Exterior cleaning in Manly

Federation and Inter-war apartment blocks along the Corso and East Esplanade, 1920s to 1930s bungalows on the Bower Street and Fairy Bower slopes, and large contemporary rebuilds on the Addison Road ridge facing North Head. Most of what we clean here dates from 1890s to 1930s core with a continuous cycle of strata rebuilds since the 1970s, on Hawkesbury sandstone headlands with sand-flat fill between the ocean beach and the harbour.

We work around Manly Beach and the Norfolk pines, Shelly Beach and the Cabbage Tree Bay reserve, Manly Wharf and East Esplanade and North Head, on streets such as Bower Street, Addison Road, Fairy Bower Road, Darley Road and Pacific Street. The defining exterior problem is salt film on every pane of ocean-facing glass within a fortnight, rust streaks from balustrade fixings on the Esplanade blocks, and black cyanobacteria on the south walls of the Bower Street homes.

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 Manly. On the Fairy Bower walk the Norfolk pine resin and salt combine into a sticky film on balcony glass that pure water alone will not shift; we pre-treat with a mild degreaser before the pole work. Nathan G, Founder

Planning and site constraints we check in Manly:

• Coastal hazard and wave-runup mapping along Marine Parade and the beachfront
• Several heritage conservation areas including the Pittwater Road and Eastern Hill precincts
• Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve directly below the Bower Street homes

Run-off. Anything washed off a Manly property ends up in Manly Beach and Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve 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.