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Restoration

Cladding & Stone Restoration

LADS restores cladding, heritage stone and listed brickwork with controlled 150 °C dry steam and soft cleaning, working from tracked spider lifts up to 20 m.

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Elevations get dirty from the top down and are judged from the bottom up. Atmospheric pollution, algae on the shaded flank, staining beneath a failed hopper and the grey film that settles on composite cladding all age a building faster than its actual condition warrants.

Restoring them is a question of restraint. The aim is to remove what has landed on the surface without removing any of the surface itself — no opened joints, no eroded arrises, no bleached patches where a chemical sat too long. Heat, control and the right stand-off do that; pressure does not.

Cladding & Stone — key facts

Method
150 °C dry steam with soft, controlled cleaning technique
Substrates
Heritage and natural stone, listed brickwork, render, composite and metal cladding, curtain walling frames
Access
Hinowa tracked spider lift, up to 20 m working height
Chemicals
None required — no run-off into drains, borders or watercourses
Process control
Test patch agreed before full-scale work on every job
Coverage
Essex from our Wickford base, and the rest of the UK by arrangement

How cladding & stone works, step by step

  1. Identify the fabric

    Soft red brick, lime-mortared stone, polished granite and painted composite cladding all behave differently. We establish what we are cleaning before choosing how.

  2. Agree a test patch

    A discreet area is cleaned to prove the result and settle temperature, stand-off and dwell time. Nothing proceeds until you have seen it.

  3. Access the elevation

    A spider lift is tracked in and set up so the operator can work square to the surface at every height, which is what makes a consistent finish possible.

  4. Clean in controlled passes

    The elevation is worked systematically, checking as we go. Repointing or minor repairs can follow once the surface is clean enough to assess properly.

Who cladding & stone is for

  • Owners and custodians of listed and heritage buildings
  • Managing agents responsible for the appearance of commercial elevations
  • Landlords preparing a building for sale, letting or reopening
  • Contractors needing a specialist clean within a wider refurbishment
  • Anyone told their elevation cannot be cleaned without chemicals or abrasives

Why choose LADS for cladding & stone

  • Heat-led cleaning is inherently gentler than pressure or abrasive systems on historic fabric.
  • One team brings the access and the cleaning, so there is no scaffold bill sitting underneath a short cleaning programme.
  • Nothing chemical is introduced to a building whose fabric may already be sensitive to salts.
  • Photogrammetric survey can record the elevation before and after, which is useful evidence for consents and for owners.

Questions

Cladding & Stone — asked and answered

Can you clean a listed building?

Dry steam is one of the gentler methods available and is often appropriate for historic fabric. We work to whatever consents apply and always prove the method on a test patch first.

Is this the same as sandblasting?

No, and deliberately so. Abrasive systems cut into the surface. Dry steam removes soiling with heat and low pressure, leaving the material itself intact.

Will you damage the pointing?

Controlled steam at the right stand-off does not blow out sound mortar. Where pointing has already failed, cleaning tends to reveal it — and we will show you.

Can you clean modern composite cladding?

Yes. Composite and metal cladding respond well to controlled steam, which lifts pollution film without the streaking chemicals can leave.

How do you reach the upper floors?

With our own tracked spider lifts, up to 20 m working height, so there is no need to design and erect a scaffold for a cleaning programme.

Do you cover my area for cladding and stone cleaning?

Yes. Cladding, stone and heritage cleaning runs across Essex from Wickford — Colchester, Chelmsford, Brentwood and Thurrock included — and elsewhere in the UK by arrangement. See every area we cover.

Related

Often booked together

Restoration

Dry Steam Restoration

150 °C super-heated, low-moisture steam that lifts algae, growth, graffiti and pollution without chemicals.

Read more

Where we do this

Cladding & Stone across Essex and beyond

Every town below is inside our regular working area, served from the yard at Wickford. Work outside Essex is arranged in the same way.

See every area we cover

Enquiry

Get a quote for Cladding & Stone

Photographs of the problem and the approach to it usually let us be specific first time.

Preferred contact
Call 0330 043 0961

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