Exterior cleaning in Fairlight

Harbour-facing apartment blocks from the 1960s to the 2000s on Lauderdale Avenue, Inter-war brick bungalows on the Hilltop and Woods Parade slopes, and large rendered rebuilds taking the North Harbour view. Most of what we clean here dates from 1920s bungalows, 1960s to 1970s walk-ups, 2000s rebuilds, on steep Hawkesbury sandstone falling to North Harbour.

We work around Fairlight Beach and the harbour pool, the Manly Scenic Walkway below Lauderdale Avenue, North Harbour Reserve and Fairlight Crescent, on streets such as Lauderdale Avenue, Fairlight Crescent, Woods Parade, Sydney Road and Hilltop Crescent. The defining exterior problem is black mould on the south-facing render of the Lauderdale Avenue blocks, lichen on the sandstone retaining walls, and salt haze on every harbour-facing window.

Clontarf, Seaforth, Balgowlah Heights, North Balgowlah and Fairlight look over Middle Harbour and North Harbour. Salt is moderate, humidity is high, and the streets are a mix of 1960s brick, 1990s render and recent concrete-and-glass rebuilds on steep sandstone blocks.

Field note from Fairlight. Fairlight's harbour glass gets a finer salt haze than the ocean side; it looks clean until the afternoon sun hits it, which is why we clean these homes on a quarterly cycle rather than waiting for a call. Nathan G, Founder

Planning and site constraints we check in Fairlight:

• Foreshore scenic protection along the Manly Scenic Walkway
• Steep-slope blocks with shared driveways and sandstone retaining walls

Run-off. Anything washed off a Fairlight property ends up in North Harbour 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.