Cleaning Shirley’s Nineties and Noughties Conservatory Roofs
Many Shirley houses have a conservatory on the back, and a good number date from the building boom that ran from the mid nineties to the mid noughties, which puts them at around a quarter of a century old. It is precisely the age at which the roof has been greening quietly for years, the seals have gone hard, and white frames have drifted to grey without anybody registering it happening.
The reason they green up faster here than on a bare modern estate is the plot. Deep, well-treed 1930s to 50s gardens put branches over the rear of the house, which means shade, damp and a steady fall of leaf litter and sap onto the panels instead of clean rain. This is also the one part of a Stratford Road property that the traffic film never reaches. The front of the house has a road problem and the back has a garden problem, and they need different treatment.
- Service
- Conservatory Cleaning
- Area covered
- Shirley, B90
- Local authority
- Solihull
- How we do it
- Soft wash on the roof, no pressure on seals or polycarbonate
- From our Selly Oak base
- About 25 minutes
- Price
- Quoted per property before we start (how quotes work)
- Booking
- Call or WhatsApp 07788 574283
Algae under tannin on a Shirley conservatory roof
A rear conservatory on a deep Shirley plot collects two layers, and the order they came in matters. Underneath is algae, spreading across any panel that stays shaded and damp. Laid over the top of it each summer comes sap and leaf tannin off whatever is overhanging, and once that has baked in the sun it seals the algae beneath a film that ordinary washing slides straight across. Debris packs into the roof valleys and against the box gutter at the junction with the house wall as well. The small run of gutter around the conservatory itself is the first thing on the property to block, being both the lowest and the nearest to the branches.
- Twenty to thirty year old roofs, a great many of them never cleaned since they were installed
- Mature garden trees overhanging the rear, giving shade, damp and a steady fall of leaf litter
- Sap and tannin baking over the algae each summer, sealing it beneath a film ordinary washing slides across
- The conservatory’s own gutter blocking before anything else on the property, being lowest and nearest the branches
- Hardened seals and greyed frames on ageing units, which need hand cleaning rather than a pressure pass
Low pressure and dwell time on glass and polycarbonate
Low pressure only, and the same approach on polycarbonate as on glass. A cleaning solution is applied across the roof, left long enough to break the tannin film and reach the algae underneath, then rinsed away with pure water that dries clear on its own. What we will not do is put a jet wash near it, because on a unit of this age the panels scratch, hardened seals let water through into the frame, and brittle glazing bars split. Frames, bars, seals and the box gutter at the house wall are washed by hand, and the small gutter around the conservatory is emptied and flushed inside the same price.
- Solution left to work on the baked tannin film before anything is rinsed, on glass and polycarbonate equally
- Two applications priced at the quote where a roof has been left green for a decade
- Hand washing on frames, bars, seals and the box gutter, with perished trim photographed rather than covered over
- The conservatory’s own gutter emptied and flushed within the same price, not treated as a separate call
More detail on the equipment and the order of work: conservatory cleaning across Birmingham.
Booking a Shirley conservatory clean
The typical job sits on the older housing along and behind the Stratford Road, where deep rear gardens and established planting put branches directly over the roof. Spring is the natural time, because people want the room bright before they start using it again, and it pairs well with a gutter clear or the window clean on the same visit. You do not need to be in. We do need to get down the side of the house, and gated side entries are common on the detached stock, so a code or an open gate on the day stops the visit being wasted.
Roof size, material and years untouched: the Shirley variables
Three things move the number: how big the roof is, what it is made of, and how many years have passed since anyone touched it. A unit kept on a yearly cycle is short work. One that has stood under a mature garden tree for a decade or more may want two full applications and most of a morning, which is why we ask for photographs before pricing it. On an older polycarbonate roof we also check the sheets for ultraviolet yellowing at the quote, because that colour sits inside the panel where washing cannot reach it, while the algae and tannin above it lift off entirely.
Spring and after leaf fall under B90 garden trees
Under overhanging garden trees, which describes most conservatories in B90, plan on two visits: one in spring so the room is bright for the season, one after the leaf fall so nothing sits on the panels all winter. An open rear garden with nothing above the roof manages perfectly well on a single annual clean. Whichever the roof is on, that little gutter around it wants doing more often, since it spills down the frame months before the glass looks bad enough to ring anybody about.
First time customer. Excellent service and great job. Will definitely be using them again in the future.
Nice man great at what he does
Great services delivered by Charles recommend for others
Shirley · Conservatory Cleaning
Frequently asked questions
Yes, and on polycarbonate or glass the change is usually dramatic. Algae sits on the surface and releases once the solution has been given time to work on it. On an older unit under a mature tree the real question is whether it takes one application or two, and the photographs at the quote settle that.
Because a unit of this age will not survive it. Polycarbonate scratches and never recovers, water gets driven through seals that hardened years ago, and brittle glazing bars split. Soft-washing takes longer, since the chemistry has to be left to do the work, but it removes the algae without handing you a leak into the frame.
Yes, by hand, and on a unit this old the frames often make more visible difference than the roof does. Two decades of grey lifts off white plastic. Where a seal or a length of trim has perished we photograph it and say so, because that is a repair job and pretending otherwise helps nobody.
Yes, inside the price. On a well-planted Shirley plot that short run is the lowest on the property and sits nearest the branches, so it packs solid first and then tips water down the frame and onto the patio. Cleaning the panels and walking away from it buys you roughly a fortnight.
Yes, and please ask for it that way. We cover Solihull B90 on scheduled days, so the conservatory, the glass, the gutters and the drive can all go into a single appointment and the whole exterior gets finished together.
Other cleaning we do in Shirley
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