How to soft wash walls covered in Ivy, without killing the ivy!
A customer asked us: "My customer wants a wall of their house soft washed but it's covered in ivy. What product can I use to treat the wall while protecting the Ivy, and how?"
Fortunately for all of us in the soft washing trade, Ivy is one of the hardest of all garden weeds to kill even using strong weedkillers.
In our experience, even spraying Ivy directly with a strong dilution of Benz Bio Cleanze or Lightning Cleanze is unlikely to kill it, although the leaves will turn brown and your Ivy-loving customer will be none too happy ...
Our suggestions for the safest and most effective way to soft wash an Ivy covered wall:
1. Pre and post drench the ivy with fresh water as you would with all plant life prior to soft washing.
2. Spray very carefully to avoid getting softwash chemical on the ivy.
3. Treat the wall closest to the ivy with Benz Tornado Cleanze (spray with Lightning Cleanze up to a distance of 6-12 inches from the ivy, leaving a gap of untreated wall which you can then brush Tornado Cleanze gel onto while avoiding contact with the Ivy leaves).
4. If you are treating the wall with Bio Cleanze, leave a 6-12 inches untreated gap from the ivy, using the same approach as with Lightning Cleanze. Then brush Bio Cleanze carefully into the remaining area, so the wall is treated up to the ivy.
Quick tips:
1) Before treating the wall, carefully explain the situation and problems to your customer so they understand the reasons for the approach you are taking and the most likely results of the soft wash treatment.
2) We would personally never grow ivy up the walls of a house because it can increase the chances of damage by keeping the walls damp.
3) Ivy destroys the lime mortar in older properties, so for a property built with lime mortar growing Ivy up the walls is a definite "don't do it".
We hope this information is helpful and sincerely wish you great success in your soft washing business,
Ben, Leo, Fiona, Stevie & Anthony
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