Hall Green Side Drives and Patios Cleaned Under Mature Trees
Most houses in Hall Green have a driveway. The interwar layout put a drive down one side of each plot, running past the house to a garage or a back gate, and that geometry is the whole story: one flank is under the house wall or a boundary hedge and never sees the sun, the other flank does.
So the typical B28 drive is two-tone. The open half is fine, the shaded half is green and slippery, and it usually gets noticed from a bedroom window long before the whole thing is dirty. Surfaces here are block paving or tarmac, occasionally the original concrete strips on a house nobody has altered, and those three want three different pressures. Tarmac in particular does not forgive a rotary head.
- Service
- Patio & Driveway Cleaning
- Area covered
- Hall Green, B28
- Local authority
- Birmingham
- How we do it
- Rotary flat surface cleaner at a pressure the surface can take
- From our Selly Oak base
- About 15 minutes
- Price
- Quoted per property before we start (what the quote covers)
- Booking
- Call or WhatsApp 07788 574283
Side drives shaded down one flank, and the patio by the conservatory
Shade is what does it. A drive spending most of the day under a house wall, a conifer hedge or an avenue lime never dries out properly between October and April, and algae takes hold within one season. On block paving it comes with weed and moss in the joints. On tarmac it forms a slick film that is genuinely treacherous underfoot when wet. Then there is the patio, which in Hall Green is almost always laid immediately outside the conservatory and shaded by it for half the day. It is often greener than the drive, and the slipperiest surface on the plot.
- Side drives shaded down one flank all winter by the house wall or a boundary hedge, so algae never dries off
- Two-tone drives where the open half still looks fine and the shaded half has gone completely green
- Tarmac that goes slick more than mossy, and loosens the moment anyone hits it with a rotary head
- Patios laid tight against the conservatory and shaded by the conservatory itself for half the day
- Long side paths down to the back gate, which stay damp and become the slip risk nobody thinks about
Block, tarmac and soft wash, sometimes on the same drive
We work out the surface before the machine comes off the van, because on a Hall Green drive there are frequently two of them: block paving at the front and tarmac from the gate back, or the other way about. Sound block paving takes rotary cleaning at proper pressure with moss and weed cleared out of the joints. Tarmac gets a much lower setting and a wider fan, since a rotary head lifts the top dressing and there is no putting it back. Anything up against a conservatory frame is soft-washed instead, because forcing water at a twenty-year-old seal is how a clean becomes a leak.
- Surface identified first, and on a split drive the method changes partway down its length
- Rotary cleaning on sound block paving, with joints cleared and re-sanding flagged before we start
- Reduced pressure and a wider fan on tarmac, which loses its top dressing under a rotary head
- Soft-wash only where a patio runs up against a conservatory frame or a glazed rear door
More detail on the equipment and the order of work: our patio & driveway cleaning method.
Drives, side paths and the patio behind
Spring is the season here, and because these drives are visible from the pavement, one clean drive tends to make the neighbours look hard at theirs. A typical job is a drive, a side path and a rear patio priced together, since the machine and the water are on site anyway. The quieter roads towards Sarehole Mill and the Cole have the heaviest tree cover and the deepest shade, so they green up fastest. If a drive needs relaying, you will hear that before paying for a wash that lasts a fortnight.
Full-depth side drives and re-sanding: what sets a B28 quote
Area and condition set the price, with two Hall Green particulars worth knowing up front. The first is that a side drive running the full depth of a long plot is a great many more square metres than the frontage suggests, and it is the far, shaded end that takes the hours, far more than the section by the road. The second is re-sanding: cleaning block paving lifts the kiln-dried sand out of the joints and it has to go back or the blocks start to move under car weight. Re-sanding is quoted separately when the joints need it, and it goes into the conversation before we start. Tarmac needs no sand but takes longer, because low pressure means more passes.
Every year for the shaded half, every two for an open drive
Annually for the shaded half of a B28 drive and for any side path, because permanent winter shade means the algae is back inside twelve months however thoroughly it was cleaned. On a path you walk down in the dark that interval is about grip rather than appearance. An open, sunny drive stretches to every two years comfortably. Patios beside a conservatory sit nearer the annual end, since the conservatory shades them for half of every day.
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Hall Green · Patio & Driveway Cleaning
Frequently asked questions
Yes, at the pressure used on block paving, so tarmac never gets that treatment. It loses its surface dressing under a rotary head and you are left with loose chippings and bald patches nobody can put back. We drop the pressure and widen the fan, which takes longer but leaves the drive intact. The moss and the slick film still come off.
Only if you want all of it done. We usually suggest the whole area, because the join tends to show and the drive looks better done at once, but the shaded flank is where the hours go and we can price that section on its own.
No, because the method changes as we get close to it. Anything running up against a conservatory frame or a glazed rear door is soft-washed at low pressure. Twenty-year-old seals do not want a lance pointed at them, and a cleaning job that causes a leak is not a saving on anything.
Fresh kiln-dried sand, brushed in once the surface is dry. There is no way to clear the joints without taking the old sand out along with the moss, and if it is not replaced the blocks gradually work loose under the weight of a car. Where the joints need it, re-sanding is quoted separately, and we raise it at the quote so it is not a surprise at the end.
Spring, once you can see what the winter has grown, which in Hall Green is usually obvious by late March. Autumn works as well if you want it clear before the wet months arrive. We will not do it in a hard frost, since wet cleaning in freezing conditions is bad for the surface and miserable for us.
Other cleaning we do in Hall Green
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