Exterior Cleaning in Somerton
Somerton is built largely from the local blue-grey lias, and lias behaves differently from the golden stone a few miles east. It is layered, and layers are exactly what pressure finds and lifts.
Lias comes off in layers.
Blue lias is a bedded limestone, which means it formed in thin horizontal layers and it will happily come apart along them. On a weathered wall those beds are already slightly open at the face, and a pressure washer aimed at them does not clean the stone so much as start peeling it.
The result is a wall that looks scrubbed on the day and then sheds flakes for years afterwards, particularly after a hard frost gets into the opened beds. It is one of the more depressing kinds of damage to see, because it is entirely avoidable.
Sitting where it does on the edge of the Levels, Somerton also gets its share of damp, still air, so there is usually plenty of growth to deal with. It just has to come off the slow way — treatment and patience rather than force.
What we clean in Somerton.
Test a small patch first.
On any old stone we are not familiar with, we would rather try a small area somewhere inconspicuous and see how it responds before committing to a whole elevation. It costs nothing and it tells you far more than a guess. If anyone quotes you for stone cleaning in Somerton without wanting to look at the stone first, that is worth thinking about.
Questions from Somerton.
Is blue lias safe to pressure wash?
No, and it is one of the worst stones to try it on. Lias is bedded, meaning it formed in thin horizontal layers, and on a weathered wall those beds are already slightly open. Pressure gets into them and starts peeling the face — then frost finishes the job over the following winters.
Will you test a small area first?
On old stone we would rather not skip it. A test patch somewhere inconspicuous tells us how the surface actually responds, which is worth more than any assumption. It costs nothing and it has stopped us making mistakes more than once.
Do you cover the villages around Somerton?
Yes — Langport, Long Sutton, Charlton Mackrell and the surrounding villages, with Castle Cary east and Yeovil to the south.
Somerton is around twenty two miles north west of our base near Sturminster Newton.
Ready to see the difference?
Send a photo of the job and we will come back with a clear, fixed price within 24 hours. Free, no obligation, no pressure.