Exterior house washing
Exterior house cleaning for salt,
mould and coastal grime
Exterior house cleaning that suits the surface, not just the stain
Your house is not that colour. Not really. Walls, eaves, soffits, downpipes and window frames soft washed across the Northern Rivers, the Tweed and the Southern Gold Coast, at low pressure so nothing gets stripped. Easy to book, fast quoting, cost effective.
Book a house wash today
Exterior house cleaning, or house washing, is the washing down of the outside of a house: the walls, the eaves and soffits, the gable ends, the window frames and sills, the downpipes and the fascia. TLB Cleaning washes house exteriors across the Northern Rivers, the Tweed and the Southern Gold Coast, using low pressure soft washing rather than a high pressure blast.
What is on the wall is mostly not dirt. It is a film of mould, algae and lichen living on the surface, held there by humidity and shade, mixed with salt if you are near the water and dust if you are near a road. That is why the shaded side of a house looks like a different colour from the sunny side, and why the answer is a cleaning solution with dwell time rather than force.
One wall, three ways of looking at it
Use the arrows to move through it.
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This is what five years looks like
Nobody notices it happening, because it arrives one shade at a time and always on the side of the house you do not use. The giveaways are the streaks under the eaves, the green rising out of the garden bed and the window frames that have gone from white to grey.
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This is the same wall, washed
No paint, no render, no repairs. This is the reason people book it before selling, before Christmas and before the family arrives: it is the least expensive thing you can do to a house that changes how the whole place reads from the street.
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And this is who does it
The same small local team who does the rest of your cleaning, working top down with low pressure, wetting the garden beds first and rinsing everything they touched on the way out.
Why a wash lasts longer than a blast
Force removes what you can see. It leaves the roots and spores in the surface of the render or the grain of the timber, and they start again from there, which is why a blasted wall can look green again within a season. A solution with dwell time kills the growth, so the wall comes back slowly and from scratch.
It also matters for what the wall is made of. Enough pressure to scour mould out of render is enough to take the render with it, and on weatherboard it drives water up behind the boards where you cannot see it and it does not dry. Slower, gentler and chemically correct is genuinely the version that lasts.
The shaded side, both ways.
Drag the handle across the photo.
After 
Before Illustrative sample, shown while we collect before and after photos from real TLB jobs.
Do it in this order
If you are doing the whole outside, the order saves you money.
- Roof first, if it needs doing. Everything that comes off a roof lands on the walls, the windows and the ground.
- Then the walls, the eaves and the window frames. This page.
- Then the windows, so the glass is done after the wall above it has been rinsed.
- Then the gutters, because they catch what the roof and walls shed.
- Ground last. Driveways, paths and patios take whatever ran off everything above them.
Booked the other way around, you pay to clean the driveway twice. We quote it as one job when you ask us to, and we will tell you what genuinely needs doing this year rather than all five of them.
The rest of the outside
The other four, in the order they are worth doing.
- Window cleaningGlass, frames, sills and tracks, inside and out, with the salt film taken off properly.
- Gutter cleaningGutters, valleys and downpipes cleared and flushed, and the debris taken away with us.
- Roof cleaningSoft washing that kills the algae and lichen at the root, on tile or colorbond.
- High pressure cleaningDriveways, paths, patios, pool surrounds and fences, at a pressure the surface can take.
How TLB compares
The person washing your house is on our team, and they are the one who will be back next year.
| Why TLB Cleaning is different | A national brand or app | An independent cleaner | TLB Cleaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who cleans your home | Whoever is rostered that day | The same person | Your own local team, known by name |
| When someone is away | A different contractor | Rebook for another week | Someone from your team covers, and we let you know first |
| How you book | Online only | Text or a phone call | Online, text, phone or email |
| Reminders | Automated | Usually none | Before the day, and again when we're on our way |
| Holiday lets | A standard turnover | Depends on availability | Worked straight off your booking calendar |
| Your schedule | Whatever slot is available | Whenever they can fit you in | A set day and a set team |
| Commitment | Often a subscription | None | No lock-in, no minimum term, no exit fee |
| Where they live | Wherever the contractor is based | Locally | In the towns they clean in, across the region |
Where we clean
Northern Rivers, the Tweed and the Southern Gold Coast.
Northern Rivers NSW
- Lismore
- Goonellabah
- Alstonville
- Wollongbar
- Casino
- Kyogle
- Nimbin
- Clunes
- Bexhill
- Dunoon
- Ballina
- East Ballina
- Lennox Head
- Skennars Head
- Wardell
- Evans Head
- Broadwater
- Woodburn
- Coraki
- Bangalow
- Byron Bay
- Suffolk Park
- Mullumbimby
- Brunswick Heads
- Ocean Shores
- New Brighton
- Billinudgel
- Federal
The Tweed
- Murwillumbah
- Tweed Heads
- Tweed Heads South
- Banora Point
- Terranora
- Bilambil
- Bilambil Heights
- Chinderah
- Fingal Head
- Kingscliff
- Casuarina
- Cudgen
- Cabarita Beach
- Bogangar
- Hastings Point
- Pottsville
- Uki
- Burringbar
- Mooball
Southern Gold Coast QLD
- Coolangatta
- Bilinga
- Tugun
- Currumbin
- Palm Beach
- Elanora
- Burleigh Heads
- Burleigh Waters
- Miami
If a town isn't listed, ask us anyway.
Easy to book, fast quoting, cost effective
Managed for you. A date that suits you, a confirmation in writing, a message when we are on the way, and told first if anything changes.
Book online in a couple of minutes, or send a text, ring us or email, whichever you'd actually do.
Condition drives the price on work like this, so the honest answer is a fast quote rather than an instant one. Tell us what you've got and roughly what state it's in, and we'll come back with a number quickly. Photos are usually enough. If it needs eyes on it, we'll say so rather than guess.
You'll know the price before we start, not after. If the job turns out smaller than you described, we'll tell you rather than hold you to the bigger number. If it needs more time than we quoted, you'll hear that before we begin.
How it works
- Tell us about the job.
- We confirm the price and agree a time and access.
- We do the clean, and you get a message when we're on the way.
- If something needs fixing, you hear it from us first.
Booking a house wash
1. Will it strip our paint?
Not sound paint. The pressure is closer to a garden hose than a pressure washer, which is the whole point of soft washing. Paint that is already flaking or chalking is a different matter: we will show you before we start, because a wash will lift what was already letting go.
2. How long does the whole house take?
A single-storey house is usually most of a day, and a two-storey one is a day or more depending on access and how much growth there is. Most of that time is application and rinsing rather than scrubbing. You get the estimate with the price, and we work around whether anyone is home.
3. What about our garden?
Beds along the wall get wet down before we start and rinsed again afterwards, which is what protects them. Furniture and pots move, pets stay inside, and anything you are precious about gets pointed out to us first.
4. Can you reach a two-storey wall and the gable?
Access is what decides it: a gable end over a steep garden bed is harder than a two-storey wall over a lawn. If we cannot reach something safely we will say so instead of improvising.
5. Can you do the inside mould as well?
That is a different service, and it has a health dimension that outside work does not. Have a look at our mould cleaning and removal page, which covers ceilings, cornices, bathrooms and wardrobes, and what causes it in the first place. We can do both, quoted separately.
Exterior house washing FAQs
1. What is soft washing a house?
A low pressure application of a cleaning solution to the walls, eaves and trim, left to work and then rinsed off gently. The force is close to a garden hose. It suits render, paint, weatherboard, cladding and roofs, where high pressure would strip the finish or push water in behind it.
2. Why is one side of my house darker than the others?
Because that side stays damp longest. The southern and shaded elevations get less sun and less drying wind, so mould and algae live there happily while the sunny walls stay clear. Overhanging trees, a fence close to the wall and garden beds against the base all make it worse.
3. How often should a house exterior be washed?
Every one to two years suits most homes here, and shaded, coastal or tree covered houses sit at the shorter end of that. Humidity is the driver: the further inland and the more sun a wall gets, the longer it stays clean. Doing it before the growth is thick is faster and costs less than rescuing it.
4. Can old fibre cement cladding be washed?
Not by us. Fibre cement cladding and eave sheeting installed before the 1990s can contain asbestos, and washing disturbs the surface, so it is work for a licensed asbestos removalist rather than a cleaner. If you are not sure what your walls are made of, get it identified before anyone cleans them.
5. How much does exterior house washing cost?
It is usually priced on the size of the house and the access, with a minimum charge, and it moves with the number of storeys, how much growth there is, the wall material and whether the roof, windows or driveway are done at the same time. That's why we quote rather than publish a flat rate that would be wrong for most homes. Ask for a price against a written scope of what is included. Tell us the basics and you'll have a price back quickly, with no obligation attached to it.
Exterior house washing
Send us a photo of the shady side.
That is the side that tells us what the job is. We will come back with a price, a date and an honest word on whether the roof and the driveway are worth doing at the same time. Book a house wash today.