Commercial Building Cleaning
Softwashing, cladding cleaning, brick and stone restoration, concrete cleaning.
Safely, cleanly and with minimal disruption to your operations.
Modus Softwashing is a specialist exterior cleaning contractor working exclusively across the Midlands.
We clean commercial buildings across every sector, offices, retail units, care homes, industrial premises, hospitality, schools and public buildings, where elevations can be reached safely with professional softwash equipment from ground level.
Our work is fully insured, backed by written method statements and risk assessments (RAMS), and delivered by a City & Guilds-certified team led by a director with a BSc in Building Surveying and an MA in Architectural Conservation.
We work out of hours where required, and we take responsibility for the site as we found it.
13 Years Of Cleaning Success!
- Over 13 years of expertise
- Fully Insured
- Safe on K-rend and Monocouche
- Free no-obligation quotes
- Residential and Commercial Premises
2000+
Successfully Projects Cleaned.
13+
Years of experience with pride.
11200+
Sq Metres of Driveways Cleaned.
8000+
Sq Metres of Render Cleaned.
Who is this for? .....
Who we work with
This page is for the people responsible for keeping commercial buildings looking as they should:
- Facilities managers at offices, business parks and single-occupancy premises
- Property managers and managing agents with commercial portfolios across the Midlands
- Retail estate managers and independent shop operators – from single high-street units to shopping parks
- Care home operators, where exterior presentation directly affects family visits, CQC impressions and resident quality of life
- Industrial premises operators; warehouses, distribution centres and manufacturing sites with elevations we can reach safely from ground level
- School bursars, academy operations leads, and public-sector estate managers
- Hospitality operators – pubs, hotels, restaurants, function venues where exterior appearance drives footfall
If you’re responsible for how a commercial building looks from the outside, we can help – provided the elevations can be reached safely from ground level with our equipment.
For residential and homeowner enquiries, please see our render cleaning services the same specialist softwash approach, tailored to homes rather than commercial buildings.
What We Clean
We clean the full range of exterior surfaces you’ll find on modern and historic commercial buildings:
Render K-rend, monocouche, silicone-mineral, traditional sand-and-cement and painted render. Commercial K-rend is common on modern office buildings, retail units and care homes and it’s just as vulnerable to pressure-wash damage as domestic K-rend. See our detailed K-rend cleaning page for the technical detail.
Brick Brick facades are our bread and butter across Midlands commercial buildings. From Victorian industrial and warehouse conversions to modern brick-clad office developments. We remove atmospheric grime, black mould, moss, lichen and biological staining without damaging pointing or mortar joints.
Natural stone Sandstone, limestone, granite and other natural stone facades, including on the Midlands’ many Victorian and Edwardian commercial buildings, hotels and civic buildings. Historic stonework needs particular care: chemistry that’s kind to the substrate, no mechanical abrasion, sympathetic to any pointing.
Cladding Metal cladding (Kingspan, Trimo, insulated composite panels), uPVC cladding, powder-coated cladding, timber cladding. Distribution centres, warehouses, retail units and modern commercial buildings all use cladding, and it all needs periodic professional cleaning to avoid the streaking and staining that quickly makes premises look neglected.
Concrete Precast concrete panels, in-situ concrete elevations, concrete cladding and industrial concrete surfaces. Softwashing works particularly well on concrete, the biocide penetrates the porous surface and kills organic growth at the root, giving a longer lasting clean than pressure washing alone.
Painted masonry and coated finishes Painted brick, painted render, elastomeric coatings, waterproofing systems. Softwash chemistry adjusts to the substrate so we won’t strip the paint you paid for.
Why Softwashing for Commercial Buildings
Why Softwashing Is the Right Method for Commercial Work
There are three good reasons why commercial building cleaning has moved decisively toward softwashing over the last decade:
1. It doesn’t damage the surface. High-pressure cleaning on brick can loosen pointing. On render, it strips the surface layer. On cladding, it drives water behind the panels and can void warranties. On natural stone, it can erode the substrate visibly. Softwashing avoids all of this as the pressure is barely above a garden hose, and the work is done by chemistry, not mechanical force.
2. It lasts longer. Pressure washing removes surface dirt but leaves the algae, moss and lichen spores that caused the staining in the first place. Softwashing kills the biological growth at the root, meaning the surface stays cleaner for longer. On commercial premises where cleaning is a recurring cost, the difference between an 18-month cycle and a 3–4-year cycle is important for business costs.
3. It’s safer to deliver. Less noise, no water hammer, no risk of forcing water into building fabric or through window seals. Easier to work around occupied premises, easier to work out of hours without disturbing neighbours or tenants.
For care homes with vulnerable residents, retail premises with customer footfall, offices with occupied workspaces softwashing lets us work with minimal disruption to your operations.
Industries We Serve
Sectors We Work With
Commercial cleaning isn’t one thing. Different sectors have different priorities, and we work with each on its own terms:
Care homes. Exterior presentation directly affects family visits, prospective-resident tours and CQC inspection impressions. Most care homes are two or three storeys and easily within our ground-level working range. We work with care home management to minimise disruption to residents, work quietly, and can arrange to work only during less critical hours if required. Softwashing chemistry is safer for residents than aggressive pressure washing.
Retail and retail parks. Shop fronts and retail units live or die on kerb appeal. Regular cleaning cycles avoid the “tired unit” look that drives customers to shinier competitors. Single-storey and two-storey retail is squarely in scope. We work early mornings, evenings or Sundays for units that can’t lose trading hours.
Offices and business parks. Low-rise and mid-rise office premises are our natural fit. Modus works around your tenants and your working day. Weekend and evening slots available for larger jobs. Softwashing is genuinely quiet compared to pressure washing, so mid-week working is often possible even in occupied buildings. We can produce access schedules to share with tenants ahead of time. For taller offices where higher elevations need cleaning, we can work with your existing access arrangements.
Hospitality – pubs, hotels, restaurants. Exterior kerb appeal drives footfall in a competitive market. Regular softwash cycles keep signage, render, brick and cladding looking as new. Weekend or overnight working is available where trading hours can’t be interrupted. Pubs, restaurants and boutique hotels sit squarely in our working range.
Schools and educational premises. Sensitive environment, safeguarding requirements, holiday window working preferred. Most primary and many secondary school buildings are within our reachable range. We work with school bursars and estate teams to plan cleaning around term dates and access schedules.
Industrial and distribution premises. Cladding, warehouse elevations and yards need periodic cleaning to maintain appearance and, in some cases, warranty compliance. We handle lower elevations well; for taller industrial cladding we scope carefully at survey stage and can work with any existing access arrangements you have in place.
Public buildings and heritage properties. Steven’s MA in Architectural Conservation is particularly relevant for civic buildings, listed premises and heritage assets. We can advise on cleaning approaches that are sympathetic to the building and, where relevant, liaise with conservation officers.
Working from Ground Level
How We Access Commercial Elevations
We’re upfront about this because it matters for scoping: Modus works from ground level using professional softwash equipment.
Our extending softwash lances give us safe, clean reach on:
- Single-storey commercial premises
- Two-storey buildings (typical retail, care homes, smaller offices, most schools)
- Three-storey buildings where elevations aren’t obstructed
- Industrial and warehouse elevations up to the reachable ground-level range
- Public and civic buildings within the same height range
Where a building’s elevations sit beyond safe ground-level reach modern multi-storey offices, tall industrial cladding, high-level gables and parapets you have two options:
- We integrate with your existing or contracted access arrangements. If you have scaffolding, an access platform contractor or an in-house solution already in place (for example, as part of a wider maintenance programme), we can work alongside it. Softwashing from an existing platform is straightforward.
- We scope out the higher elevations from the job. For many commercial cleaning projects, the lower elevations are what visitors and passers-by actually see, and cleaning those alone delivers most of the visible benefit at a fraction of the cost.
We’ll discuss what’s realistic at survey stage and give you an honest scope. If a building’s cleaning genuinely requires MEWP-mounted or scaffold-based work throughout, we may not be the right contractor for the full job and we’ll say so.
Insurance, Compliance and Credentials
Commercial clients rightly expect proper paperwork. We have it:
- Public liability insurance to the level required by commercial clients. Documentation provided on request.
- Employer’s liability insurance (statutory requirement).
- Written RAMS for every commercial job as standard and bespoke to the site, not boilerplate.
- COSHH assessments for all chemistry used on site.
- City & Guilds-certified Professional Softwashing Technician qualification.
- BSc Building Surveying & The Environment, and MA Architectural Conservation (director-level qualification).
Coverage and Reach
Commercial Coverage Across Staffordshire, the West Midlands and Beyond
Modus is based in Handsacre in central Staffordshire, and our commercial coverage area is materially wider than our residential reach as larger commercial jobs justify the additional travel, and we have long-standing customers across a wide geography.
Core commercial coverage. Our regular working area:
- Staffordshire in full: Lichfield, Burton-on-Trent, Cannock, Stafford, Stone, Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Tamworth, Uttoxeter, Rugeley, Burntwood and the wider county. Please see our Staffordshire hub page for detail on our county-wide work
- West Midlands metropolitan county: Birmingham, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Sandwell. Please see our West Midlands hub page for detail
Extended commercial coverage. Regularly reached for commercial work:
- Derbyshire (Derby, Burton area edge)
- Warwickshire (Warwick, Coventry, Nuneaton, Rugby)
- Worcestershire (Worcester, Kidderminster, Bromsgrove, Redditch)
- Shropshire (Telford, Shrewsbury)
- Leicestershire (Leicester, Hinckley, Loughborough)
Larger commercial projects further afield, including multi-site portfolios and one-off major projects are considered on their merits. Contact us to discuss.
Why Choose Us for Commercial Work?
Why Commercial Clients Choose Modus
- A genuine specialist. Exterior building cleaning and softwashing is what we do. the entirety of our business, not one service among many. That specialism shows in our equipment, our chemistry and our approach.
- Director-level qualifications. BSc Building Surveying, MA Architectural Conservation, City & Guilds softwash certification. That level of qualification is unusual in this industry and matters more on commercial than domestic work, particularly on heritage, listed or specification-sensitive projects.
- 13+ years of specialist experience.
- Local base, wide reach. Handsacre-based, covering Staffordshire and the West Midlands routinely, and further afield for commercial work.
- Proper paperwork. RAMS, insurance, COSHH, method statements. What commercial procurement expects.
- Realistic scheduling. Out-of-hours, weekend, overnight and holiday window working available.
- Honest scoping. If a project doesn’t suit our capabilities — whether because of access requirements beyond our ground-level equipment or any other reason then we’ll say so upfront rather than take on work we’re not the right fit for.
Contact Us
Learn More From
Commercial Building Cleaning - FAQ's
Yes: as standard for every commercial job. Bespoke RAMS written for the specific site rather than boilerplate. Insurance certificates provided on request.
Yes. Evenings, weekends and overnight working available. Particularly common for retail (early morning), hospitality (out-of-service hours) and offices (weekend working). We factor this into the quote at survey stage.
Yes. We work with several clients on scheduled cycles across multiple sites. Portfolio quotes and framework arrangements available — please raise at survey stage.
We work from ground level using extending softwash equipment, which gives us safe reach up to typical two- and three-storey commercial buildings. For elevations beyond that range, we can work alongside your existing scaffolding or access arrangements. For projects where the majority of the work is above safe ground-level reach, we may not be the right fit and we’ll be honest with you about that at survey stage.
No. We don’t provide access equipment. If your project needs it, you would need to arrange that separately through a specialist access contractor. Where you have access already in place, we can possibly work from it.
From single retail units and small offices up to substantial commercial premises within our reachable range. For very large single sites or high-rise buildings requiring specialist access throughout, we scope the job carefully at survey stage to ensure we’re the right fit.
Yes. Softwashing is notably quieter than pressure washing, so occupied working is often possible. Where it’s not such as care homes, schools during term time, retail during opening hours, we schedule around your operations.
Typically every 2 to 4 years for softwash treatment, more often for high-visibility retail and hospitality where kerb appeal is critical. Softwashing kills organic growth at the root, so cycles are meaningfully longer than pressure-wash alternatives.
Yes as many of our commercial clients move to scheduled cycles once we’ve established the right cadence for their properties. Predictable costs, no surprises, no chasing quotes each time.
Yes; where these are reachable from ground level, they’re routinely bundled with commercial building cleaning. Ask at survey stage.