Kings Norton Conservatory Cleaning for B30 Semis Under Park Trees
Where the conservatories are in Kings Norton is worth stating before anything else. Almost all of them are on the 1930s semis through B30, added as rear extensions from the 1990s onwards, and on the later infill houses. Those roofs are now twenty to thirty years old, and a great many have never been properly cleaned.
Around The Green the work is mostly lean-tos on later extensions. Adding a conservatory to a listed building or inside the conservation area is a consent matter, not a weekend decision, so those properties have largely kept their rear elevations as they were. Out on the B38 estates there are some, mainly on houses that were bought rather than rented, but nothing like the density of the B30 semis. If your roof has gone green, it is probably on one of those.
- Service
- Conservatory Cleaning
- Area covered
- Kings Norton, B30 and B38
- Local authority
- Birmingham
- How we do it
- Soft wash on the roof, no pressure on seals or polycarbonate
- From our Selly Oak base
- About 15 minutes
- Price
- Quoted per property before we start (quoting and booking questions)
- Booking
- Call or WhatsApp 07788 574283
Park and canal tree cover over the rear gardens of B30
The reason these roofs green up quickly is directly overhead. Tree cover from Kings Norton Park and along the canal shades a great many rear gardens here, and shade plus damp is precisely what algae wants, with a layer of summer sap and leaf tannin setting over the top of it. That combination takes longer to break down than algae on its own and it will not shift with a rinse. Worse again is the small gutter along the conservatory itself, hung below the main run and closer to the branches than anything else on the building, which is why it is generally full while the house guttering is still coping.
- Rear gardens shaded by the park canopy and the towpath trees, which is what puts algae on the panels
- Sap and leaf tannin setting over the algae through summer, needing longer dwell than green growth alone
- Roofs on the B30 semis and the later infill now twenty to thirty years old and often never cleaned
- The conservatory’s own gutter, hung lower and nearer the branches than any other run on the house
- Ageing seals and glazing bars on rear extensions of that age, which high pressure would finish off
Low pressure on glass and polycarbonate alike
Low pressure only, and the same on polycarbonate as on glass. A cleaning solution is laid on and left to break the algae down along with the tannin film baked over it, then taken off with pure water so nothing is left to dry as spots. Jetting a roof of this age is how seals that have survived twenty-odd winters start letting water past, how polycarbonate picks up permanent scoring, and how a tired glazing bar splits. Frames, bars and finials are done by hand to suit the material, seals get looked at properly, and the conservatory gutter is emptied and flushed before we leave.
- One pressure setting only, and it is low, whatever the panels are made of
- Two applications where a roof has been left green for years, said at the quote rather than on the day
- Hand work on frames, bars and finials, and a plain report on any seal that has perished
- The conservatory gutter emptied and flushed within the price, because here it is the first thing to fill
More detail on the equipment and the order of work: how we do conservatory cleaning, step by step.
Where the conservatories actually are
The work sits in the B30 semis, on the roads running towards Cotteridge and Kings Norton station and around Parsons Hill, plus the later infill. Spring is when it gets booked, so the room is bright and usable by the time anybody wants to sit in it, and at about fifteen minutes from Selly Oak a slot within the week is usually possible. Out on the B38 estates conservatories are occasional. In the conservation area a lean-to on a later extension is the usual job.
Floor size, roof type and years of shade in a Kings Norton quote
Three things move the number: the floor size, what the roof is made of, and how many years it is since anybody last touched it. A small lean-to on an annual rhythm is an hour or two. A full-width conservatory on a B30 semi shaded by park-edge trees for a decade needs the solution on twice and the hours to match, so we ask for photographs before putting a number on it. There is also a limit worth hearing first: on an older polycarbonate roof, any yellowing is ultraviolet damage inside the sheet, and cleaning only takes away what sits on top of it.
Twice a year under the park canopy, once on an open plot
Under the park or towpath canopy, which covers a fair share of the B30 conservatories, twice a year works best: once in spring for the light, once after the leaf drop so the winter is not spent under a load of sap and litter. An open garden with nothing above it manages on a single visit. Whatever the panels look like, the small gutter wants the shorter interval, since it overflows months before a roof looks bad enough to make anybody book.
Charles was great. He was very professional and did a great job.
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Kings Norton · Conservatory Cleaning
Frequently asked questions
Yes, a few, mostly lean-tos on later extensions. The older properties around The Green have largely kept their original rear elevations, and most Kings Norton conservatories are on the 1930s semis and the newer housing.
The green does: algae and the tannin film from the park canopy lift away with the soft-wash. The yellow does not, because on a polycarbonate roof of that age it is ultraviolet damage inside the sheet. A glass roof never yellows, so if yours is glass, everything you can see is surface dirt. For yellowed polycarbonate, replacement sheets from a glazier are the only answer.
Yes, included, not extra. That small run hangs below the main guttering and sits closer to whatever overhangs your garden than anything else on the house, so in this part of Birmingham it is generally the first thing to fill. Leaving it full while cleaning the panels above it would show itself in the first heavy downpour.
Yes, it would be faster, and these roofs are the wrong age for it. A rear extension put up in the 1990s or early 2000s has seals that have been through twenty-odd winters, and high pressure finds every one of them as well as scratching polycarbonate permanently. Low pressure and dwell time reach the same result without turning a clean into a leak.
Yes, if you ask for it, and we will need access to the room. It is slower than the outside: all by hand from inside, with no pole doing any of the lifting. On a roof nobody has touched in years the underside of the glazing bars holds more than people imagine, so it is priced as a separate line.
Other cleaning we do in Kings Norton
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