Kings Heath Patio and Yard Cleaning for Shaded Terraces
Most of the terraces in B14 were built without off-street parking. At the front there is a small forecourt, a few square metres of paving or original tile holding the bins and a bike, and at the back a modest yard. So on the terraces the work is the forecourt, the entry and the yard, and the block-paved drives are on the interwar streets further south.
What Kings Heath does have is a shading problem. The rear yards and paths behind these terraces are often shaded, they are enclosed by walls and outbuildings, and they see almost no direct sun for months on end. They go green, then they go slippery, and the person who slips is usually carrying a bin bag in the dark. That is the real job here, and grip matters more in it than looks.
- Service
- Patio & Driveway Cleaning
- Area covered
- Kings Heath, B14
- Local authority
- Birmingham
- How we do it
- Rotary flat surface cleaner at a pressure the surface can take
- From our Selly Oak base
- About 12 minutes
- Price
- Quoted per property before we start (common questions)
- Booking
- Call or WhatsApp 07788 574283
Rear yards, entries and forecourts before any driveway
Exterior surface cleaning in B14 concentrates in particular places. Rear yards are the main one: enclosed, often north-facing, permanently damp and reliably green by November. The entries running between houses are the same surface problem on the route everybody walks to the bins. Front forecourts pick up street grit and weed growth in the joints, and on the older terraces they are often original tile, which will not take pressure. Genuine driveways start appearing on the interwar stock south of Kings Heath Park, and those behave like drives anywhere.
- Rear yards behind the terraces, walled in, shaded and reliably green by November
- Entries between houses, permanently damp brick or concrete on the walked route to the bins
- Small front forecourts holding bins and bikes, frequently original tile that pressure washing would lift
- Concrete and block drives on the interwar semis south of Kings Heath Park
- Paved frontages outside High Street premises, trodden all day and cleaned once in a blue moon
Quarry tile, blue brick or concrete: named house by house
Nothing is switched on until we know what we are standing on, and in B14 the answer changes house by house: Edwardian quarry tile at the front of one, blue brick down the entry of the next, poured concrete in the yard behind it, a 1930s block drive a mile to the south. Concrete and engineering brick in sound condition will take a rotary head. Period tile, and anything jointed in lime, will not, so those get chemistry and low pressure instead. A back yard drains through one gully and nothing else, so we clean in sections and shovel the silt out so none of it goes down there.
- Surface identified before anything is switched on, since a B14 forecourt is as likely to be original tile as concrete
- Soft-washing on period tile and lime-jointed brick, rotary cleaning kept to sound concrete and engineering brick
- Enclosed yards worked in sections around a single gully, with silt carried out by hand
- Joints cleared of moss and weed, because grip comes back from the joints more than the face of the paving
More detail on the equipment and the order of work: the full patio & driveway cleaning process.
Yards, entries and the drives further south
Nearly all the terrace work here happens at the back: a yard, a bin standing and an entry running out to the street, with every piece of equipment carried through by hand. Access is most of the job, so the gate needs unlocking and the bins moving before we arrive. The driveway work sits on the interwar streets south of Kings Heath Park, where the houses have proper frontages and room to park. We also clean the paved areas outside High Street premises, starting at 8am before most of them open.
Why a small yard is not cheap in proportion
Small areas are not cheap in proportion, and it is worth understanding why before a quote lands. Setting up takes the same time for twenty square metres as for two hundred, and on a Kings Heath terrace the kit comes through a narrow entry by hand, so a back yard on its own is poor value. Quoted together, the yard, the entry and the front forecourt make a sensible visit at a sensible price. On the drives south of the park the ordinary variables apply: area, surface and how long it has been left. Block paving loses some jointing sand when cleaned, and re-sanding is quoted separately when the joints need it.
An October clean so the yard is safe all winter
Yearly on a north-facing rear yard, and the sensible month is October, because the whole purpose is a winter without anybody going over between the back door and the bins. Put the entry in the same visit. A front forecourt will hold up for two years unless a hedge or a street tree is dropping onto it. Drives south of the park behave like drives anywhere: one to two years, usually booked in spring when the green becomes obvious.
Nice man great at what he does
Excellent job, highly recommended.
Kings Heath · Patio & Driveway Cleaning
Frequently asked questions
Yes, nearly always. On a shaded Kings Heath terrace it is the yard and the entry that matter, because that is where the growth is and where somebody is going to lose their footing in January. The forecourt is worth adding while we are set up. If we look and it does not need doing, we will tell you that instead of inventing a job.
No. Pressure lifts Edwardian quarry tile off its bedding and strips the soft jointing between the pieces, and having tiling of that age relaid costs many times the price of a clean. Period forecourts get solution and low pressure, which takes the moss and the black film without touching what is underneath.
It can be cleaned, though not fixed for good, because it is walled on both sides and gets no sun from October onwards. The green is algae on permanently damp brick and it soft-washes off, which brings the grip back properly. It will return, so the realistic approach in B14 is a clean each autumn, not one heroic effort every five years.
By hand. Everything is carried down the entry, so we need two things: an unlocked gate and a clear passage. Bins, bikes and anything stored along the wall have to be shifted beforehand or there is nowhere to work. Where the entry is gated and the household is out, the job cannot happen, so tell us in advance and we will move you to a day when somebody is in.
Mostly on the interwar semis south of Kings Heath Park, and cleaning those is ordinary block and concrete drive work. On the terraced streets the job is yards, entries and forecourts instead.
Other cleaning we do in Kings Heath
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