Our office is in the town
68 Commercial Street, Lerwick. Not a mainland number and not a seasonal visit; you can call in during office hours, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
Lerwick, Shetland
Roof Cleaning & PropertyMaintenance in LerwickFrom a Team Based Here
Our office is on Commercial Street, a few minutes from most Lerwick properties, so cleaning, gutter work and repairs get done by people who can come back if something needs looking at again.
17 years' property experience · Lerwick-based team · Free, no-obligation estimate
17 years' experience
In Shetland property
Shetland coverage
Lerwick-based team
Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm
Local office hours
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Local Relevance
Working in Lerwick
Lerwick is our home town and our base. Arthur & Simpson Ltd operates from 68 Commercial Street, which means the town, Gremista, Sound, Nederdale, the Staney Hill area and the roads out towards the Knab are all a short drive rather than a day's travel.
That matters more than it sounds. A lot of exterior cleaning and maintenance work in Shetland is quoted by firms who visit the islands in batches, price a week's worth of jobs and then leave. If something needs a second look, you wait for the next trip. We are here permanently, which changes how carefully the work has to be done, because we will be the ones you phone about it.
Lerwick property is varied. There is the older stone and harled housing in and around the town centre, post-war and 1970s local authority stock, newer private estates on the edges of town, and commercial and harbour-side buildings that take the full force of salt-laden wind coming off Bressay Sound. Each of those wants a different approach: a jet wash that is fine on a modern concrete drive will strip lime harling off an old town-centre wall.
Because we started in estate agency and property management, a good share of what we do in Lerwick is for owners who are not living in the property: landlords, letting agents, people working away, and owners preparing a house for sale or valuation. That work needs clear reporting, photographs where useful, and someone who can be trusted with keys and access.
Getting to Lerwick
We are based at 68 Commercial Street in Lerwick, so Lerwick is served directly by our own team rather than by a subcontractor brought in from elsewhere. Most parts of town are within a few minutes of the office, so quoting visits, the work itself and any follow-up are all straightforward to arrange.
We do not publish a guaranteed response time, because we would rather give you a real date than a marketing promise. Call 01595 747045 during office hours and we will tell you honestly when we can be at the property, and whether the work is weather-dependent.
Property types we work on in Lerwick
- Older stone and harled houses in and around the town centre
- Post-war and 1970s housing across Sound, Staney Hill and Nederdale
- Newer private estates on the edges of town
- Flats and converted properties in the Commercial Street area
- Let properties and holiday lets managed on the owner's behalf
- Commercial and harbour-side buildings exposed to salt spray
What we are usually called for here
- Moss and lichen stripped off north-facing slate roofs
- Gutters and downpipes cleared before the autumn gales
- Harling and render softwashed rather than jet washed
- Drives, paths and steps cleaned back to a non-slip finish
- Joinery repairs to doors, frames and external timber
- Roofing repairs after winter wind damage
Services Here
Services available in Lerwick
Every service below is carried out by our own team. Follow any of them for the full detail on methods, process and cost.
Roof Cleaning in Lerwick
Moss and lichen removed from Lerwick slate and tiled roofs without breaking the covering underneath.
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Roof Coating in Lerwick
Protective coating applied after cleaning so a sound Lerwick roof keeps its finish through the salt and wind.
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Gutter Cleaning in Lerwick
Gutters, outlets and downpipes cleared so water leaves the wall instead of soaking into it.
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Softwashing in Lerwick
Low-pressure cleaning for harling, render and painted walls where a jet wash would take the finish off.
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Driveway Cleaning in Lerwick
Drives, paths and steps cleaned back to an even, non-slippery surface: useful on Lerwick's sloped sites.
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Joinery in Lerwick
Repairs and replacements to doors, frames, facings and external timber by our own maintenance team.
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Insulation in Lerwick
Insulation work carried out as part of wider improvement projects, in the right order, after damp is dealt with.
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Roofing in Lerwick
Roofing repairs for the jobs where cleaning alone is not the answer.
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Woodworm Treatment in Lerwick
Treatment of affected timber in older Lerwick properties, plus the joinery repairs that follow.
View serviceWhy Us
Why property owners in Lerwick call us
17 years in property, not just cleaning
David Arthur came into this from estate agency and property management, so the advice you get is about what protects the building, not what fills the diary.
Our own team does the work
Cleaning and maintenance are handled by the same in-house team, which is why one visit can cover a roof, the gutters and the joinery repair underneath.
Straight answers about cost
We look at the property, price the work and tell you what it is. Estimates are free and carry no obligation. We do not publish fixed prices, because roof sizes, access and condition differ too much for that to be honest.
We do not publish job counts, response-time guarantees, accreditations or warranty claims for Lerwick, because we have not been given verified figures to publish and will not invent them. What we can tell you is documented above: where we are based, how long David Arthur has worked in Shetland property, that the work is done by our own team, and that the estimate is free.
Local Conditions
The problems Lerwick property actually has
Salt, wind and a town built on a slope
Lerwick takes wind off the water from more than one direction, and it carries salt. Salt keeps surfaces damp for longer than rain alone would, and damp surfaces are what moss, lichen and algae need. That is why a north-facing Lerwick roof can be green within a few years of being cleaned while the south side looks almost untouched.
The town's slopes add a second problem. Water running off roofs, drives and steps has somewhere to go, and it usually finds the lowest wall on the property. Blocked gutters on a sloped site do not just overflow; they concentrate water into one place, and that is where the damp patch appears inside.
Harling and render that cannot take pressure
A lot of older Lerwick housing is harled or rendered, and much of it has been overpainted more than once. Those surfaces hold dirt and organic growth well, and they look dramatically better after cleaning, which is exactly why they get jet washed by people who should know better.
Pressure blows the face off harling, drives water behind the render, and leaves a striped finish that is worse than the dirt was. Softwashing cleans the same wall at low pressure and lets the product do the work, which is slower on the day and far cheaper over the life of the wall.
Older town-centre buildings and their timber
The older the property, the more likely that external timber, doors, frames, facings, sarking, has had a long relationship with moisture. Once water gets in and stays in, decay and wood-boring beetle follow, and neither stops on its own.
In the town centre, buildings are often close together and access is tight, which tends to delay repairs. Delay is the expensive part: a frame repaired this year is joinery, and the same frame in three years is joinery plus the wall behind it.
Let property and absent owners
A large share of Lerwick housing is let or lived in by someone other than the owner. Nobody stands in the garden looking at the roof, so problems are reported late, usually as a stain on a ceiling rather than as a blocked outlet.
Planned cleaning and gutter clearing is the cheap way out of that. It is a known, small cost once a year instead of an unknown, large cost after a wet winter, and it keeps the property in a condition a tenant will look after.
Our Process
How a Lerwick job runs from first call to finished work
Step 01
Tell us about the property
Call or send the form with the property type, its location and what needs doing. It takes a couple of minutes and costs nothing.
Step 02
We assess and price it
We look at the roof, walls, gutters or grounds, work out the right method for that building, and give you a clear price for the work.
Step 03
The work gets done
Our own team carries out the cleaning or maintenance work, tidies up, and tells you plainly about anything else we found while we were there.
Coverage
Lerwick and the areas around it
We cover the Shetland Islands and Orkney from our office at 68 Commercial Street, Lerwick. If you are near Lerwick, we almost certainly cover you too, ask.
Full service detail is on our cleaning & property maintenance services pages, and you can reach us any time through the estimate form below.
Questions
Lerwick: the things people ask first
Do you cover Lerwick?
Yes. Lerwick is our base; our office is at 68 Commercial Street. Most of the town, including Sound, Gremista, Staney Hill, Nederdale and the Knab, is a few minutes away.
How quickly can you get to a property in Lerwick?
Travel within Lerwick is minimal, so the limiting factor is our current workload and the weather rather than distance. We do not publish a guaranteed response time: call 01595 747045 during office hours and we will give you a real date.
What does roof cleaning cost in Lerwick?
We do not publish fixed prices. Cost depends on the size and pitch of the roof, the covering, how much growth there is, and access. We look at the property and give you a clear price before any work starts, and the estimate is free with no obligation.
Do you handle emergency call-outs in Lerwick?
We work Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and we do not advertise a 24-hour emergency service. If something urgent has happened, storm damage, water coming in, call during office hours and we will tell you straight away what we can do and when.
Will you pressure wash my harled walls?
No. Harling, render and painted walls are softwashed at low pressure. Pressure washing those surfaces removes the finish and forces water into the wall, and the damage costs more to put right than the cleaning ever saved.
Can you work on a let property while it is occupied?
Usually yes for exterior work. We agree access, timing and anything the tenant needs to know in advance: windows shut, cars moved, washing in. Interior work such as woodworm treatment or joinery is arranged around the tenant.
Do you work on commercial buildings in Lerwick?
Yes. The same cleaning and maintenance services apply to commercial and harbour-side buildings, which in Lerwick often need more frequent attention because of salt exposure.
How often should a Lerwick roof be cleaned?
It depends on aspect and shelter more than on a calendar. North-facing and sheltered roofs green up fastest. When we clean a roof we will tell you what we would expect for that specific property rather than sell you a fixed schedule.
Can you do the repair work as well as the cleaning?
Yes, and this is the main reason people call us. Joinery, roofing, insulation and woodworm treatment are handled by our own maintenance team, so a cleaning visit that uncovers a problem does not mean finding another trade.
Free Estimate
Get a free estimate for your Lerwick property
Tell us the property type and what needs doing, roof, gutters, walls, drive or repairs, and we will come and price it properly. No obligation, and no pressure afterwards.
property@arthurandsimpson.com
68 Commercial Street, Lerwick, Shetland ZE2 9EZ
Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm · Closed Sat & Sun
17 years' property experience · Lerwick-based team · Free, no-obligation estimates