Exterior cleaning in Collaroy

Beachfront homes and apartment blocks on Pittwater Road and Beach Road, famously exposed to east-coast lows, with Inter-war bungalows on the flat and larger homes climbing toward the plateau. Most of what we clean here dates from 1920s to 1960s with beachfront rebuilds, on narrow sand barrier between the ocean and the plateau escarpment, with Long Reef's sandstone and shale headland to the south.

We work around Collaroy Beach and the rock pool, Long Reef headland and golf course, Collaroy Plateau escarpment and Pittwater Road shops and the Collaroy cinema, on streets such as Pittwater Road, Beach Road, Anzac Avenue, Collaroy Street and Frazer Street. The defining exterior problem is sand-blasting and salt on the beachfront glass and render, rust streaks on every balustrade fixing, and green algae on the shaded south walls behind the dunes.

Homes within roughly 500 metres of the surf. Salt arrives on the nor'easter every afternoon and on southerly storms in winter, so nothing stays clean by itself: glass hazes, render streaks, stainless pits and timber greys. We schedule these homes on the shortest cycles we run anywhere in Sydney.

Field note from Collaroy. After an east-coast low the Collaroy beachfront glass carries sand as well as salt; we rinse before any pad touches it, or the sand scratches the glass. Local knowledge, and the reason we do not rush these jobs. Nathan G, Founder

Planning and site constraints we check in Collaroy:

• Collaroy to Narrabeen coastal erosion zone with seawall works along Pittwater Road
• Coastal hazard and wave-runup mapping on the beachfront blocks
• Long Reef Aquatic Reserve

Run-off. Anything washed off a Collaroy property ends up in Collaroy Beach and Long Reef 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.