Service Area

Pressure Washing in Cottondale

The pines are the first thing you notice about Cottondale. Drive out University Boulevard East past the Tuscaloosa city limits, or come off I-20/59 at the Cottondale exits, and the lots are shaded by loblollies that drop needles on the roof and keep the ground damp into the afternoon. That shade is why concrete walks here go green a year after they were cleaned, and why the north side of a brick ranch gets a dark film the south side never sees.

Cottondale is unincorporated, so a lot of what a homeowner needs to know about roads, drainage and permits comes from the county offices rather than the city, and most of the houses sit on county roads off Old Birmingham Highway and Buttermilk Road. We know the streets, we know which houses sit under canopy, and we have washed enough of them to tell you from a photo what yours needs.

The form is the way to reach us. Every job is priced in writing before we start, by the surface and its size, from a photo or a quick walk-around. The first open morning comes with the price.

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Brick ranch house under tall pines in Cottondale with a green-tinged concrete walkway and a hose coiled by the carport

Pines, shade and the mildew that comes with them

Mildew and algae need moisture and shade, and a Cottondale lot under tall pines supplies both. The needles hold water on the roof, the canopy keeps the dew on the siding past noon, and the slab under a carport almost never sees direct sun. That is why we see the same three problems on nearly every house out here: black mildew on the shaded siding, a slick green walkway, and dark streaks running down the roof.

We do not fight that with pressure. The siding and the roof get a soft wash, which is a low-pressure application of a cleaner that kills the growth at the root and lets it rinse away. A roof with black streaks does not need to be blasted, because the streaks are a living algae, and how we take the streaks off a roof is the same whether it is a 1970s ranch or a newer two-story. The walkway and carport slab get a surface cleaner that lifts the green out of the pores of the concrete instead of just knocking the top layer off.

Pollen makes it worse every spring. From March into May a yellow coat lands on everything, and under pines it sticks to the mildew already there. We work Monday through Saturday, 7am to 6pm, and answer quote requests the same day. April is the month the Cottondale calendar fills first.

Brick and vinyl, side by side

Cottondale mixes 1970s brick ranches with newer vinyl houses, sometimes on the same street. Brick and vinyl take different pressure and different chemistry, and a crew that treats them the same will either leave the brick dirty or damage the vinyl. Brick is porous and holds mildew in the face and the mortar, so it gets a stronger cleaner, more dwell time, and a rinse that does not dig at the joints. Vinyl is smooth and sheds grime easily, so it gets a milder mix and a rinse at low pressure, top to bottom, so nothing is driven behind the panels.

The bottom course of either one carries red clay after a heavy rain. Cottondale gets the same fifty-plus inches a year the rest of the county does, and the splash line along a foundation or a garage door is clay, not mildew. It rinses off, but it has to be treated separately from the growth above it.

Football weekends in the fall bring a different kind of call. Houses that will be full of family for a home game want the porch and driveway clean before the first weekend, and we schedule those a few weeks out when we can.

What we wash in Cottondale

House washing for brick, vinyl and painted siding. Roof cleaning for shingle roofs under the pines. Driveways, carport slabs, front walks and patios, where a walkway and carport slab cleaning is the most common add-on to a house wash. Wood decks and privacy fences. Gutters, cleared by hand and flushed, which matters more under pine canopy than anywhere else in the county. Small commercial along University Boulevard East, from storefront concrete to the back of a building that faces the woods.

Cottondale sits at the east edge of the city, so the same crew that works it also covers Holt to the north, Brookwood out Highway 216, and Coaling down the interstate. We wash houses, roofs and concrete across Tuscaloosa County: Tuscaloosa, Northport, Cottondale, Coker, Brookwood, Vance, Duncanville, Fosters, Coaling, Moundville, Holt, Lake View and Samantha.

Services we bring out here

Questions we get

Why does the concrete in Cottondale turn green so fast?

Shade. Pine canopy keeps a walkway or carport slab damp most of the day, and algae grows in damp concrete pores. A surface cleaner lifts it out, and a treated rinse afterward slows it coming back, but under heavy canopy a slab will usually want cleaning again within a couple of years.

Can a 1970s brick house be pressure washed?

It can be washed, but not with high pressure. Fifty-year-old mortar does not need a wand on it. We use a cleaner that does the work, let it dwell, and rinse at a pressure that leaves the joints alone. The brick comes back to its real color and the mortar stays where it is.

Do pine needles on the roof need to come off before a roof cleaning?

Yes, and we do it as part of the job. Needles in the valleys and behind the chimney hold water and feed the algae. We clear them, clear the gutters they fell into, and then apply the soft wash so the cleaner reaches the shingles.

Start with a picture

A photo of the shaded side of the house and one of the driveway is enough for a written price. Send it through the quote form and we reply the same day with the number and the next open morning. If the roof is streaked, include a shot of it from the yard and we price that on its own line.