The Weather We Will Not Softwash a Wall In

We cancel days. Not many, but enough that it is worth explaining why, because from a customer’s driveway the weather often looks perfectly fine on a day we have decided not to work.

Strong sun on the wall itself

The thing that matters is not the air temperature, it is what the wall is doing. A south or west-facing elevation in direct sun can be considerably warmer than the day feels, and a hot wall dries anything applied to it very quickly.

Treatment needs time in contact with the growth. If it flashes off in minutes it has not had that time, and the result is a wall that looks partly done, comes back unevenly, and needs a second visit.

Often the answer is not to cancel but to reorder the day. Work the shaded elevations while the sun is on the front, come round to the front later. On a bright still day that is usually enough. In a genuine heatwave it sometimes is not.

Rain, and how soon is too soon

Rain during the work is an obvious problem. Rain a few hours afterwards is the one that catches people out.

A wall needs a dry window after treatment for the same reason it needs one during: time. Heavy rain arriving too early washes the treatment off a wall that has not finished doing anything, and the section has to be done again.

Irish forecasts being what they are, this is a judgement rather than a rule. A light shower late in the day on a wall treated that morning is rarely an issue. A front coming through two hours after we finish is.

Wind is the one people underestimate

Wind is the most common reason we move a wall job, and the least expected by customers.

Everything we do to protect what is not the wall assumes that what we apply goes where we point it. In still air that holds comfortably. In a gusting wind it does not, and the things downwind of a gable are typically a neighbour’s car, a shared driveway, a washing line, or a garden somebody is proud of.

Gusts matter more than average speed. A steady breeze can be worked with by changing which elevation is done when. A day of sharp gusts between calm spells is worse, because the calm spells are what tempt you into starting.

Height compounds it. Wind at gutter level on a two-storey gable is stronger than what you feel standing at the base, and the further up the wall the work is, the further overspray travels before it lands.

Cold and frost

Cold slows everything down, and a frozen or frosted surface is not one to be putting anything onto. If a wall is frozen in the morning, the working day does not start when we arrive, it starts when the wall has thawed, which in midwinter can mean there is no useful day at all.

This is less of a live issue for most of the year here than sun or wind, but it is why wall work bunches into the longer months.

Why we would rather move the day

It comes down to arithmetic that is not in our favour if we push on. A wall treated in the wrong conditions is a wall we come back to, at our cost, having already spent the day. Overspray onto a neighbour’s car is worse again, and it is entirely avoidable by not starting.

So if we ring and move a date, it is not caution for its own sake. It is that the job done on the wrong day is not the job you are paying for.

What it means for booking

We will give you as much notice as the forecast gives us, which is usually the evening before and occasionally the morning of. Wind is the one most likely to change late.

We will offer the next workable day rather than pushing you to the back of a queue. And if you are working to a deadline for a sale, a viewing or a family occasion, tell us when you book rather than when we reschedule, because it changes which day we aim for in the first place.

Common questions

Related services

• Softwashing for render and walls
• Roof cleaning
• Gutter cleaning