Portland Stone Graffiti Removal London
We remove graffiti from Portland stone across the City, Westminster and the rest of London, and a crew can be with you within three hours of your go-ahead. Office entrances, bank halls, department store fronts, civic buildings and station frontages. You get one fixed price before we start, a method chosen for Portland stone specifically, and a finish that matches the wall around it rather than a clean rectangle in the middle of it.
Get an Online Quote or call 020 8050 5997.
Portland Stone Graffiti Removal Without Pale Marks
Portland is the stone London owners most want kept looking right, and the one we clean most. It faces Selfridges on Oxford Street, the government buildings along Whitehall and hundreds of City offices whose owners want them to look expensive every morning. It is also the stone general cleaning firms damage most often, because it looks tough while its weathered skin is thin.
Portland is a limestone. Paint, marker and spray sit in its pores, not just on its face, and the weathered skin that gives an old frontage its even colour is thin. Blast that skin off and the patch you cleaned will glow white against the rest of the elevation for years. Nobody wants that on a head office.
Our crews carry their own water and power, so we take nothing from your building and nobody from your team needs to be there. We can start before your reception opens and be packed away before the first visitor arrives.
Recent Graffiti Removal From Stone Projects
Who Calls Us For Portland Stone
- Facilities managers for City and West End offices with Portland entrances and plinths.
- Managing agents looking after stone-fronted mansion blocks and mixed-use terraces.
- Retailers and banks whose ground floor is dressed in Portland above a granite base.
- Estates, livery halls and public bodies with carved Portland stone doorcases and cornices.
- Owners who have already had a bad clean and want the ghost of it put right.
What A General Contractor Does To Portland
We are often called in second. The first contractor arrived with a pressure washer and a drum of paint stripper, and the results are the same ones we see every month.
| Acid-based cleaner | Acids will dissolve calcium carbonate, which is what Portland is made of. The surface roughens, loses its skin and starts to hold dirt in a different colour from the rest of the facade. |
| High-pressure lance | Strips the weathered surface, opens the lime mortar joints and leaves the clean square that every passer-by notices. |
| Caustic stripper left too long | Pulls the paint deeper into the stone and leaves salts behind that surface later as a white bloom. |
| Wire brush on carved work | Rounds off arrises and softens lettering, and there is no putting that detail back without a mason. |
Historic England puts the risk plainly: "Acids will dissolve calcium carbonate and may remove the polished finish from marble and polishable limestones." That is why no acid product comes onto a Portland stone job of ours, whatever the tag is made of.
Get an Online Quote or call 020 8050 5997.
How We Clean Portland Stone
We match the method to the stone and the paint, then prove it on your building before we commit. The quote names the method, so you know exactly what will touch the facade.
- We test a small, discreet area first and let you see the result before the full clean goes ahead.
- Fresh spray paint usually lifts with superheated steam at very low pressure from our DOFF graffiti removal system.
- Older or deeper marks get a poultice that holds the loosened pigment and stops it spreading into the surrounding stone.
- Textured and weathered faces can take a gentle vortex clean with fine granulate if steam alone leaves a trace.
- We finish by blending the cleaned area into the wall so the eye does not land on it.
If your frontage turns out to be reconstituted stone made to look like Portland, the method changes, and we will tell you so at quote stage rather than on the day.
Portland Stone Next To Granite And Limestone
Very few London frontages use one stone. A typical bank or office entrance has a polished granite plinth at pavement level and Portland above it, sometimes with Bath stone dressings or softer limestone around the windows. Harrow and Wealdstone station is a good example of the mix, with "lower courses of Cornish granite and Portland stone dressings" in its listing.
Each of those surfaces needs its own treatment, and a tag that runs across two of them is where cheap work shows. We price and clean the whole mark, switching method at the joint. Our granite graffiti removal and limestone graffiti removal services run from the same crew and the same visit.
Listed Portland Stone Buildings
A lot of London's Portland stone is listed. If yours is, we tell you at quote stage whether consent is likely and work with you on the paperwork, so the job is never stalled with the crew on the pavement. Our stone graffiti removal team handles the method statement and the trial area that a conservation officer will expect to see.
Get an Online Quote or call 020 8050 5997.
Priced Once, Before We Arrive
Your Portland stone quote is a single figure, set once we know the area of the mark, the height and how the paint has taken to the stone. It already covers the trial area, any second poultice visit, access and making good. If something unforeseeable turns up, such as an old sealer failing under the paint, we stop and talk to you before any extra work starts.
Quoting is free, and there is no survey fee or site visit to book first.
Why Portland Stone Owners Use DUA
National accounts including Pret, Chestertons, Iceland, Coca-Cola, StayCity, Ibis, McDonald's, Kwik Fit and WeWork Waterloo trust us with their frontages. DUA is rated 5.0 from 42 Google reviews and carries £10m public liability cover, with the certificate sent alongside your quote. We attend seven days a week, including early mornings before offices open.
For anything that is not stone, from shutters to glazing, our professional graffiti removal service covers the rest of the building. We work across the City of London, Whitehall, Fleet Street and Trafalgar Square, and every other London borough.
Get an Online Quote or call 020 8050 5997.
Portland Stone Graffiti Removal: Frequently Asked Questions
How Much Does Portland Stone Graffiti Removal Cost?
It depends on the size of the mark, the height and how far the paint has soaked in. You get one fixed figure for your building, and the quote itself costs nothing.
How Fast Can You Get To Us?
Within three hours of your go-ahead, seven days a week, anywhere in London.
Will The Cleaned Area Look Lighter Than The Rest?
That is exactly what our method is designed to avoid. We keep the weathered surface, test first and blend the finish into the surrounding stone.
Do You Use Acid On Portland Stone?
No. Portland is a limestone, and acid attacks it. We use steam, poultices and low-pressure methods instead.
Can You Fix A Previous Contractor's Ghost Mark?
Yes. Shadows and pale patches left by an earlier clean are a regular part of our Portland work.
Our Building Is Listed. Can You Still Help?
Yes. We name the method in advance, run a trial area and support you with any consent the building needs.
Does Anyone Need To Be On Site?
No. We bring our own water and power and send you a completion report when the job is done.