Why Reigate is a soft-wash town, not a pressure-wash town
Here’s the thing about RH2. Drive around Reigate Hill, South Park, Wray Common or the newer plots out toward Skimmington and you’ll see the same story on house after house: a rendered front, or a brick-and-render mix where the rear extension has been finished in K-Rend or a modern silicone render. It’s the default look for a Reigate refurb. And it is the one surface where high pressure does permanent, expensive damage.
Silicone render has a thin coloured top coat that’s doing the waterproofing. Hit it with a turbo nozzle and you blast that coat off in seconds — now you’ve got a patchy wall that needs re-coating, which is a render job, not a clean. K-Rend, the most common render brand round here, say it plainly in their own maintenance guidance: very high-pressure washers can damage the render surface, so you clean it on a low-power fan setting, top to bottom.[2] So we don’t blast it. On render we soft-wash: low pressure plus a specialist biocide that kills the algae and lichen at root level. The water is the rinse; the biocide is what actually cleans.[1] That’s why it lasts 2–4 years instead of the six months you get from blasting the green off.
- Plants and borders wetted and sheeted before we start
- Specialist biocide applied at low pressure — safe on K-Rend & silicone
- Proper dwell time so the biocide kills at root, not just the surface
- Gentle low-pressure rinse from the top down
- Final garden rinse and full clear-up — we leave it tidy
- If the result isn’t right, we come back and redo it free
The north-facing problem up the Hill
Reigate Hill and Wray Lane have a particular quirk: lots of north-facing walls sitting under mature beech and oak. Those walls barely see the sun, so the surface stays damp half the year and algae colonises render like it’s being paid to. We see the same green streaking under the gutters time and again. Pressure washing it is a waste of your money — it’s back by next winter. The biocide gets the spores, which is the only thing that buys you a few years on a shaded wall.
The local angle nobody’s honest about
If you’ve been Googling render cleaning in Reigate you’ll have found the render-cleaning specialists — rendercleaning.uk and the like — who do good work and charge specialist prices for a render-only service. Fair enough; render is their whole world. We’re different. We’re a local Surrey crew who soft-wash render and the roof, the cladding, the patio and everything else on the same visit, and we’re ten minutes away rather than booked out three weeks deep. If you want the one-trick render specialist, call them. If you want one local outfit to sort the whole exterior without making a project of it, that’s us. We’ll tell you straight which surfaces actually need doing and which can wait.
What we soft-wash on Reigate properties
Silicone render & K-Rend — the RH2 staple
The most common soft-wash job we do in Reigate, full stop. Manufacturer-recommended method, no risk to the coloured coat. See the full render cleaning page for detail.
Painted & acrylic render
Older Reigate properties around the Old Town and Priory Park fringes. Algae streaks under the gutters lift off without taking the paint with them.
Roof tiles & slate
Always soft wash on a roof — pressure strips the factory coating off concrete and clay tile. Low-pressure washing is the manufacturer-preferred method for roof tiles and shingles for exactly that reason.[3] The pitched roofs on the valley side of Reigate face higher moss pressure than the drier ones up the Hill. See roof cleaning.
UPVC & timber cladding, fascias and soffits
Pressure marks UPVC and raises the grain on timber. Soft wash brings the roofline plastics back without damage — see fascia, soffit & cladding cleaning.
Indian sandstone & natural stone
The classic Reigate patio. Black-spot lichen comes off with biocide rather than a high-pressure blast that would etch the stone and strip the colour.
What a Reigate soft wash actually costs
Honest ranges, same as the rest of our patch — no Reigate surcharge for the postcode. These are per square metre by surface; bigger detached homes up the Hill land at the top end simply because there’s more wall to cover.
| Surface | Reigate price (per m²) | Typical RH2 job |
|---|---|---|
| Silicone render / K-Rend | £5–£8/m² | House front £200–£500 |
| Painted / acrylic render | £5–£8/m² | Whole property £400–£1,200 |
| Roof tiles / slate | £15–£30/m² | By roof size & pitch |
| Brick / natural stone | £6–£10/m² | Sandstone patios & walls |
| Difficult / high access | £10–£12/m² | Gables, tall Hill detacheds |
Ranges depend on surface, condition and access. The only honest number is the one you get after we’ve seen it — send a photo and your RH2 postcode for an exact quote. Try the cost calculator for a quick ballpark first.
Why a same-day local crew matters in Reigate
Reigate is one postcode west of our Redhill base, so we’re there most weeks and slots open up fast — usually same-day or next-day in RH2. That matters with soft washing more than people think: the biocide wants a dry-ish, settled window to dwell properly, and being local means we can grab the right weather rather than turning up on the one wet day we had free in three weeks. We bring our own water tank and commercial kit too — no plugging into your outside tap and burning through your water bill.
Areas we cover around Reigate
All of RH2 — Reigate Hill, South Park, Woodhatch, Wray Common, Reigate Heath and Skimmington — plus the rest of Surrey within 20 miles of Redhill (RH1). That includes Reigate, Redhill, Dorking, Banstead and the rest of all 15+ areas.
Useful reading before you book
Soft washing — the full how-it-works · Render cleaning prices · Pressure vs jet washing · Pressure washing in Reigate (RH2)
Sources
- Soft washing — definition as a low-pressure, sodium-hypochlorite-biocide cleaning method. Wikipedia: Soft washing.
- K-Rend maintenance guidance — very high-pressure washers can damage the render surface; clean on a low-power fan setting, top to bottom, every few years. K Rend: Maintenance (manufacturer).
- Low-pressure washing is the manufacturer-preferred method for roof tiles/shingles to avoid stripping the surface coating (Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association, via Wikipedia: Soft washing).
