Booking an exterior clean for the first time is a bit of an unknown, so here is what to expect from exterior cleaning when Hopkins turns up at your door. The short version is a tidy, low-drama day, with most of the work done by method rather than muscle, and a photo report at the end so you can see exactly what changed.
We do most of our jobs around Thirsk and the villages near it, and the questions we get the night before are nearly always the same. Where do you park. Do you need my water. How long will it take. Will the garden be alright. None of it is complicated, but nobody tells you, so we will.
What to expect from exterior cleaning, from arrival to clean-up
We ring about thirty minutes before we arrive, so you are not sat in waiting all morning. When we get there we walk the job with you first, point at what we are going to do, and flag anything we would leave alone. Then we set up.
Most of our work is soft washing, which is a low-pressure chemical clean rather than a blast. On hard surfaces like a block drive we use pressure washing, but always the right tip for the surface, never a zero-degree lance on soft stone. You will hear the machine, you will see us working in sections, and you will see dirty water running off. That is the job doing what it should.
When we finish we clear up after ourselves. Hoses coiled, surface water swept off, your bins and pots put back where they were. We do not leave you with a mess to sort out.
The exterior cleaning preparation we need from you
The exterior cleaning preparation on your side is small. We need access to an outside tap, or a clear nod that there is not one so we bring our own tank. We need cars off the drive if the drive is the job. And we need side-gate or garden access if the work runs round the back.
Close your windows before we start, especially if we are cleaning render or gutters above them. If you have pets, a quiet room away from the noise keeps everyone happy. That is genuinely the lot. You do not need to move heavy furniture or lift planters, we will work around what is there or shift it ourselves and put it back.
How long does a driveway clean take on the day
The honest answer to how long does a driveway clean take is half a day for a typical semi, and a full day if it is a big drive with a patio and paths added on. Render and roof soft washes are often quicker than people expect, because the dwell time of the chemical does the work while we move on to the next section.
We would rather quote you a realistic window than promise an hour and run over. If the weather turns, soft washing can carry on in light rain, but heavy rain or frost will move us to another day, and we will tell you the night before, not on the doorstep.
When we will tell you a job can wait
Part of the exterior cleaning process at Hopkins is being straight about what does not need doing yet. If your render has a light green tinge on one wall but the rest is fine, we will say so. If your gutter cleaning can wait until autumn, we will tell you rather than book you a job in June you did not need.
Done properly is the aim, not just done. You get a clear quote, a tidy day, and photos before and after so you can see what you paid for.
If you want eyes on it, we cover Thirsk and the surrounding area for free quotes, and the contact form is the quickest way to get a date in the book. Have a look at our pressure washing service or your local Thirsk page for what we cover nearby.