Hacker News Reader

Comment by lumberingjack | Hacker News Reader

Who maintains these dumb things now you've got two buildings to pressure wash and they're in such close proximity that it's going to be difficult

View on HN

I'm not sure that brick buildings in London get pressure washed very often - if ever.

I would like to put $73 on "never" please

This article from last years agrees that the frequency of cleaning UK city buildings is quite low.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17883481

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/gallery/bla...

I also stumbled upon this discussion on cleaning London buildings in a Lords sitting in 1964 which was quite fun to read.

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1964/nov/12...

I saw that gallery of Manchester the other day, that's pretty amazing. But yeah, brick / stone walls shouldn't be pressure washed too often; if they're historical, they should be restored and / or carefully cleaned instead.

Pressure washing a house is very American, and any building inspector, residential or commercial, will suggest that it is something that shouldn’t be done.

London buildings are washed about once a century when the grime gets unbearable. Otherwise we rely on it raining often enough.

Worth noting that we took 60 years after the great smogs of the 1950s before cleaning St Paul's Cathedral

There's plenty of facades on busy roads that could use a deep clean in a few decades when all the diesel soot is finally gone from the air.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com