Sandstone care in Edgecliff

Edgecliff is a compact suburb wedged between Double Bay, Darling Point, Paddington and Woollahra, organised around New South Head Road, the underground Eastern Suburbs line station with its bus interchange, and the Edgecliff Centre above it. About seven in ten occupied homes are apartments and most of the remainder are semi-detached, so a good share of the local stone sits on strata common property. The older layer survives between the blocks. Fiona, an 1864 Classical Revival mansion of sandstone built for Sir Edward Knox, is now part of Ascham School, the Dower House is a Gothic Revival house of sandstone, and Glenrock's wrought iron and sandstone gates still stand. Fenton, on Albert Street, is on the State Heritage Register.

The sandstone here rarely sees much sun. Apartment towers and mature gardens throw long shadows over entry steps, side paths and retaining walls, and those surfaces hold moisture well after rain, which suits black mould and green algae. New South Head Road is a heavy traffic and bus corridor, so street-facing fences and piers carry a grey film of exhaust soot that a household hose barely touches. Downpipes discharging against old walls leave dark tide-marks and, over years, a soft, powdery band at ground level. The harbour at Rushcutters Bay is close enough for some airborne salt, but on most Edgecliff jobs damp, shade and grime are the bigger factors (we treat that as an inference from the setting).

Edgecliff is administered by Woollahra Council, which lists fifteen heritage conservation areas, none of them in Edgecliff at present. That may change. A council study of the Edgecliff commercial centre led to a planning proposal to list eight local items and a small conservation area of five buildings, which was at Gateway Determination when we last checked. Fenton is a State Heritage Register item, where the Heritage Act can require its own approval. For listed places, Woollahra asks owners to notify it and receive written confirmation before minor works begin. Apartment blocks follow strata law: section 106 puts upkeep of common property on the owners corporation, and section 111 stops a single lot owner from commissioning work on it, so instructions come from the strata manager or committee.

Edgecliff is the shortest trip we make, around five minutes from our Double Bay base, which makes it easy to fit inspections around a strata committee's timetable. Parking is the real constraint: New South Head Road is not a place to unload, so we arrange a building driveway, a side street bay or the loading area before the day. On apartment jobs our technicians split entries into halves so there is always a dry half for residents to use, put signs at each door, and keep hoses tidy across shared paths. Around Ascham and the station we avoid the morning rush where we can. Wash water from fences and steps is bunded at the kerb side and recovered by wet vacuum rather than reaching the drains.