Professional Driveway & Patio Cleaning in Bury

Valley damp on a flat surface

Bury sits in the Irwell valley and takes roughly a metre of rain a year. A driveway is the flattest and wettest surface on the property, usually with a house or a fence shading part of it for most of the day.

That is ideal for algae, which forms the dark film you get across block paving and flags. Dry it looks like ordinary dirt. Wet it is slippery, and that is what most winter enquiries are actually about.

Moss arrives after the algae, rooting in the joints between blocks and in the gaps where water sits longest.

Block paving, flags, tarmac and imprinted concrete

Most of the newer housing across Bury, Radcliffe, Tottington and Whitefield is block paved, which is the standard job and needs its jointing sand replacing afterwards.

The older semis have a lot of concrete flags and tarmac. Tarmac needs far less pressure than people expect, or the bitumen lifts and you are left with a loose, pitted surface that traps dirt worse than before.

Imprinted concrete turns up on a lot of 2000s drives around here, and it is the least forgiving surface of the lot. Colour and sealer both sit on the surface, and too much pressure takes them off.

Rotary surface cleaner, not a hand lance

A rotary surface cleaner holds a constant distance and pressure across the drive and gives an even finish. That matters more than the pressure rating of the machine.

A drive done quickly with a hand lance ends up striped, and the stripes are permanent because they are a difference in how much surface has been removed rather than a difference in cleanliness.

We use a lance for edges, corners and spot treatment only.

Resanding is part of the job

Cleaning block paving flushes the kiln-dried sand out of the joints. That sand is structural: it locks the blocks against each other and stops them rocking and shifting.

Leave it out and the joints fill with moss, weed seed and grit instead, and within two years the drive looks worse than it did before it was cleaned.

Every block drive we clean is resanded with kiln-dried sand as standard. If a cheaper quote does not mention resanding, that is what is missing.

Treating the surface so it lasts

After cleaning, the drive is treated. That kills the algae and moss left in the joints and the pores of the surface, and it slows the regrowth noticeably.

The difference shows the following winter. A cleaned and treated drive stays walkable. A drive that has only been washed is dark and slippery again by the second winter.

Oil, diesel and rubber

Oil soaks in rather than sitting on the surface, so it wants a degreaser and dwell time, not more pressure. Fresh spills usually come out entirely, older ones often lighten considerably rather than vanish.

Tyre scuff, rubber and gum come off as part of a standard clean. We will be straight with you about anything old and deeply soaked in before we start.

Gullies and where the water goes

Gullies and channel drains are cleared before we leave. Cleaning a drive pushes a lot of silt towards the drain, and a blocked gully means standing water, which means ice in winter and faster algae regrowth in the same spot every year.

If the drive holds water in a particular place it is usually the gully rather than anything structural, and it is worth sorting while we are there.

Frequency, sealing and price

One to two years for most Bury drives, annually if shaded or under trees. Sealing sound block paving is worth doing and typically holds two to three years here.

Sealing a drive that is sinking or breaking up is a waste of money and we will tell you so.

Fixed price in writing before we start, and cheaper combined with the roof or gutters in one visit.