Power Washing in St. Clair Shores, Michigan

A City Built in One Decade, Weathered by One Lake

St. Clair Shores went from 19,823 people in 1950 to 76,657 in 1960, and the housing shows it. Most of the grid between Harper Ave and Jefferson Ave was built in that stretch, so the brick ranches and bungalows, the canal homes on the plats around the Nautical Mile, and the cottages that were here when the village became a city in 1951 all reach our crews with sixty-plus winters behind them. Our shop is about 20 minutes away in Clinton Township, and the Shores is on our route every week from April into November.

Lake St. Clair forms the entire east edge of the city, from the sand beach at Veterans Memorial Park to the pier at Blossom Heath Park, and it sets the maintenance clock. Fourteen miles of canals thread the plats around the Nautical Mile, the stretch of Jefferson Ave from the Shore Club tower at 9 Mile up to 10 Mile, and the still air between close-set canal homes holds fog long after an inland wall has dried. Algae grows only while a surface is wet, so a canal-facing wall greens faster than the same siding in Roseville or Eastpointe. East-wind storms push water over the seawalls, the June fish-fly hatch coats lakeside siding within weeks, and dock hardware bleeds rust down the wall below it.

West of Jefferson the problems are the ones a 1950s ranch faces anywhere, sharpened by shade. The street trees planted with the subdivisions are now 60 to 70 years old, so north walls stay damp under the canopy, gutters fill twice a season, and the aluminum trim on the brick has chalked to a dull gray. Along the western streets near I-94, road salt lifts off the freeway all winter and settles on siding and driveways as a film that rain does not rinse.

The eight pages below cover the work we book most in the city, from a soft wash on a canal home to a fall gutter clearing on a Lakeview Public Schools street. Travel fees are zero everywhere we serve, and the itemized written quote arrives within 24 hours of the walkaround.

Canal Plats, the Grid, and the Village-Era Cottages

The canal homes off Jefferson Ave started as 1950s and 1960s ranches, and many have since been rebuilt or given a second story along the water. What they share is the lot: narrow, with a concrete seawall and a dock at the back instead of a yard. The seawall cap and the lowest courses of the canal-facing wall take splash and ice, the siding above lives in canal air, and the dock cleats and railing anchors rust in it. We wash those homes from the water up, masonry chemistry low and soft-wash solution above, with the runoff kept out of the canal.

On the grid between Harper Ave and Jefferson Ave, the brick ranches and bungalows carry original mortar, aluminum trim from the boom years, and vinyl or aluminum siding where an owner re-sided later. Brick takes a gentle mix at rinse pressure so the joints keep their mortar. Chalked aluminum takes an oxidation pre-treatment so the powder lifts evenly instead of streaking. The original concrete drives and walks have gone sixty winters without a sealer, so cleaning them is usually the first conversation and protecting what is still sound is the second.

Near the lake, the pre-1951 village-era homes and former resort cottages are the oldest exteriors in the city, worked by hand around old windows, painted wood and soft brick. Association standards are rare outside the condominium and marina communities along Jefferson, so most calls come from an owner who noticed one green wall from the dock. We photograph before and after either way.