Cladding Cleaning
Modern buildings are wrapped in it, and it shows every streak. Cladding cleaning is as much about protecting the coating and the sealed joints as it is about removing the dirt.
Cladding is what most buildings put up in the last thirty years are actually wearing, and it has a particular problem: it shows everything. A brick wall hides a decade of atmospheric grime reasonably gracefully. A pale composite panel or a run of profiled steel shows every streak, every run below every fixing and every green patch where the shade sits.
It's also a surface where the cleaning method has to respect a manufactured finish. Cladding panels arrive with a factory-applied coating — polyester powder coat, PVDF, an anodised or laminated finish — and that coating is the panel's weather protection and its warranty. Strip it or dull it and you haven't cleaned the building, you've aged it.
Know the panel before you touch it
The word cladding covers a wide range of materials that need different handling, and getting it wrong is expensive.
Coated metal — profiled steel and aluminium with a PPC or PVDF finish, ubiquitous on industrial and retail buildings. Durable, but strong alkaline cleaners will attack the coating and abrasives will scratch it.
Composite panels — aluminium-faced sheets on rainscreen systems, common on offices and apartment blocks. The face is tough; the joints and the cavity behind them are the vulnerable part.
Timber cladding — increasingly common on schools and residential. Soft, absorbent, and it silvers as it weathers, which many designers intend. Cleaning it needs a very light touch and a clear conversation about the finish you actually want.
Fibre cement and laminate panels — hard-wearing but with an applied surface finish that can be dulled by the wrong product.
If the building is still within a cladding or coating warranty, check what the manufacturer specifies for cleaning before anyone starts. Using the wrong product can void it, and we'd much rather work to their schedule than around it.
Joints, seals and water
The biggest risk on cladding isn't the panel face at all — it's what happens at the joints. Rainscreen and panel systems are designed to shed water running down the outside; they are not designed for water being driven horizontally into an open joint by a pressure lance.
Water pushed behind the cladding line can sit on insulation, wet a sheathing board, run along a rail and appear as an internal leak somewhere entirely unrelated. It can also carry cleaning chemicals into a cavity where nothing rinses them away.
So we work with low pressure, from a sensible stand-off, and we direct flow downwards across the panel rather than into the joint line. On buildings with visible sealant failure or damaged gaskets we photograph and flag it before starting, because those are the joints that will let water through and it's better recorded in advance.
Getting to it
Most cladding is high up, so access is usually the item that drives the cost. Water-fed telescopic poles reach around three storeys from the ground and handle a great deal of the region's retail and school work with no platform, no permits and no closure. Above that we use a MEWP sized to the building, operated by IPAF-trained staff.
Because mobilising powered access is the expensive part, it's always worth doing everything above ground level in one visit. If we're up there for the cladding, the gutters, hoppers, signage, soffits and any high-level moss are all far cheaper to include than to come back for. We'll ask what else is on the elevation when we quote.
Building looking streaked and tired?
We clean cladding across Greater Manchester and Cheshire, from single retail units to multi-storey elevations. Tell us the building and we'll work out the access.
Graffiti on cladding
Cladding is a mixed bag for graffiti. On a smooth, sound coated panel it's often one of the easier removals we do — the surface is non-porous, so the paint sits on top and a suitable gel remover lifts it cleanly with no shadow left behind.
The risk is that the remover doesn't stop at the graffiti. Solvent-based products can soften or dull a factory coating, and a dulled patch on a gloss panel is as visible as the tag was. So on cladding we always test first, start with the mildest product that stands a chance, and keep dwell times short.
Where a panel has already been dulled or the graffiti has been etched or scratched into the surface, cleaning can't fix it — that's a panel replacement or an overpaint, and we'll say so rather than working at it until the coating goes.
Why cladding suits a planned cycle
Cladding is the strongest case in our trade for regular cleaning rather than occasional rescue. The dirt is atmospheric and it accumulates steadily and evenly; caught on a cycle it rinses off with water and a mild detergent. Left for eight years it bonds, and recovering it needs stronger chemistry that puts the coating at more risk.
There's a straightforward appearance argument too. Cladding is what gives a modern building its whole visual identity, and streaked panels read as neglect in a way that a dirty brick wall somehow doesn't. For retail parks, business parks and school estates a planned programme — usually annual or twice-yearly — costs less over five years than two reactive deep cleans and keeps the building looking maintained throughout.
Cladding At A Glance
Where we come across it
- Retail units, supermarkets, industrial sheds and distribution centres
- Office and business park buildings across the region
- Schools, health centres and modern civic buildings
- Apartment blocks and mixed-use developments in Manchester and Salford
What damages it
The mistakes we're most often called in to fix.
- Aggressive chemicals strip or dull factory-applied PPC and PVDF coatings
- High pressure at panel joints forces water behind the cladding line
- Abrasive pads scratch coated finishes permanently and cannot be polished out
- Mixed metals and fixings can cause staining if the wrong product is used
What We Remove From It
Methods We Use On It
Frequently Asked Questions
Will cleaning damage the cladding coating?
Not with the right products. Factory coatings like PPC and PVDF are durable but can be dulled by strong alkaline cleaners or scratched by abrasive pads, so we identify the panel and finish first, use appropriate mild products, and test a discreet area before working across an elevation. Where a manufacturer's warranty specifies a cleaning regime, we'll work to it.
Can you clean cladding without scaffolding?
Almost always. Water-fed telescopic poles reach roughly three storeys from ground level, and above that we use a MEWP. Scaffolding is very rarely needed for cleaning alone — it's usually only relevant if other works are happening at the same time.
How often should cladding be cleaned?
Annually or twice-yearly for most commercial and retail buildings, depending on how exposed the site is and how visible the building needs to be. Regular cleaning is both cheaper and safer for the coating than an occasional heavy clean, because the contamination never gets the chance to bond to the surface.
Can you remove graffiti from cladding panels?
Usually yes, and often cleanly, because the surface is non-porous so the paint sits on top. The care needed is in the product choice, as solvent removers can dull the panel's coating. We test first. If graffiti has been scratched or etched into the panel, cleaning can't fix that — it needs replacement or overpainting.
Areas We Cover
We clean cladding across Manchester, Greater Manchester and Cheshire, including:
Other Surfaces We Clean
Need graffiti gone — fast?
Call 0161 399 5247 or request a free quote. We respond within one working hour.