Conservatory Roof Cleaning Under Harborne’s Garden Trees
Harborne has a lot of conservatories, and the housing explains why. The large houses off the High Street were extended at the back with glazed rooms right through the 1990s and 2000s, and a good number of the 1930s semis towards Quinton got one too. Twenty and thirty years on, those roofs carry a decade of algae, the frames have gone chalky, and the room underneath has quietly become the place the bikes and the drying rack live.
What makes it harder here is the planting. Harborne gardens are long and mature, and a conservatory sitting under a boundary sycamore or lime takes sap and leaf tannin on top of the algae, which sets and is considerably harder to shift than algae on its own. That is the difference between a roof that needs one application of solution and one that needs two, and it is worth understanding before you compare quotes on price alone.
- Service
- Conservatory Cleaning
- Area covered
- Harborne, B17
- Local authority
- Birmingham
- How we do it
- Soft wash on the roof, no pressure on seals or polycarbonate
- From our Selly Oak base
- About 10 minutes
- Price
- Quoted per property before we start (quoting and booking questions)
- Booking
- Call or WhatsApp 07788 574283
Original seals and a tree over the roof
Two things shape the job in B17, on top of the sheer number of rooms. Age, because most went up between the mid-nineties and around 2008 and are still on original seals and original polycarbonate. And tree cover, because the long rear gardens behind these houses have established planting on the boundary dropping sap, blossom and tannin-stained leaf directly onto a low-pitched roof that never sheds any of it. The practical result is a room people stopped using: too green to sit in, too dim to read in, and written off as storage.
- Twenty to thirty year old glazed rear additions on the larger houses off the High Street
- Original seals and original polycarbonate, both of which rule out a pressure washer entirely
- Sap, blossom and leaf tannin off boundary trees, setting on top of the algae rather than beside it
- Low-pitched lean-to roofs that never shed what lands on them, whatever the weather does
- Conservatory guttering sitting below the main roof slope and catching everything that washes off it
Soft washing, with a second coat where tannin has set
Soft-washing only, at low pressure, and on a Harborne conservatory there is no alternative. High pressure scores polycarbonate permanently, pushes water in behind gaskets that have sat through a quarter of a century of Birmingham weather, and can split a glazing bar that has already gone brittle. The solution is laid onto the roof panels, left to break the algae down chemically, then taken off with pure water. Where tannin has set into the growth we come back with a second coat and leave the pressure where it is. Frames, glazing bars, finials and ridge cresting are hand work, and the conservatory gutter is emptied before we leave.
- Low-pressure soft-wash across the roof panels, with nothing pressurised anywhere near ageing seals
- A second application on tannin-set growth instead of more pressure, which is the choice that protects the panels
- Ridge cresting, finials and glazing bars worked by hand, with aluminium sections treated differently from uPVC
- The conservatory gutter emptied and its outlet checked before we leave, never billed on top
More detail on the equipment and the order of work: our conservatory cleaning method.
Where the B17 conservatories actually are
They are spread right across B17. The largest sit on the villas off the High Street and the roads running towards the golf course, often Victorian-style with a ridge and cresting, and those are the longest jobs. Lean-tos on the 1930s semis towards Quinton are quicker jobs. There is a scattering of newer orangeries with flat roof sections and lanterns on the infill near Harborne Park Road. Spring is the time to book so the room is usable by May, and it pays to ask early in the year.
Footprint, glazing and years since the last brush
What you pay turns on three things: the footprint of the room, whether the roof is glass or polycarbonate, and how long since it last saw a brush. A small lean-to on a yearly cycle is an hour or two. A ridged Victorian-style roof on one of the villas, left green for a decade, wants two coats of solution and most of a day. Cresting and finials are hand work and add to that. There is one thing we will not sell you: a polycarbonate panel that has turned yellow has been broken down by ultraviolet, so the colour is in the sheet and not on it. Harborne roofs of this age usually show green over yellow together, and the quote will say which part is leaving.
A spring clean, and a second where a tree hangs over the roof
A yearly clean covers most B17 conservatories, and spring is the moment to have it, so the glass is clear for the months you will sit in there. Where a mature tree hangs directly over the roof, and a fair few Harborne gardens do, a second visit pays for itself, because sap and tannin land after the leaves have finished. A roof nobody has touched for a decade is a big first job and then a modest annual one thereafter.
Absolutely brilliant service. Adefem was professional, job well done. Everything was left beautifully clean, and I was genuinely impressed.
Charles was great. He was very professional and did a great job.
Nice man great at what he does
Harborne · Conservatory Cleaning
Frequently asked questions
No, not the way we do it, and the fear is the right one to have. Leaks after a clean are caused by high pressure driving water past seals that were already tired, which is precisely why we soft-wash. If a seal has perished or a panel has slipped we will photograph it and tell you, because that is a glazing repair and it needs doing whether or not anyone cleans the roof.
No, not quite. The glass sections come back fully once the algae and tannin are off. On the polycarbonate the green goes, but any yellowing stays, because sunlight has broken down the sheet itself and there is nothing on its surface for us to lift. Panels shaded by the canopy for years have often yellowed less than the open side. We point out which is which at the quote, so you know how the finished roof will look.
Tree sap and leaf tannin that has set on top of the algae, and it is a common complication in Harborne because so many of these conservatories sit under a boundary tree. It needs a second application with dwell time rather than more force. It costs a little more and it is the difference between a clean roof and a mostly clean one.
Yes, a great deal, and it is why the conservatory gutter is part of the job here. Everything washing off a three-storey villa roof, moss, grit and leaf, lands in that low run first, so it blocks long before the house guttering does. Cleaning the panels and leaving that gutter packed would just move the problem along by a month.
Usually, yes. Taking a decade of algae off the roof puts the daylight back into the room, and a conservatory written off as bike storage becomes somewhere to sit again. If it has never been done from inside, ask us about the interior of the roof as well: that is quoted separately and it is what makes the room feel finished.
Other cleaning we do in Harborne
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