Driveway Cleaning in Kents Hill

A lot of Kents Hill drives were laid when the houses were built, and many are still the original block paving. After decades of weather and parked cars, those blocks usually look darker and flatter than they did, with black spots of lichen, a green tinge at the shady side and joints that have lost most of their sand.

That last point matters more than it looks. Once the joints empty, weeds and moss take hold in the gaps and the blocks can start to move slightly against each other. A good clean followed by re-sanding often does more for an older estate drive than people expect, and it costs far less than relaying.

Block paving cleaning is about balance. Too little pressure leaves the grime in the surface texture. Too much strips out what joint sand remains and can roughen the face of the blocks. We use a setting suited to the age and condition of the paving, often with a rotary cleaner that keeps the results even and avoids the striped look a hand lance can leave.

Lichen deserves a separate mention. The small pale or black circles you see on older paving are tough and rarely come away with water alone. A suitable treatment applied after washing breaks them down over the following weeks, and we explain that some marks fade gradually rather than disappearing on the day.

If the drive has been widened at some point with a newer section of block, or resin or tarmac has been added beside it, each part gets the method that suits it. Resin is cleaned gently so the stones stay bound, and tarmac is not blasted at close range.

Wash water and loosened grit are swept up rather than left in the road gully. Drains on the estate lead on towards local watercourses, so we keep products to what the job needs.

Many Kents Hill closes have open frontages with no wall between neighbours, so a clean on one drive can easily splash the next. We keep the spray low along shared edges and rinse any overspray off a neighbour's paving before we pack up, which saves an awkward conversation later.