Imprinted concrete cleaning and resealing in Morley

Morley is a town in its own right even though it sits in the City of Leeds. It stands on a hill a few miles south-west of the city, its centre built from local stone, and it grew on wool, in the same way as its neighbours in the heavy woollen district. It has the town hall, the market and the mill buildings to show for it.

A stone centre, estates beyond

The housing runs from the stone terraces of the centre to a great deal of inter-war semis and a large amount of later estate building, which has spread the town south and west towards Gildersome and Churwell. The estates are where most of the imprinted concrete in the town is found.

Where the town meets the fields

The edge of a town is a different environment from the middle of one. Morley's southern and western sides give way to open land, with fields, hedgerows and small woods close to the back of the estates. That brings in a different mix of dirt.

Field dust is fine and pale and settles on a drive in a thin layer that rain turns to mud. Pollen and seed in spring cover a surface in a yellow-green dust, and it sticks in the pattern of the imprint. Blossom and hedge clippings add to it. None of this is serious on its own, but it all holds moisture, and over a season it leaves a drive duller and greener than it ought to be.

Hedges, seeds and bird droppings

Gardens on the edges of the town tend to be bigger, and the hedges and trees in them are mature. Hawthorn, privet, beech and the occasional conifer all drop their share, and the surface under them takes it. Bird droppings are a particular problem under trees and telephone wires, because they are acidic enough to etch a thin sealer if left on the surface, and they leave pale marks that do not wash out.

The practical advice is simple. Sweep the surface regularly, rinse off droppings when you see them, and keep hedges trimmed back from the edge so the drive gets light and air. Do that and a sealed surface lasts a good deal longer between treatments, and our guide to how often to reseal imprinted concrete explains the usual intervals.

Autumn is the season that catches people out. A hedge-lined estate drive can be buried in a thick layer of wet leaf within a fortnight, and a wet leaf mat left to rot through November stains the pattern and keeps the sealer damp into the frosts. A quick sweep every week or two through October and November, before the leaves settle into a mat, saves a harder clean in spring.

A job that suits a larger frontage

Estate drives in Morley tend to be wider than the town-centre ones, often taking two cars side by side, and that makes the surface a more open, visible part of the frontage. A tired, patchy surface shows from the road, and there is more of it to clean and seal.

The work is the same as anywhere. We do a careful cleaning, treat any growth, let the surface dry fully, and then seal, using a sealing coat matched to how the drive is used. If the colour has been lost or patched, recolouring brings it back. what resealing costs sets out what moves the price. Assessments are free and there is no obligation.

Nearby pages on this site include Leeds, Stanley, Batley and Bradford. Assessments in Morley are free and there is no obligation.