Manly Vale, running along Condamine Street between Balgowlah and Brookvale, has one of the larger concentrations of mid-century walk-up flats on the Northern Beaches. Three-storey red brick blocks from the 1960s and 70s, usually eight to twenty units, usually with a shared driveway, a communal laundry and a strip of garden.
These buildings have a maintenance problem that is more administrative than technical.
Nobody owns the outside
In a house, the owner sees the exterior deteriorate and eventually acts. In a walk-up block, the exterior belongs to the owners corporation, which is a committee, which meets occasionally, and which is usually focused on whatever has broken most recently.
Facade washing is rarely urgent, so it rarely makes the agenda. The result is blocks that go fifteen or twenty years without the exterior being touched, by which point the growth is established and the render or paint has suffered for it.
The irony is that these are precisely the buildings where regular washing pays for itself, because deferred maintenance on a facade turns into repainting, which costs an order of magnitude more.
Lot versus common property
The usual dividing line: the building’s external walls, the roof, common walkways, stairs, the driveway and the garden are common property and the owners corporation’s responsibility. The interior of a lot is the owner’s.
Balconies are where it gets contested, and it varies by scheme. Often the balcony floor surface is the owner’s and the balustrade and soffit are common property. The registered strata plan and by-laws settle it, not assumption.
The practical advice for an individual owner: before paying to have anything outside your front door cleaned, check whether you are paying for something your levies already cover.
Red face brick
These blocks are almost all unpainted red face brick, and the single most important thing is that it stays that way and does not get blasted.
High pressure erodes mortar joints faster than brick. On a three-storey building that is a lot of mortar, and repointing a facade is expensive work on scaffolding. Soft washing removes decades of algae and atmospheric grime without touching the joints. More: house washing.
Common walkways and stairs
Concrete walkways and external stairs in these blocks are shaded, often damp, and used by every resident daily. Algae on an external stair in a building with elderly residents is a liability issue for the owners corporation, not a cosmetic one.
These should be on a schedule for slip safety. More: moss and algae on concrete.
Condamine Street traffic
Blocks fronting the main road accumulate traffic film: fine particulate, brake dust and exhaust residue that builds as a grey layer on render, glass and window frames. It is not biological and it does not respond to the same treatment as mould.
Insurance and documentation
An owners corporation engaging a contractor should see a current certificate of currency and a safe work method statement, particularly for work at height on a three-storey facade. More: what public liability covers.
A realistic schedule
Facade soft wash: every three to five years, which is far cheaper than the repaint that deferral leads to.
Common walkways and stairs: twice a year for slip safety.
Gutters: twice a year.
Driveway and bin area: annually.
See the Northern Beaches overview.
