Category: Awning Cleaning

Awnings give coffee shops and storefront businesses a unique look to match their brand and style. They come in different colours and patterns and are used for various reasons, such as improving a store’s curb appeal and providing shade. IMAGINE keeps awnings clean so coffee shops look inviting and appealing to customers. Here are three Vancouver cafes with unique awnings that make people want to go inside because it’s better outside. 1. Laudurée Ladurée combines its French design style with a hint of modern aesthetic to create an inviting, dream-like experience for its customers. This upscale boutique and tea salon is known for its macarons, delicious french pastries and its iconic shade of green. The Laudurée green was chosen for the walls of the first salon on the rue Royale, founded in 1862. Today we can experience that exact shade of green at the Laudurée on Robson street. Not only are the walls painted green, but their awnings match their iconic shade.  2. Thierry – Alberni Thierry gets its name from its founder and head pastry chef and chocolatier, Thierry Busset. The cafe is known for its macarons, cakes, and delicious pastries. There are currently 3 Thierry locations in Vancouver. The Alberni location has indoor seating, patio seating covered by beautiful awnings that match the exterior of the coffee shop, as well as extended patio seating because it’s always better outside.  3. Marché Mon Pitou Marché Mon Pitou is a French-inspired café, bistro, and specialty grocer that opened its doors in 2021. They offer brunch and a variety of delicious French baked goods. One customer said that the coffee shop gave off “the vibe that felt like we were in Paris without taking the plane.” The stripy awnings at this cafe add to the French aesthetic, matching the rest of its exterior.  Keeping Awnings Clean Every coffee shop has its unique awning style, enhancing the shop’s look. Keeping the exterior of cafes clean is important as it is the face of the business. Customers enjoy taking aesthetically pleasing photos of their coffees and pastries in front of clean exteriors. Call IMAGINE for a free estimate today, and we’ll take care of all your cleaning services, including window washing, awning cleaning, and power washing, and we’re here to help.

You’ve built your brand from scratch, laid out considerable cash, output kilowatts of personal energy, and have the best products and services around, so don’t let cleanliness be your downfall. Dirty awning can turn customers away. Have you ever been to a restaurant that had dirty restrooms? We’re sure you’d agree that it sullies the whole dining experience no matter how good the food is. We take in this kind of information subconsciously and consciously we make sweeping judgements all the time. A dirty washroom makes you wonder if everything behind the scenes is dirty and possibly unsafe and it may be sending the message of poor quality and low standards. What judgements do you think people make about dirty awnings? Awning Cleaning You may well have seen our awning cleaning teams working across Vancouver. Both smaller businesses and high end luxury stores both know the value of a clean awning. Cleaning an awning yourself may seem like a difficult task and in some cases, even for professionals, it is. It mostly comes down to what chemicals to use and on what kind of soiling, how to access the canopy, and whether there is a water source nearby. How long it has been since it was last cleaned also makes a difference when it comes to giving it a fresh clean. A professional awning cleaner deals with these issues so frequently that there’s very rarely an awning that can’t be cleaned. If after reading this, you notice that your awning could do with a tidy up, give our team a call to get a free quote, or schedule in your next awning cleaning appointment.

Avoid the most common mistake in awning cleaning and protect your investment. Awnings are a great addition to a home or business, they help control levels of light and sun exposure which keeps your home cooler, save on energy costs, and create a space for outdoor enjoyment protected from the elements. As they are on the outside of the home, they are susceptible over time to the elements, and require specific cleaning methods. DON’T As tempting as it may seem on youtube, avoid using a pressure washer on your awning if at all possible. On most commercially available pressure washers there is no gauge to indicate what pressure is being produced, leaving it up to the “feel” of the worker. The margin for error in using too high a pressure is too high. Imagine if our cars didn’t have speedometers and instead we had to “feel” how fast we were going, you would end up with a wide variety of travelling speeds. This alone makes the process inconsistent and unable to safety, and predictably duplicate the same result. Working a pressure washer from a ladder creates many challenges. Some awnings are quite deep, up to 10’ or more from the building to the leading edge. The nozzle of the pressure washer needs to be at a very specific angle to effectively clean, once the angle becomes to steep (caused by reaching out), less of the fan-pattern of the spray is in contact with the awning and can easily lead to scarring, or the embedding of a pattern into the material. When the awning is wet, it looks clean. When fabric is wet it appears darker and hides many imperfections in cleaning technique. Once the fabric is dry, technique is revealed. Visible spray patterns are a result of working too fast and using improper cleaning techniques. DO Use soft-clean techniques. As awnings age, the material can become thin and/or brittle, jumping straight into the harshest and strongest cleaning technique can tear and damage the awning. Use only manufacturer-approved cleaning products and old-fashioned elbow grease to gently remove dirt and algae. Apply a cleaning soap with a soft bristle brush and allow the soap to sit on the awning for a few minutes to penetrate. For deep algae penetration, especially on fabric awnings it may be necessary to clean both sides of the awning. Rinse with a garden hose and repeat as necessary. Following the full cleaning of the awning surface, apply a protective top coat to protect the awning from fading and to restore its original lustre. While the allure of a speedy result is appealing, pressure washing awnings simply has too many opportunities for errors. Following the soft-clean method you can expect a consistent result and enjoy your awning for many years to come.