Driveway & Patio Cleaning in Bournville

Garden-suburb shade on paths laid before the car

The garden-suburb planting is what brings the green. Hedges, front-garden trees and the street canopy keep village paths damp for most of the year, and a north-facing brick path under a lime greens up into a slip hazard long before it becomes an eyesore. Steps make it worse, because steps are where people fall. The front garden and path are part of the street scene the Trust’s Scheme of Management looks after, so a streaked green path in front of a well-kept elevation stands out. The back patios behind village houses, often laid by owners in later decades against the original brickwork, go the same way under fruit trees and hedging. On the interwar streets it is the familiar list: moss in block joints, tyre marks and leaf tannin on concrete.

• Brick and tile front paths kept damp by hedges and front-garden trees, so algae returns within a year
• Short flights of steps up to village front doors, where a green film is a fall risk
• Front gardens and paths forming part of the Trust’s managed street scene
• Back patios laid against original brickwork under fruit trees and long hedges
• Block-paved and concrete drives on the interwar semis with moss and weed growth in the joints

Soft-wash in the village, rotary on the interwar drives

Identifying the surface comes before anything is switched on, and in Bournville that is half the job. Original brick and tile paths, stone steps and anything running against painted render or old brickwork get soft-washing: a low-pressure application that kills algae chemically and rinses away without blowing out lime jointing, lifting a path tile or driving water into the base of the wall. Sound concrete and block paving on the interwar drives get rotary pressure cleaning instead, with joints cleared of moss and weed and a re-sanding conversation before we start.

• Soft-wash only on village brick, tile and stone, and wherever a path meets render or original brickwork
• Rotary pressure cleaning kept for sound concrete and block paving on the interwar drives
• Joints cleared of moss and weed, with re-sanding quoted separately when the joints need it
• Gate posts, walls and doorsteps rinsed down, and the lifted silt bagged for your garden waste

More detail on the equipment and the order of work: patio & driveway cleaning across Birmingham.

Garden-suburb paths in the village, drives beyond it

Around the Village Green, Linden Road, Woodbrooke Road and the streets behind the Carillon, a typical visit covers a front path, the steps, a side entry and a back patio or shared court. Spring suits it, once the winter growth has shown itself. Towards Mary Vale Road, Griffins Brook Lane, Stirchley and Cotteridge the same visit is more likely to be a block-paved drive. If you are thinking of changing a front garden or relaying a path, check with Bournville Village Trust first: that alters the street scene and needs consent.

Dwell time on brick and sand in the joints

Area and condition set the price, but the surface sets the method and the method sets the time. Soft-washing a village path is no quicker than pressure cleaning: the solution needs dwell time, and steps and edges are handwork. A long shaded brick path that has been green for years may need two applications, and the quote will say so at the start. On the interwar drives, cleaning block paving takes the kiln-dried sand out of the joints and it has to be replaced or the blocks work loose, which is a real cost we raise before the machine comes out.

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Yearly for village steps, every year or two for a block drive

Annually for village paths and steps, because the garden-suburb shade brings the algae back within the year however well it was cleaned. On a north-facing path or a flight of steps that is a safety interval as much as a cosmetic one. Block-paved and concrete drives on the interwar streets are usually fine every one to two years. Spring is the natural slot for both.