Conservatory Cleaning in Sheffield The brightest room, back again.

A conservatory roof is nearly flat compared with a house roof, so rain, leaves and dirt do not run off. They settle in the bars and joints, stay wet, and give algae and moss exactly what they need. Add the city's trees, which drop blossom, sap, seed and leaves onto garden rooms all year, and the wind that carries grit up from the valleys, and the roof becomes a collecting tray.

Position makes a difference too. Many conservatories sit at the back of a house, in the shade of the main roof, a fence or the next-door gable, where little sun reaches them. Birds treat the roof as a perch, and droppings dry hard on the glass or polycarbonate. By the time the room feels dark from inside, the dirt on the outside has usually been building for years.

The housing on this side of the city gives conservatories a lot of places to sit. The semis and bungalows of High Green, Chapeltown and Burncross are the most common sites, where a garden room was added behind the kitchen. Larger detached homes on the edges of the villages have bigger, more elaborate designs, and older stone houses in Ecclesfield, Grenoside and Stannington sometimes have an orangery or a lean-to beside a stone gable. Terraces in Hillsborough are usually too tightly built for a full conservatory, but small glazed porches and extensions turn up behind them.

The styles are the familiar ones: a lean-to with a single sloping roof, a Victorian or Edwardian design with a faceted, pitched roof and valleys between the facets, and a gable-fronted version with a long roof run. Roofs are either glass or polycarbonate, and some have self-cleaning coatings. We look at what you have before we quote, because the style, the roof material and the access to the back of the house change how we plan the visit.

We clean more conservatories here than anywhere else in Sheffield. Semis, bungalows and detached houses on these estates were built with good-sized back gardens, and over the years a great many of them have gained a garden room, from a modest lean-to behind a Chapeltown semi to a large Edwardian-style design on a detached house in Burncross.

Gardens on the edge of High Green back onto fields and open country, so roofs there collect dust, seed and pollen carried in on the wind, along with droppings from the birds that work the farmland. Burncross gardens are older and greener, with trees that drop leaves into the roof valleys and keep the bars damp. Because most of these plots are fairly level and open, we can usually reach the whole roof with the pole from the lawn or patio.

In both villages, glass meets stone. Older houses sometimes have a lean-to or orangery built against a stone gable, where the join between old and new collects dirt and green growth, and the later estates around them have the usual uPVC conservatories behind the kitchen. Ecclesfield's larger older homes, set in mature gardens, tend to have the more elaborate designs.

Grenoside's gardens on the woodland side of the village take a heavy load of leaves, seed and needles every autumn, which packs into the roof valleys and holds moisture against the seals through winter. Its height also means wind-driven rain, so side glazing streaks quickly. In Ecclesfield, homes nearer the M1 and the main road see a greyer, greasier film on the roof that pure water and a soft brush lift cleanly.

Wincobank's gardens are on a hill, so a conservatory can sit on a terrace above the lawn or below a retaining wall, and the route round the back of the house may include steps. A water-fed pole used from the nearest level ground reaches the roof without a ladder balanced on a slope, which is the safest way to work here.

The Flower Estate cottages were built with gardens front and back, and some have since gained a small conservatory or glazed rear porch. Homes on the higher streets near Wincobank Wood collect leaves and sap, and those facing out over the valley take a fine dust from the roads below that dulls the roof and glass between visits.

Behind Hillsborough's terraces, small glazed porches and extensions sit close to yard walls with little space to stand, and a pole that reaches the roof from further back is a real advantage. Where a garden climbs or falls away from the house, we pick the spot with the clearest line to each facet before we start.

Stannington's 1960s estates and larger stone houses carry some sizeable conservatories, and the exposed ridge brings wind-driven rain and grit across them. In Oughtibridge, gardens often step down towards the river or up the valley side, and the damp air turns frames and seals green faster than almost anywhere else we work. A conservatory there may need a little more attention in autumn, when leaves off the wooded slopes settle in the valleys of the roof.

We work from the ground with a water-fed pole, soft brushes and purified water, so the roof is never stood on or leaned on. Soft bristles shift moss, algae and droppings from the roof sheets and bars, then the side glazing, frames and seals get the same treatment before a final rinse. Pure water dries without a trace, so the view from inside is not left with streaks or spots.

On a Sheffield garden, the first thing we decide is where to stand. We look for a firm, level spot with a clear line to each roof facet, and move around the conservatory as we work. We agree with you beforehand what is included, such as the roof, the glass, the frames and the small gutters, and we point out anything we notice, like a loose cap, a misted unit or a cracked panel.

In spring, pollen and blossom coat the roof, and the first bright mornings show every streak from inside. Summer sun bakes bird droppings onto the glass, and a conservatory feels its dirtiest when the sun is overhead. Autumn leaves fill the valleys and gutters of the roof, and the damp sets algae growing in the winter, when the room is least used.

That is why many Sheffield households book a spring clean to ready the room for summer and a second visit after the leaves have gone. Conservatories beside trees or on the north side of a house may need more than that, and the open, sunny ones can manage with less.

From Oughtibridge to Chapeltown, a conservatory visit usually starts with one or more of these:

The small gutters on a conservatory fill fast, so gutter cleaning in Sheffield is a natural companion. Roof cleaning looks after the tiles overhead, and window cleaning covers the rest of the glass so the whole back of the house looks consistent.

We clean conservatories in Rotherham and Barnsley as well, and you can see the whole range on the page for exterior cleaning in Sheffield.