Sandstone care in Wheeler Heights

Wheeler Heights owes its name to its school. Collaroy Plateau West Primary School opened in 1961, and in 1969, partly because sports buses kept going to the wrong school, it was renamed Wheeler Heights Public School at a teacher's suggestion. The Geographical Names Board registered Wheeler Heights as a suburb in 1977, downgraded it in 2002 and restored it in 2010 after a community campaign. South Creek Road carries the local shopping strip and some apartment buildings, while streets such as Rose Avenue, Berith Street, Lantana Avenue and Heather Street are lined mainly with houses. Sandstone appears in front walls, garden steps, retaining walls and paved outdoor areas.

Wheeler Heights sits on high ground away from the beaches, so its stone issues come from gardens and weather rather than the ocean. Mature trees in front and back yards drop leaves and flowers onto paths and paving, and wet debris leaves brown and green stains. Retaining walls on sloping lots stay damp at their base, where algae and moss grow. Shaded side passages and south-facing steps develop black mould and become slick in the cooler months. Front walls along South Creek Road pick up traffic grime, and lichen settles on wall caps. Many homes are several decades old, and their stone may show the effects of earlier harsh cleaning.

Wheeler Heights has no heritage conservation area in the sources we looked at. Individual buildings can still be listed, and the Warringah LEP 2011 schedule or council's planners can tell you whether yours is before older stone is restored. For apartments along South Creek Road, the strata Act places responsibility for common property with the owners corporation (section 106), and owners need authorisation before working on it (section 111). We provide a scope and method to support that approval. On every job, wash water is captured rather than sent into the stormwater system, which would carry it untreated to creeks and Narrabeen or Dee Why lagoons.

Wheeler Heights is 40 to 50 minutes' travel from Double Bay outside peak times, by our reckoning, by way of the Spit Bridge and Pittwater Road. Parking in the residential streets is rarely a problem, though the shopping strip on South Creek Road is busier. Our technicians start with a trial patch, particularly on older stone that may have been pressure-washed before. Leaves are cleared before cleaning, plants are protected, and all run-off is bunded and wet-vacuumed. On sloping blocks we work top-down and contain water at each level. For apartment common areas we arrange access and parking through the building manager and keep entries open. Any sealing is left until the stone has dried out.