant work that Max and his team did on One Glass Wharf. They overcame some tricky access challenges to complete the task and the building now looks as good as new. We will certainly be using OneFifty again.”

For more information about our jetwashing services contact Max or Andy Morris on 0333 234 1445 or email info@onefifty.co.uk