Commercial building exterior cleaning across London
London’s commercial buildings are a mix of materials and eras, often on the same street: Portland stone in the City and Westminster, London stock brick and glazed terracotta on Victorian frontages, render on converted terraces, and glass and metal curtain walling on newer offices. Traffic fumes, weather and bird droppings all build up on them, and a shopfront or office entrance is the first thing visitors see.
Locus Services cleans all of these. We check the building fabric first, carry out a test piece so you can see the standard of clean, then work from MEWPs, cradles or scaffolding as the building requires.
Facade cleaning: before and after
Commercial pressure washing in London
Pressure washing is the right choice for many hard surfaces, including concrete, modern brickwork, paving and cladding. We use it across London on:
- walkways, forecourts and paving outside offices and shops
- concrete and brick on retail parks and industrial units
- cladding and signs at height, cleaned from a MEWP by IPAF-certified operatives
- car parks and service yards, where we can work out of hours
It isn’t right for every surface. High pressure can damage soft stone, old mortar and delicate brickwork, so we use low-pressure DOFF steam cleaning on those instead. It uses very little water, so surfaces dry out quickly. See pressure washing and building cleaning for more.
Getting permission to work on London’s streets
Most London facades open directly onto a pavement, so access is often the hardest part of the job. Each borough runs its own licensing. Bromley, for example, requires a temporary highway licence for mechanical machinery on the public highway. Southwark requires a licence for cherry pickers and other lifting equipment placed on the highway, and allows up to 15 working days to process it.
That lead time needs to be in your plan. We organise permits and MEWP pavement licences with the council for you, and we work 24/7, so we can clean at night or early in the morning when streets and buildings are quieter.
Listed buildings and conservation areas
Many London buildings are listed or in a conservation area. Cleaning a listed building may count as an alteration, which would need listed building consent, and test panels are a normal part of that process. Check with your borough’s conservation team before work starts. We can carry out test pieces to support your application.
Locus is a Stonehealth Rosette approved contractor for DOFF cleaning, and we photograph this work before and after.
What else can we do during the same job?
Access equipment is often the biggest part of an exterior clean, so it makes sense to deal with everything at once:
| While we’re on site | Find out more |
|---|---|
| Whole-building facade cleaning | Facade cleaning |
| Tags and paint on walls and shutters | Graffiti removal in London |
| Dull or faded aluminium window frames | Window frame restoration |
| Blocked gutters and outlets | Gutter cleaning |
| Pigeon fouling on ledges and roofs | Pigeon guano removal |
How a building clean works
- Free site survey: we check the building fabric, the access and any licences needed.
- Test piece: we clean a small area so you can see what’s achievable.
- Licences and planning: we arrange permits with the borough, and you get risk assessments and method statements.
- The clean: carried out at agreed times, with the public kept clear of the work area.
- Sign-off: we walk the site with you and hand over any records.
Accredited, insured and documented
Locus is SafeContractor-accredited, Constructionline Silver and a BICSc corporate member, and our operatives hold IPAF and CSCS cards. We’re registered with the Environment Agency as a waste carrier (CBDU320327).