Clean and aiming to clear the green

Building Wash Services owners Simon and Nicola Green target industrial, commercial and retail exteriors. Photo / Supplied

Former South Auckland industrial broker Simon Green has swapped selling buildings for washing them.

Green and his wife, Nicola, set up business earlier this year as Building Wash Services (BWS) and their company has washed more than 50 buildings across the region. The buildings have including Trusts Stadium at Waitakere and BWS now has preferred supplier arrangements with some of Auckland's biggest industrial landlords.

"In most industrial and commercial leases there is an obligation on tenants to carry out exterior maintenance and in loose terms that means washing a building regularly to prevent major problems caused by dirt, corrosion and lichen build-up," Green says.

"Savvy landlords and building owners insist on having their buildings regularly washed as part of their maintenance and tenant retention strategies. The effect of a clean building on a tenant's business and brand cannot be underestimated."

The Greens threw in successful careers to build a company based around washing industrial, commercial office and retail buildings.

The couple bought a new Hino truck with a cherry picker that lifts two operators 16m, or five storeys, using two guns operating at 21 litres a minute with 3000psi of pressure.

The hot water system, that uses biodegradable products, can blast water to 90 degrees.

"A wet sandblast unit is also available," says Green. If a building is more than five storeys, BWS partners with an abseiling service.

As the Greens didn't have the experience to wash buildings themselves they hired a team of operators with 12 years experience. The company has cleaned buildings from Newmarket south, to the North Shore and West Auckland, in a shorter timeframe than many other operators, with the highest-quality workmanship.

Before setting up the Greens did an enormous amount of research on what was on offer in New Zealand and overseas. "It was obvious there was a need for a new service that mainly targeted industrial buildings," says Green.

"It was not an easy business to set up. There were months of preparation work and sourcing the best equipment and products to use as operators have to work within stringent Auckland Regional Council wastewater regulations. We had to be serious about our operation to prevent wastewater entering the city's stormwater drains.

"Auckland's geographical location on an isthmus with a motorway running through the middle means corrosion and pollution create bigger maintenance problems for landlords than anywhere else in the country," says Green.

"BWS has the ability with the equipment it has invested in to reach all the unwashed areas of a building that do not receive any rainfall. It is these areas along with gutters and tops of roller doors that can cause major problems.

"A couple of weeks ago we washed a roof and took 700kg of lichen off."

CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) manages 1 million sq m of building space around the country and associate director of technical services Andrew Bull says corrosion is a major issue for Auckland building owners and landlords, particularly those who have buildings with modern facades that include aluminum or steel. "They need to be washed regularly to prevent corrosion or degradation."

Green says warranties for new cladding, paint and Coloursteel stipulate buildings must be washed annually. Bull says regular washing of buildings plays a big part in tenant satisfaction and retention as well as a property's street appeal. "On average CBRE will have the buildings it manages washed six monthly and in some instances quarterly. We have a different regime for each building, depending on where it is located."

Because of the ability to clean buildings at height, Green says BWS operators can also do a quick building defects scan. "If they see, for example, a crack in the roof it can be photographed and emailed to the landlord at the end of the job."

Bull says CBRE also picks up maintenance issues during a building wash. "Concrete exploding away from the building, known as spalling, is a common problem.

"By keeping on top of these maintenance issues, we avoid major problems at a later date."