Commercial Cladding Cleaning

Commercial cladding cleaning for industrial units, warehouses, trade counters and office buildings across Northampton, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Buckingham. Low-pressure, substrate-matched, applied from ground level.

The method is decided by what your building is made of

Cladding is not one material. Plastisol-coated steel, powder-coated aluminium, anodised aluminium, thin-coat silicone render and composite panels all behave differently, and the thing that damages one is routine on another. Getting that wrong is how a coating fails two years early.

So the first thing we do is identify the substrate, then match the chemistry and the pressure to it. Not the other way round.

Three kinds of dirt, three different treatments

Atmospheric soiling. General airborne grime, dust and rain-carried dirt. Low-pressure detergent softwash, rinsed thoroughly before the solution can dry on the panel.

Organic growth. Green algae, black spotting and lichen, most often on north elevations and thin-coat render. Treated with a biocide at low pressure and given dwell time. Render in particular is never pressure washed — the coating is thin and the aggregate is what gives it its finish.

Traffic film and diesel soot. The grey-brown film that builds on any elevation facing a road, a yard or a loading bay. This is where a non-caustic traffic film remover earns its place: it lifts bonded road film, grease and diesel deposits, and because there is no caustic in it, it will not taint or discolour aluminium or galvanised metalwork. Diluted and dwelled to the product data sheet, then rinsed off fully.

What we will not do

We do not high-pressure blast cladding. Pressure is what strips the protective skin off a coated panel, and once it is gone, oxidation and colour loss follow. If your panels have already been pressure-damaged by a previous contractor we will tell you, photograph it, and work around it rather than finish the job off.

We do not clean or make any assessment of a building's fire performance, its external wall system, or its compliance with building safety legislation. That is a job for a qualified assessor and it is not what this service is. If you need that, get a specialist.

We do not clean over failed sealant, blown panels, or areas where the coating has already broken down. Cleaning those makes them worse.

Working height

The price on this page covers elevations reachable from the ground, up to 15 metres — three to four storeys on most commercial buildings, using carbon reach poles and low-pressure delivery. Nothing leans on your building and nobody stands on your roof.

Above 15 metres, or where a yard is too tight, too busy or too obstructed to work from, the job needs a mobile elevating work platform. Platform hire is a cost we do not control, and it varies by machine, by site and by week, so we survey and quote that work rather than publish a number we cannot hold to.

The Pre-Works Substrate Condition Survey

Optional, and worth taking on any building with a claims history or a facilities manager who has been burned before. It is a record of the condition of your cladding before we touch it, and a written statement of what we will and will not do to each material on the building.

• Photographic condition record. Every elevation, dated and unedited, with close-ups of anything already damaged — crazing or micro-cracking in composite, oxidation on anodised surfaces, failed or perished sealant, chalking, spalled render, previous pressure-wash scarring.
• Substrate schedule. Each material on the building identified and listed, because what it is determines what can safely touch it.
• Method statement per substrate. The method, the pressure, the product and the dwell time for each one — and, in writing, the areas where we will refuse to apply anything because the coating is already compromised.
• Exclusions. Anything we will not warrant and anything we think you should have a specialist look at.

It is not a fire risk assessment and it is not a structural survey. It is an assessment of our own work's risk to your building fabric, which is squarely our responsibility as the contractor doing it. You keep the documentation whether or not you use us.

Waste and site tidiness

Run-off is managed, the site is left as we found it, and anything we take away is carried under our Environment Agency registration, CBDL622625.

Where we work

Industrial and distribution units on Brackmills, Moulton Park, Round Spinney, Swan Valley and Pineham in Northampton. Kiln Farm, Blakelands, Tongwell and the Milton Keynes logistics parks. Elms Farm, Woburn Road, Marsh Leys and Priory Business Park in Bedford. Trade counters, showrooms, retail parks, schools, care homes and office blocks throughout Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire.

Building your price

Use the options on the right: give us the approximate facade area in square metres, the substrate, the working height and what is actually on the building, then add the condition survey or enhanced site protection if you need them. Every combination is priced before you book.

Fully insured. Northampton, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Buckingham.