Exterior cleaning in Allambie Heights

Post-war brick homes on quarter-acre blocks on the ridge above Manly Dam, many extended upward or rebuilt as rendered two-storey homes with pools, bordered by bushland on the dam side. Most of what we clean here dates from 1950s to 1960s with ongoing rebuilds, on sandstone ridge falling to the Manly Dam bushland.

We work around Manly Dam and the Manly Warringah War Memorial Park, Allambie Heights Oval, Allambie Road shops and Kentwell Road ridge, on streets such as Allambie Road, Kentwell Road, Roosevelt Avenue, Roseberry Street and Fromelles Avenue. The defining exterior problem is gutters and valleys packed with gum leaf and bark, lichen on tiled roofs and shaded paving, and tannin staining on concrete under the street trees.

The suburbs one ridge back from the surf, such as Queenscliff, Balgowlah, Allambie Heights, Beacon Hill, Cromer, Collaroy Plateau, Elanora Heights and Bilgola Plateau, get the salt haze on ocean-facing glass without the full battering, and the mould and lichen that come with sea-level humidity.

Field note from Allambie Heights. Allambie's roofs on the dam side hold a layer of bark fines that looks like dirt but acts like a sponge; clearing the valleys before November is the single most useful thing we do on these homes. Nathan G, Founder

Planning and site constraints we check in Allambie Heights:

• Bushfire-prone land along the Manly Dam reserve
• Manly Dam catchment, Sydney's only metropolitan freshwater dam reserve

Run-off. Anything washed off a Allambie Heights property ends up in Manly Dam unless it is stopped at the kerb. Northern Beaches Council enforces the NSW EPA rule that wash water, detergent and sediment stay out of stormwater, so we bund drains, capture run-off and vacuum-recover on sealed or commercial sites. More in our stormwater guide.