Pressure Washing Edmonton

A suburb still being built

Edmonton sits about fifteen kilometres south of the Cairns CBD on the Bruce Highway, and it has been one of the fastest growing parts of the region for years. The Mount Peter growth area behind it keeps releasing land, so a large share of the housing here is under fifteen years old and a good slice of it is barely finished.

That changes the work. New estates mean a lot of handover cleaning: fresh slabs carrying mortar smears, render splatter, paint flecks on concrete, and the fine grey film that a whole street of construction traffic leaves over everything downwind. None of that is mould, and it does not respond to a mould treatment. Cement residue on new concrete needs the right chemistry and some patience, not maximum pressure on a green slab that will scar and stay scarred.

Cane, ash and highway film

Edmonton runs straight up against cane country. The Mulgrave flats and Gordonvale are just south, and paddocks sit directly behind some of the newer streets. Through the crush season the air carries cane trash, and where blocks are burnt it carries fine black ash. That settles on Colorbond fencing, patio roofs, solar panels and pale render, then streaks the moment it rains.

The highway corridor adds a third layer. Anything with frontage near the Bruce collects brake dust and road film, which is oily rather than biological. Same suburb, three completely different sorts of dirt, and they are not cleaned the same way.

Older Edmonton is a different job

Not all of Edmonton is new. The original township, including the streets around the old Hambledon mill area, holds plenty of 1960s to 1980s houses: chamferboard and fibro, painted brick, and cement tile roofs now carrying lichen. Tiles of that era have generally lost their surface glaze, so water soaks in and the lichen roots hold hard. Those roofs get soft washed and never lanced. High pressure on a porous cement tile costs you the tile, and often the one next to it.

Working the southern corridor

Edmonton, Bentley Park, White Rock and Gordonvale sit on the same run, so we tend to book the southern suburbs together and can usually look at a job around other work the same day. Colorbond fencing lines nearly every new estate street down here, and fences are worth doing at the same time as the house, since the access is already open and the gear is already out.

If you are in a new estate and cannot tell whether what you are looking at is mould, cane ash or leftover build residue, call 07 4028 4268 with a photo ready. Those three get handled very differently, and guessing wrong wastes a visit.