Moseley Patio and Path Cleaning for Slippery Tiled Steps
The front path and the steps are the Moseley version of this job. Most of these houses stand above the pavement with three or four steps to the door, and the tread is often original tile or stone laid before the First World War. On the shaded roads around Moseley Bog those steps carry an algae film from October onwards. A wet tiled step with algae on it is not an appearance problem. It is a fall waiting for somebody carrying shopping in the dark.
Driveways in B13 are mostly modest hardstandings where a Victorian front garden was paved for a car, and they clean up well. Alongside them, Moseley has communal paths and bin routes at converted houses, and rear terraces sitting in the shade of a tree.
- Service
- Patio & Driveway Cleaning
- Area covered
- Moseley, B13
- 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
Smooth tile and York stone in deep shade
The reason this matters more here than in a newer suburb is the combination of surface and shade. Original tile and York stone are smooth faced, so algae makes them slick as well as green, and there is enough tree cover in Moseley to keep a north-facing path damp from October through to March. The steps concentrate the risk, because that is where somebody is carrying something and cannot see their feet. At a converted house the same path serves four households with the bin store at the end of it, so the fall risk sits with a freeholder who may not have seen the property since summer. Winter also composts last autumn’s leaf litter straight into the joints.
- Original tiled and stone front steps that go slick rather than gritty as soon as algae takes hold
- North-facing paths on the shaded roads near Moseley Bog, damp from October right through to March
- Communal paths and bin routes at converted houses, walked by four households and owned by a freeholder who is elsewhere
- Rear terraces and stone flags under a mature tree, taking leaf tannin on top of the algae
- Modest front hardstandings where a Victorian front garden was paved for a car
Tile, flag or engineering brick, identified before anything starts
Identifying the surface comes first, and it changes house to house on the same Moseley street: encaustic or geometric tile on a front path, stone flags at the back, blue engineering brick on a step nosing, plain concrete on a hardstanding. Original tile and stone are soft-washed at low pressure and never blasted, because pressure lifts period tiles off their bedding and takes the lime jointing with them. Sound concrete takes rotary cleaning happily. On a stepped approach we work from the top down and take the growth out of the joints and off the nosings, since the nosing is where the grip actually has to be.
- Soft-washing at low pressure on original tiled paths, stone flags and step nosings, with rotary pressure kept for sound concrete
- Growth taken out of the joints and off the nosings, which is what restores grip underfoot
- Worked top down on a stepped approach, so nothing is rinsed back over what has been finished
- Displaced silt carried out rather than flushed into a Victorian gully that will not take it
More detail on the equipment and the order of work: our patio & driveway cleaning method.
Steps, paths and the roads around the Bog
The shaded streets need it most: the roads off Wake Green Road backing onto Moseley Bog, the streets around Moseley Park and Pool, and anything with a tall hedge on its north side. Front steps and the route to the bin store are the two places to make safe before winter. At the converted houses near the Village the approach is a managing agent’s concern, for the obvious reason. Access at the front is straightforward, though at the rear of a flat we sometimes have to run a hose through a communal passage.
Setting up for a small Moseley front path or a flight of steps
Small areas are not cheap in proportion, and it is worth understanding that before asking for a price on a set of steps. Setting up takes the same time for four square metres as for forty, so a front path, the steps and the bin route quoted together are far better value than any one of them on its own. Original tile is slower than concrete because it has to be soft-washed and worked by hand, where concrete takes a rotary head. At a converted house we quote the whole approach, and the freeholder or the leaseholders settle it between them. Block paving, where B13 has any, sometimes needs its jointing sand topped up after cleaning, and re-sanding is quoted separately when the joints need it.
Every autumn, ahead of winter on the front step
Annually, and unusually for this service the Moseley slot is autumn. The purpose of the job here is getting through the winter without somebody going over on the steps, so the useful slot is late October, before the algae is established and before the clocks go back. Spring is fine if what you are after is appearance. A rear terrace under a tree often wants both, because it takes the leaf drop as well as the shade.
Absolutely brilliant service. Adefem was professional, job well done. Everything was left beautifully clean, and I was genuinely impressed.
Nice man great at what he does
I’m very satisfied with the service I get
Moseley · Patio & Driveway Cleaning
Frequently asked questions
Yes, and on a tiled step it is the difference between grip and none. The slipperiness is a living algae film sitting on a smooth glazed face, so once it is off, the tile grips again. It will come back, because the step stays shaded, which is why we would rather sell you one clean each October than a promise it is solved permanently.
Yes, it can, which is why we do not use one on them. High pressure lifts Victorian geometric tiles off their bedding and blows out the soft lime jointing underneath, and matching and relaying that tiling costs many times what the clean would have. Period paths and steps get soft-washed at low pressure instead.
The path, the steps, the bin route and the rear terrace. On a shaded road the first two matter most, because that is where the slip risk sits. We look at what you have and quote for the parts that need it.
Whoever the lease makes responsible, which is normally the freeholder, often through a managing agent and the service charge. It is worth pressing, because the approach and the bin route are exactly where a fall would happen and exactly where liability would land. We quote the whole approach as one job so it can be passed on cleanly.
On a north-facing path under a lime tree, one winter. Permanent shade and heavy leaf fall do that to any clean, and anyone promising you a permanently clear path in this part of B13 is overselling. An annual clean in autumn keeps the grip where it needs to be through the months it matters.
Other cleaning we do in Moseley
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