Professional Driveway & Patio Cleaning in Burnley

Pennine damp and a flat wet surface

Burnley takes around 1,100mm of rain a year and sits in a bowl that holds damp air. A driveway is the flattest, wettest, shadiest surface on most properties, so it is always the first thing to go green.

The black or green film on block paving and flags is algae. Wet algae on a smooth block is slippery enough to put someone down, and that is what most of our winter driveway calls are really about.

Moss follows, rooting into the joints between the blocks and the gaps in flagged areas where water sits longest.

Block paving, flags, tarmac and imprinted concrete

Block paving is the most common drive surface across the Burnley estates and the most rewarding to clean, provided the jointing sand is replaced afterwards.

Tarmac is very common on the older properties and needs a much lighter touch than people assume. Too much pressure lifts the bitumen and leaves a loose, pitted finish that then holds more dirt.

Imprinted concrete is the one that catches people out. The colour and the sealer are surface layers, and aggressive cleaning strips both, leaving a patchy grey drive that needs resealing to look right again.

Why we use a rotary surface cleaner

A rotary surface cleaner keeps a constant height and pressure across the whole drive, which gives an even finish. A hand lance, waved across a drive by somebody working quickly, gives you stripes that never come out.

You can spot a lance-cleaned drive from the street for years afterwards. We use a lance only for edges, corners and spot work.

The resanding step most quotes leave out

Cleaning block paving flushes out the kiln-dried sand in the joints, and that sand is doing a structural job. It locks the blocks together. Take it out and leave it out and the blocks start to rock and move, and the empty joints fill with moss and weed seed within a season.

Resanding is included in every block paving clean we do. If a cheaper quote does not mention it, that is the corner being cut.

Oil, diesel and tyre marks

Oil and diesel soak into the block rather than sitting on it, so they need a degreaser and dwell time rather than more pressure. Fresh spills usually come out completely. Old ones often lighten considerably without disappearing entirely.

We will tell you which yours is likely to be before we start, rather than promising a perfect result and explaining afterwards.

Tyre rubber, scuff marks and chewing gum are dealt with as part of the standard clean.

Drainage, gullies and the bit people forget

Every drive we clean, the gullies and channel drains get cleared before we leave. Washing a driveway pushes a lot of silt towards the drain, and leaving it there means standing water next time it rains.

Standing water on a drive through a Burnley winter means ice, and it means the algae comes back faster in the spot where the water sits.

Frequency, sealing and price

One to two years for most Burnley drives, annually if you are shaded or under trees. The post-clean treatment makes a real difference to how it looks a year later.

Sealing is worth doing on block paving that is in good condition, and it is not a way of rescuing a drive that is sinking or breaking up. We will give you an honest view.

Fixed price in writing. Combining it with the roof or gutters in one visit costs less than separate trips.