Power Washing in Clay Township, Michigan

Channel Lots, Canal Plats and the Floodplain

Clay Township counted 8,446 residents in 2020, and 4,698 of them lived in Pearl Beach, the narrow strip on the north side of the North Channel that Pointe Tremble Rd runs through. On the channel side of that road, a house has the water to its south and the road to its north. The north wall gets the least sun and stays damp longest after dew, so it is usually the wall that greens first, while the sunny channel side collects the June fishflies at its lit windows. The house washing page covers how each side is treated.

The canal neighborhoods were dug out of the marsh. Anchor Bay Drive was platted in 1921 with 408 lots on a two-mile street, The Colony followed in 1926 with every lot on the river or a canal, and St. John Drive came in 1935. The builders dredged the canals and spread the spoil as fill, so a back patio sits a few steps from the seawall and the still water beyond it, on low, flat ground. Anything rinsed off a house there heads for the canal unless the rinse is planned to keep it out of the water.

The floodplain traces the township's outer edge and covers most of Harsens and Dickinson islands. Lake St. Clair set monthly record highs in 2019 and again in May 2020, and the 2019 flooding spread across the floodplain while hundreds of thousands of sandbags went down. Standing water leaves a silt line and organic film on foundations, garage slabs and walks. A hose moves the loose layer, but the stain sits in the pores until a pre-treatment and a surface cleaner lift it, as the concrete cleaning page explains.

Our shop is at 21366 Hall Rd in Clinton Township, about 35 minutes from Township Hall on Pointe Tremble Rd, and there is no travel fee for the drive. Co-owners Justin and Landen have run the company since June 2022. You get a written, line-item quote within 24 hours at the same prices we charge in Macomb County, and the crews carry $2M general liability plus workers' compensation.

A Century of Cottages, Canal Lots and Infill

The oldest homes date to the interurban era, when rail lines brought summer residents who built cottages and then year-round houses along Anchor Bay and the St. Clair River. About 688 homes, roughly 13 percent, were built in 1939 or earlier, and another 2,385 went up between 1940 and 1979. That puts close to six in ten houses here before 1980, and many may still carry layers of paint from before 1978, which changes how trim and siding are washed.

The 1970s were the biggest single decade, adding 884 homes, and 816 more followed in the 1990s. Most single-family homes stand in platted subdivisions. North of the Pearl Beach strip the land opens into farmland and larger rural parcels, and the township's high-water guidance names garages, sheds and pole buildings alongside homes and cottages as structures to protect. Where rain lands on bare soil beside one of those walls, it splashes mud onto the lowest few feet of siding, and that damp band is where green film takes hold first. A mild soft-wash mix and a low rinse clear it, and each outbuilding gets its own line on the quote next to the house.

About one home in five, 1,065 of 5,177, is held for seasonal or occasional use, and on Harsens Island it is 844 of 1,589. A cottage closed for the winter gets no rinse from anyone for months, so mildew on the shaded wall, webs packed under the eaves and gray film on the deck boards all have a full season to build. The township offers seasonal water turn-on and turn-off for part-year residents, and spring opening is when that buildup shows.