Pressure cleaning in the Inner West is terrace and semi work as much as house work, with narrow frontages, shared walls and back courtyards reached through the house or down a lane. One hundred metres of hose reaches the back of most of them from the street. The water from here would reach the Cooks River or the Parramatta River, so it is contained.
The terrace and semi share is more than twice the state's
At the 2021 Census, semi detached, row and terrace houses and townhouses were 27.1 per cent of occupied dwellings in the Inner West local government area, against 11.7 per cent for New South Wales. Separate houses were 28.8 per cent and flats or apartments 42.4 per cent.
That changes the job. A terrace front is a few metres wide, the back courtyard may be reachable only through the house or from a rear lane, and the wall you are washing may be half your neighbour's. Access gets worked out before the price, and the hose length matters more here than anywhere.
Two catchments split the council area
Inner West Council says the Cooks River catchment covers much of the southern half of its area, and the river flows into Botany Bay. The Parramatta River catchment covers a little over the northern half and flows to Sydney Harbour.
Council says rainwater running off roofs, roads and footpaths picks up pollutants on the way, such as pesticides, sediment and litter. It runs 23 gross pollutant traps to remove large pollutants before they reach the main waterways, and wetlands and natural areas that filter chemicals, nutrients and sediment.
None of that is built for a job's worth of detergent and grime arriving at once. Containment on the job is.
The nearest weather station
The nearest Bureau of Meteorology station we could read is at Canterbury Racecourse, just outside the council area. It records a mean annual rainfall of 1030.5 millimetres, relative humidity averaging 69 per cent at 9am and 53 per cent at 3pm, and a mean July minimum of 5.9 degrees.
In narrow terrace streets the shade comes from the building next door as much as from aspect, so side passages and courtyard walls hold damp for longest.
The councils, and the page we read for each
The state rule is the same under all of them: wash water must not enter the stormwater system. Each council words its own guidance, and we read the one for the address before the job.
These are parts of Inner West, not a list of jobs. None has a page of its own yet, because a page that swaps one place name for another is worth nothing to you.
Newtown
Marrickville
Leichhardt
Balmain
Ashfield
Dulwich Hill
Annandale
The lines that suit Inner West
House wash packages apply to a terrace as much as a house, priced by storey. Gutters on a terrace are often the job people call about, and strata blocks run against the commercial minimum.
One rate card for all of Sydney, every figure including GST. The minimum for an attended job is $249, and the truck runs from Penrith.
Can you clean a terrace courtyard with no side access?
Usually. One hundred metres of hose runs from the street through the house or down the rear lane. We work out the route and how the floors inside are protected before we quote.
My terrace shares a wall with next door. What happens?
We wash your side of it and keep the spray off theirs. If a shared wall or a shared gutter needs doing properly, it is worth asking the neighbour, and we can price both.
Where does Inner West stormwater go?
Inner West Council says the southern half drains to the Cooks River and Botany Bay, and a little over the northern half to the Parramatta River and Sydney Harbour.
Is the Inner West priced differently?
No. One rate card for all of Sydney.
Where the local detail came from
Every local figure and rule on this page is somebody else's published work. Each link was opened and returned a page on the date shown.