Power Washing in Algonac, Michigan

Water on Two Sides, Canals in Between

Algonac sits at the head of the St. Clair River delta, where the river splits into channels. The river forms the city's east edge and the border with Walpole Island, Ontario, and the North Channel runs along the south. The city's own plans call it the Venice of Michigan, because along the east and south shorelines the street grid breaks into canals and stub streets laid out so houses can reach the water. Census maps count 0.31 square miles of water inside the city limits. In June 2019 the city counted more than 550 waterfront property owners.

Algae and mildew grow during the hours a wall stays wet, and a canal lot supplies a lot of them. The wall that faces north or sits in the shadow of the next house dries last, with water on one side of the lot and flat, slow-draining ground under it. Rinsed with water alone, a north wall on a canal lot can go green again within a season. Soft-washed, it holds about two years, and a wall in full sun on the grid streets away from the canals goes longer.

The 2024 master plan puts most of the city in a FEMA flood zone. The 100-year zone runs from the river inland to about Liberty St on the south side and covers the entire eastern shoreline, and a 500-year zone reaches just past Fruit St. Those lines map a chance of flooding, not where water has stood. What has happened is on record too: in 2019 record water led the city to declare a local flood emergency under ordinance 10-281 and order waterfront owners to barrier their property. A year like that leaves its mark low on a house: on lots that took water, slabs and steps near the seawall can keep a residue line after the river drops, a job for concrete cleaning once the slab has dried.

The drive from our shop at 21366 Hall Rd in Clinton Township takes about 40 minutes off-peak, by Hall Rd, Jefferson Ave and M-⁠29 through New Baltimore, and it adds nothing to the bill. St. Clair County is new territory for us this fall, so there is no local job history to point to. Algonac pays the same published prices as the streets around the shop, and each quote comes back in writing within 24 hours, itemized by surface.

Older Houses, Small Lots and Narrow Canal Strips

About 15 percent of Algonac's housing, 300 units, dates to 1939 or earlier. The history chapter of the city's 2024 master plan records that Jacob Peer built the first house in Algonac, at 1760 Washington St, and that a summer-resort boom in the late 1890s, when the interurban and excursion boats brought Detroit-area visitors, filled the town with hotels and boarding homes. Painted wood trim and porches on houses that age get a mild mix and a rinse no stronger than a garden hose.

The 1950s through the 1970s built the largest share, 422 units in the 1970s alone, the decade the city gained 728 residents. About 81 percent of units are single-family detached houses. The rest are small apartment and townhouse complexes and condominiums, among them The Anchorage at Algonac beside the Algonac Harbour Club and Pte Tremble Manor Condominiums. For a condominium building, the written quote can be broken out per building and per surface, so an association sees what each part costs.

Around the Harbour Club, the master plan describes single-family homes on narrow strips of land among channels leading to the St. Clair River. On those lots the back of the house often faces the water, so the wash plan starts with the seawall and how rinse water stays off it. Newer houses on serviced lots along Amy Rd and Scout Dr in the far west of the city have open access on most sides and fewer years of weather on the siding.