Driveway Cleaning Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire (ST1): Your driveway is likely to be one of the most frequently used and mistreated surfaces of your home and property. There are several things that will leave their mark and their impression on your drive including weathering, regular footfall, pets and vehicles. Restoring a driveway by employing a driveway cleaning specialist in Stoke-on-Trent can get even the shabbiest example back to its glory days. Yet, it isn't only the visual appearance of your driveway that you need to fret about. Algae, moss, oil and other dirt can become slippery and cause a dangerous fall for anyone walking on it. Should somebody slip and hurt themself on your dodgy driveway (i.e. a postman or delivery driver), you could be faced with a big legal bill if your negligence is deemed to be the cause.
It is possible that your drive in Stoke-on-Trent has a concrete, tarmac, block paving surface, or it could be made from a specialist stone or perhaps a combination of all or some of these. Of course it could also comprise of grass or gravel. The Stoke-on-Trent weather conditions are unfortunately an ideal environment for weeds, which continually sprout between crevices in your drive, and lichen, algae and moss stick to hard surfaces like s*** to a blanket. Happily, it is fairly easy to solve such issues by using a local Stoke-on-Trent driveway cleaning contractor.
Why Use a Driveway Cleaning Service in Stoke-on-Trent?
Nowadays, pressure washers are an integral part of the common or garden equipment belonging to most homeowners in Stoke-on-Trent, and a lot of people think that these are ideal for patios, driveways and other hard landscape features. However, the fine tuning required to alter the water pressure to a level where no damage to your driveway occurs is often not possible on domestic grade devices, as it is on specialist power washing machines. If you use a pressure washer on an asphalt driveway for instance, this relatively soft surface can become pitted and furrowed, especially if a higher pressure setting is employed. However, a trustworthy driveway cleaning company will bring colour and life back to your asphalt or tarmac driveway, while guaranteeing that it won't be harmed or damaged.
If care is not taken, even a solid concrete driveway may be damaged by the highly pressured stream of water which is expelled by a pressure washing machine. Small bits of the concrete surface can be blasted away, producing lines and patterns which are often called "etching". You will possibly not see such lines when your drive is dry, however it looks like some form of weird graffiti as soon as the ground is wet or it starts to rain. Definitely not the perfect look for your home!
If you choose to go ahead with cleaning your driveway with your own or a borrowed power washer, set it on its least powerful pressure, and try it out on a tiny out-of-sight area before you do the rest. To see whether you are fully covered for any required repairs, which are a result of your own actions, it's also a good idea to check out your home insurance.
What Sorts of Driveway and Stains Can be Cleaned by a Professional?
For all kinds of driveway, there are specialised equipments and cleaning solutions, and to talk about the best method that is appropriate for you, make contact with your local Stoke-on-Trent driveway cleaning company. If it is a long time since you've treated your driveway to a clean, there could well be a major accumulation of grime, paint spills, moss, grease or oil stains, in which case a specially designed cleaning agent may be needed for some of the stains. Seeing as concrete, brick and block paving has a waterproofing seal that can be damaged by such deep-seated stains, an appropriate sealant should be applied after the cleaning procedure has been done. This should keep your driveway in tip top shape for years to come, and ensure the longevity of it's working life. As an additional benefit, this special sealant will minimise the chance of algae and moss reappearing on your driveway moving forward.
There are a couple of main equipment methods used by driveway cleaning services in Stoke-on-Trent, which can be used on pretty much all driveway surfaces, power washing or pressure washing:
- Power washing uses slightly different equipment to that of pressure washing as the water that is used is heated up prior to spraying. The hot water is better at eradicating heavy staining and ingrained dirt, meaning that power washers are less likely to harm your driveway surface.
- To clear away muck and stains from your drive, pressure washing uses an adjustable jet of high-pressure water. It takes a fair amount of training and experience to adapt the water pressure to avoid harming the surface of your driveway. Additionally the distance between the nozzle and the driveway surface, the diameter of the nozzle and the pressure used are all factors that have an impact on the possibility of damage.
To increase the performance of both of these cleaning methods, detergent solutions can be mixed in with the water. Before any sealing treatments can be applied to the driveway, a gentle pressure wash is used to rinse away these cleaning agents.
The First Steps in Obtaining a Driveway Cleaning Service in Stoke-on-Trent
Before getting in touch with a driveway cleaning company in Stoke-on-Trent for a quote take a careful look at your drive to see what actions you might be able to take first. If your driveway's surface has been besieged by weeds or other plants, the initial step should be to greatly reduce these if you are able to. You may think that this is part of the driveway cleaning process, but many companies will request that you do this before they'll even consider accepting the work. Choose a calm, dry day and apply a good weed killer to your drive, and ask a driveway cleaner to begin work after leaving it for several days. This will allow the chemical to work its way down into the weed's roots and eliminate them entirely.
Obtaining a quotation will require your selected Stoke-on-Trent driveway cleaning company to visually inspect your driveway. The dimensions and construction method of your drive and the degree of cleaning needed will therefore affect the final price. Before they commence you should ensure that any debris and muck that arises from the cleaning process will be properly removed by the company, and that all chemicals used are suitable for use on your drive, and listed as such in the appropriate Health & Safety regulations. Without prior warning or approval, some councils forbid the flushing of waste and detergents into the drains.
Things to ask Your Driveway Cleaning Service in Stoke-on-Trent
Although driveway cleaning specialists aren't served by any professional trade association as such, the 'British Cleaning Council' and the 'Federation of Window Cleaners' both offer training and memberships to businesses and tradespeople in the driveway cleaning marketplace. In relation to property cleaning and maintenance, the credibility and experience of any local company or tradesman can be assured if they can prove that they are signed up members of one of these trade associations.
There are also training services that provide targeted training and qualifications in the industry, and one example of this is 'The King Academy'. A suitable qualified driveway cleaning employee should have a 'Outside and Jet Wash Cleaning' or 'Water Fed, Driveway Cleaning' certificate. These courses are prime examples of the training courses offered by the trade bodies which we referred to earlier.
For any chemicals that are being used on your drive, it's always sound practice to enquire about the COSHH assessments (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health). Although some driveway cleaning firms might claim that this is only essential for commercial projects, it's actually part of the Health & Safety guidelines, and they ought to be able to provide you with this information if asked.
Before you start it may be important that you perform a full risk assessment, especially if there's any type of public access crossing your driveway, or if you share your driveway with a neighbouring property. This ensures the safeguarding of anybody with access to your driveway as the cleaning process is undertaken. You shouldn't need to stress about this risk assessment though, because it will be carried out by your driveway cleaning provider as an integral part of the project.
Driveway Cleaning Near Stoke-on-Trent
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Stoke-on-Trent Driveway Cleaning Tasks
There is a range of work that can be accomplished by your local Stoke-on-Trent driveway cleaning service including domestic driveway cleaning, driveway & patio sealing, tarmac driveway cleaning, natural stone cleaning in Stoke-on-Trent, pressure washing Stoke-on-Trent, driveway steam cleaning, fence cleaning in Stoke-on-Trent, moss removal Stoke-on-Trent, barbeque grease removal in Stoke-on-Trent, window cleaning Stoke-on-Trent, cheap driveway cleaning, interlock driveway cleaning, algae removal, brickweave driveway cleaning, car park cleaning, forecourt cleaning, paving slab cleaning, cleaning driveway oil stains, imprinted concrete cleaning, conservatory cleaning in Stoke-on-Trent, pathway cleaning in Stoke-on-Trent, render cleaning, wall cleaning, petrol station cleaning, weed removal, resin driveway cleaning, and lots more. Listed are just some of the tasks that are accomplished by people specialising in driveway cleaning. Stoke-on-Trent providers will be delighted to keep you abreast of their whole range of services. If there are different Stoke-on-Trent cleaning requirements that you want but can't see here, you can list them on the QUOTE FORM provided. We'll get back to you with specifics just as soon as we are able.
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