K-render building cleaning in Glasgow comes in various methods from the small house to a large housing estate.

On this project, we were contracted by the resident’s committee and their property agents to restore the look on a housing estate next to the River Clyde in Renfrew Glasgow.

The K-render had lost its high-end look with visible red algae, black algae, moulds and cascading central heating expansion pipe rust stains on the white K-render.

This contract was for 150 flats and 23 townhouses to be treated using our softwash process within an 8-week period and budget that we had set for the program of works to be completed.

Cost Effective K Render Cleaning

The timeframe for this clean was over a year’s planning with a few added extra months waiting for the seagulls to leave the roofs.  The metal roofs on the flats and townhouses where treated with Algoclear Pro to remove the moulds, algae, seagull droppings and nests that have covered the metal cladding roofs on the townhouses and flats over the years.

The boom truck was on-site for one week to save costs for our clients, and we were able to reduce further costs by not charging for cleaning out the captive metal guttering.  Plus, the skip we were planning to have on-site to remove the gutter debris from the site with a waste removal company. This costing was not charged as we did not have to remove any large grass sods or seagull nests from within the guttering channels.

Leaking guttering can cause a lot of organic growth, and if left unchecked, the organic matter will vary from property to property within an area, as the environmental factors will play a large part in the organics growth rate and colours we see on the K-render.

Over the weeks we were on-site we recognised that the pattern of the estate’s car parking areas would start to clear around 7.00 am creating space for our work area below the blocks of flats.  The majority of the windows would be open at this point, and we would have to ring the buzzers and ask for the windows to be closed. Not always would we be able to catch the residents in their property’s and this had a domino effect on our day-to-day production as we would not be able to coat these sections.

So to ensure we had as many windows closed as possible, we leafleted the block the day before the clean, as some residents did not have a letter from the property factors.

The windows were required to stay shut for the day on each specific area as we were saturating the substrate of the K-render with Algoclear Pro, a biodegradable product made specifically for the cleaning of K-render on buildings.

Once the area has been heavily saturated with the products we cleaned the windows off to remove the soap bubble marks from the glass.

During our deep clean of the estate, we noticed that a large volume of the properties did not have any window cleaning done from year to year.  This created problems with organic material growing on the window sills, and when it had established itself on the window sill, the rainwater runoff starts to seep into the K-render below the sills, creating stains of various colours depending on the organics that are prevalent in that area.

Green and Red Algae Treatment

Green marks (Chlorophyta) are from algae and moss, making the marks quite visible and are the worst stains to have as they have roots that dig into the substrate and create cracks with the acids.  The roots weaken the surface and get a foothold on a vertical surface.  Moss and algae are the worst for doing this and should be addressed as quickly as possible; and then we have the red algae (Trentepohlia) that has a habit of not showing itself till the K-render is wet from the rain.

The rain also brings out the black algae marks on the K-render surfaces.

These two are more prevalent in Scotland than some of the others that are present in the UK, namely yellow mustard lichen and other such like organic matters.  We are seeing more mustard lichen marks on rooftops these days, and this is also a root structure lichen that creates acid and establishes its roots into the tiled surface.

Visit SoftWash Scotland to know more about our cost-effective cleaning services.

If you’d like to get your K-render professionally cleaned, get in touch with us today. Call us on 01506 635 551, or email softwashscotlandltd@gmail.com.