01 / Concrete
Concrete, sidewalk and plaza cleaning
Sidewalks, walkways, plazas and courtyards brought back to an even, bright finish.
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Guide
How often should your property be pressure washed?
Every surface on a property gets dirty at its own pace. Here’s what sets that pace, and how a washing calendar comes together.
One property, many different clocks.
Ask how often a property should be washed and the useful reply is a question back: which part of it? The concrete outside a busy front door darkens far faster than a side wall facing a quiet alley. A trash enclosure behind a cafe changes from week to week, while a facade under a deep overhang can look the same for a long stretch. Treating the whole site as one job usually means washing areas that still look fine, or waiting too long on the ones that don’t.
A better way to think about it is surface by surface. Each area gets its own frequency, and the calendar is built by stacking those schedules together so the crew handles several areas in one trip.
Foot traffic sets the pace at the entrance.
The first stretch of concrete outside the door takes the most punishment on any commercial property. Shoes carry in dirt, spilled drinks and dropped food, and gum gets pressed flat right where people pause to pull the door open. The more people pass through, the sooner that stretch turns blotchy, so storefront and entry washing is often the most frequent visit on the calendar.
Walkways farther from the door wear more slowly. Plazas where people sit and eat fall in between, with darker rings forming around benches, tables and trash cans.
Food service speeds everything up.
Wherever food is cooked, sold or eaten, grease and spills follow. Restaurant patios, drive-thru lanes, food court seating and the concrete around kitchen doors build up a sticky film that dust clings to. Dumpster pads behind food businesses collect the heaviest residue of all, and in warm weather the smell lets everyone know.
Properties with food tenants almost always need a tighter schedule for these areas than an office park of the same size. Our restaurant exterior checklist walks through each of those spots.
Trees, shade and parking add their own layers.
Trees are lovely until they drop sap, berries, leaves and pollen onto walkways and parked cars. Concrete under a row of trees stains faster than an open slab in full sun. Shaded walls and north-facing elevations stay damp longer, which lets a dark film creep across stucco and block.
In parking areas, the stalls nearest the entrance collect oil drips because the same cars park there every day. Garage stairwells and elevator lobbies wear faster than the decks themselves, so they often get their own, more frequent slot.
Typical starting points, surface by surface.
Every property ends up with its own calendar, and these are good starting points. Busy entries and storefront walks are often washed monthly, and weekly outside grocery anchors and coffee shops. Restaurant and grocery enclosures usually come around monthly, while office and retail enclosures do well quarterly. Garage stairwells and elevator lobbies are often monthly, and the decks a few times a year. Facades and full building walls are usually washed once or twice a year.
The weather moves some of those dates. Our seasonal exterior-cleaning calendar covers when the bigger washes fit best, from the first fall rains to Reno’s winter grit.
How the calendar gets set.
The schedule comes out of the on-site walkthrough. Walking the site together, we look at how each area is used and how far it has slipped, and ask which spots draw complaints from tenants, customers or residents. Then each area goes into the written quote with its own frequency, so the front entries, the enclosures, the lot and the walls each show up on the calendar as often as they need to.
Once washing begins, supervisors check the work and keep an eye on how quickly each area comes back. If the entry looks tired before its next visit, or a wall still looks fresh when its turn arrives, the schedule is adjusted so the calendar matches what the property actually needs.
A few useful answers
Quick answers.
Can different areas of one property be on different schedules?
Yes. Entries and enclosures often come around more often than walls and lots, and the crew combines whatever is due into one visit.
Do we have to wash the whole property every time?
Each visit covers only the areas that are due, which keeps the work focused where people notice it most.
What's the best first area to put on a schedule?
Start with the spot people see first, usually the main entrance or the walkway out front, then add the trash enclosure and the lot.
Services
Services this guide covers
Put the surfaces from this schedule on one recurring plan, each at its own interval.
02 / Facades
Building exterior washing
Stucco, block, brick, siding and trim washed clean of dust, grime and streaks.
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