Exterior Cleaning in St Kilda East
A third of St Kilda East is houses on the ground, and the load here is leaf litter and moss rather than salt. Insured crew, photos on every job.
- $20M public liability insurance
- Police-checked, WorkSafe compliant
- 5.0 from 170 Google reviews
- Not happy with the work? You don't pay
St Kilda East sits behind Hotham Street, and that one street changes the job. There's no salt in the air here. What there is instead is a third of the suburb on the ground — houses with their own roof, gutters, driveway and fence, where one owner decides and one owner pays.
The load here is organic. Mature street trees and the two halves of Alma Park drop into gutters most of the year, and pitches that sit in shade hold damp long enough for moss and lichen to take. This is a suburb of leaf litter, biofilm on paths and moss on the shaded side of a roof.
Two councils, one suburb, different rules
St Kilda East is split between two councils. Port Phillip covers one side, Glen Eira the other, and the suburb runs between Inkerman Street, Orrong Road, Glen Eira Road and Hotham Street.
That matters before any external work. On the Port Phillip side the St Kilda East heritage precinct carries external paint controls, which means repainting the outside of a building can need a permit. Glen Eira runs its own heritage documents and its own citations, so the same question gets a different answer a block away.
So the first thing worth settling is which council an address falls under. It sets the heritage controls, who handles graffiti and how long the council side of anything takes. Port Phillip's heritage team will confirm what applies to a specific address, exemptions included — worth asking rather than assuming.
What pressure does to old weatherboard
Godfrey Avenue still has its Edwardian cottages down both sides, and Camden Street its Victorian timber semis. Those rows sit under heritage controls, and they're painted timber — the least forgiving surface in exterior cleaning.
High pressure on weatherboard drives water behind the boards, lifts the grain and takes paint off in sheets. On anything built before the late seventies there's a second problem: older layers may contain lead, and blasting them spreads it across the garden. That's a safety question, not a finish one.
So weatherboard gets soft washed, low pressure, with the solution doing the work rather than the nozzle. On a street of near-identical cottages the difference is visible from three doors down.
Jobs we've finished in St Kilda East
Concrete cleaned on Hotham Street, St Kilda East, in the first week of July. Mid-winter is when concrete looks worst here: it never gets a chance to dry out.
Read case study
A roof in St Kilda East under large trees, cleared in April 2024. More than ten bags of leaf litter came off it — years of accumulation nobody had taken away.
Read case studyQuestions we get from local owners
Which council covers my street?+
Port Phillip on one side, Glen Eira on the other. The suburb sits between Inkerman Street, Orrong Road, Glen Eira Road and Hotham Street, with the boundary running through it. Worth checking your address before any external work, because the heritage controls follow the council.
Do I need a permit to repaint the outside?+
Possibly. The St Kilda East heritage precinct on the Port Phillip side carries external paint controls, and Glen Eira runs its own set. Exemptions exist, and they're worth confirming with the council's heritage team rather than assuming.
Why is the moss only on one side of the roof?+
Because that side stays wet longer. Pitches in shade dry slowly after rain, and moss and lichen hold where the damp does. It arrives in patches rather than evenly, and it returns unless the growth is treated rather than scraped off.
Is the leaf load getting worse?+
It's set to. Canopy across Port Phillip was 17.17 per cent in 2022, down from 17.86 in 2012, and the 2024 strategy targets 30 per cent on streets by 2040. Around Alma Park, laid out in 1867 and cut in two by the Sandringham line, the mature canopy is already there.
Can you come on a weekday or a Sunday?+
Yes. Weekday and Sunday bookings are normal here rather than something to negotiate, and we work to the hours that suit the household.
Services we run in St Kilda East
The work we take on around St Kilda East. Each card opens the full service page.
Gutter cleaning
Vacuumed, downpipes flushed and flow-tested, photo report the same day.
See detailsRoof cleaning
Terracotta and Colorbond, moss and lichen treated to slow regrowth.
See detailsWindow cleaning
Glass, frames and tracks, inside and out, streak-free on the dry check.
See detailsPressure cleaning
Driveways, paving and concrete brought back without scarring the surface.
See detailsSoft washing
Render, cladding and painted surfaces washed at low pressure.
See detailsRated by Melbourne
St Kilda East jobs are posted to our Google profile with before-and-after photos as they finish.