Commercial Cleaning in Totnes

The Moore & Franks approach in Totnes

Totnes does individual, and its businesses know it — the Elizabethan and Tudor buildings climbing the main street, the independent shops, the wholefood and arts trade that gives the town its character. Set in the damp Dart valley, premises here pick up green algae and moss on render, slate and the old stonework, especially on the shaded, steeper streets. Heritage frontages need a careful clean, not a heavy hand. We've cleaned Devon's historic exteriors for 25 years and ease the method to suit the surface. Family-run, fully insured to £5m. Shopfronts, café frontages, signage and paving cleaned to keep Totnes looking characterful, not grubby.

The steep main street shapes the practical side of a Totnes job — where the van can stop, where the run-off drains, how a narrow pavement stays passable while shoppers pick their way up the hill. We plan that before a hose comes out, phase the work and take the quiet hours where footfall is heaviest, so bringing a frontage back never becomes an obstruction between a browsing visitor and an open shop door.

The older frontages along Fore Street run to slate roofs, timber-framed fronts and soft old stonework, and every one of them needs a light hand. We soft wash rendered and painted surfaces at low pressure, and bring DOFF superheated steam to listed stone and masonry, cleaning on heat rather than force so the historic face is not scoured. Slate roofs on the terraces get a gentle soft wash to lift moss and lichen, since anything abrasive would only loosen them.

Low in the sheltered Dart valley and shaded by the oaks along the river, Totnes keeps its walls and roofs damp for much of the year, so growth returns on shaded frontages sooner than on open ground. A planned visit keeps a shopfront presentable and steep-street paving from turning slippery. Gutters, which clog fast under the valley trees and overflow straight down rendered fronts, we clear from ground level using a carbon-fibre vacuum system rather than ladders.

Our Totnes customers are typically within 30 minutes of our Exeter base. We cover the wider TQ9 postcode area and the surrounding villages (Bridgetown, Follaton, Dartington, Berry Pomeroy, Ashprington, Stoke Gabriel).