Exterior Washing in Sheffield
Sheffield was built on the bluff above the Tennessee River, and a lot of its houses look like it: older brick and frame homes, deep porches, and oak trees that were already big when the houses went up. That canopy is the best thing about the older streets and the main reason they need washing. Leaves hold rain, the sun never quite reaches the north side of the roof, and moss, algae and mildew settle in where it stays damp.
Downtown along Montgomery Avenue and the blocks around it, you see the river town that Sheffield has always been. Out from there are post-war brick houses and some newer homes, but even those tend to sit under more shade than the average house in the Shoals. We spend most of our Sheffield time on soft washing, roofs and gutters for that reason.
Older homes, big trees
An older house gets washed slower and softer. Painted wood siding and trim can be decades past its first coat, old brick can have soft mortar, and window glazing on original sashes does not hold up to a pressure wand. On these homes we use a low-pressure soft wash: a cleaner that kills the algae and mildew is applied gently, given time to work, and rinsed off with plain water at about garden-hose force. It is the gentler method we lean on for anything old or painted.
Shade also means the green comes back faster than it does on a house in an open subdivision. A good wash buys time, and the cleaner we use keeps growth from returning as quickly as a plain rinse would. We will tell you honestly which side of the house is going to need attention first and why.
Porches get their own attention. Painted porch floors, ceilings and columns collect pollen in spring and cobwebs the rest of the year, and they are usually the first thing a visitor sees.
Gutters and roofs under the oaks
Under a Sheffield oak, gutters fill twice a year at least, and when they back up the overflow streaks the fascia and the siding beneath it. We clear the debris out of the troughs, flush the downspouts and wash the outside faces of the gutters, which turn grey and striped with what people call tiger stripes. If you want the details on clearing the gutters under those oaks, that page walks through it.
The north slope of a shaded roof is where moss and the black streaks of roof algae show up first. Those streaks are a living algae, and pressure washing a shingle roof strips the granules that protect it. We soft wash roofs instead, low pressure only, and we protect the plants under the drip line by wetting them down before and rinsing them after.
Metal roofs on porches and sheds get the same low-pressure treatment. Pressure can lift the paint on older panels.
The best time to do all three, gutters, roof and siding, is after the leaves are down in late fall or right after pollen season in late spring. Washing the siding before clearing the gutters just means washing it twice, so on a Sheffield house we usually work top down: gutters first, then the roof, then the walls, porch and walks last.
Services in Sheffield
Around Sheffield we do house soft washing, brick cleaning, roof cleaning, gutter clearing and face washing, porch and deck washing, driveway and sidewalk cleaning, and fence cleaning. Storefronts along the downtown blocks can book sidewalk and entry cleaning on an early-morning schedule. We wash houses, roofs and concrete across the Shoals: Florence, Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, Tuscumbia, Killen and Rogersville. Sheffield sits between Muscle Shoals and Tuscumbia, so crews pass through often, and the next town south, our work over in Tuscumbia, looks a lot like the older streets here.
Services we bring out here
Pressure Washing in Muscle Shoals
We soft wash houses and clean concrete across town.
House and Roof Washing in Tuscumbia
We soft wash old paint and brick, clean algae-streaked roofs and do driveways across town.
Gutter Cleaning
Gutter cleaning in Florence, AL: leaves, oak tassels and pine straw cleared, downspouts flushed, and black tiger stripes brightened off the gutter faces in the same visit.
Soft Washing
Low pressure, the right mix and enough dwell time to do the work.
Ready when you are
Snap a few photos of the roof, the shady side of the house and the gutters, and send them through the form. Every job is priced in writing before we start, by the surface and its size, from a photo or a quick walk-around. That way you know what it costs before we unroll a hose. When you are ready, use the Get FREE Quote Today button and tell us your street. We work Monday through Saturday, 7am to 6pm, and answer quote requests the same day. A short note about how tall the house is and how many trees hang over the roof helps us plan the visit.