Unicorn Property Services washes driveways, patios, walkways, fences, pool decks and house exteriors
throughout Round Rock and the rest of Williamson County. We are based on West North Loop in Austin and
run Round Rock routes daily. Licensed, insured, and on the calendar when we say we will be.
(512) 865-4730 — or request an estimate and we will come back with a number, not a range.
Round Rock sits on limestone. That single fact explains most of what we clean off houses here.
The water that comes out of a Round Rock hose is hard — heavy in calcium and magnesium picked up out of
the rock the city sits on. Every time a sprinkler head throws water across a brick wall, a garage door or
a stretch of sidewalk, it leaves a little of that mineral behind. Give it two summers and you have the
chalky white bloom on masonry that homeowners here often mistake for fading paint or failing mortar. It
is not. It is scale, and it comes off.
On top of that, Central Texas gives every exterior surface in Round Rock the same annual cycle: live oak
pollen in February and March that turns light-colored concrete a dull yellow, limestone and clay dust
through the dry months, and enough humidity from May onward to grow black mildew on the north and east
faces of a house where the sun never quite reaches.
A driveway in Round Rock is not dirty for the same reason a driveway in Houston is dirty. We treat it
accordingly.
Not every surface should meet a pressure washer. Shingle roofs, stucco, painted trim, older mortar joints
and window seals will all take damage from pressure that a driveway shrugs off.
For those we soft wash: low pressure, a cleaning solution that does the work chemically, then a rinse. It
removes the mildew and the mineral film without driving water behind your siding or stripping the granules
off your shingles. When our crew arrives, the first thing they do is decide which surface gets which
method. On most Round Rock houses the answer is both — pressure on the flatwork, soft wash on the house.
This is the job Round Rock calls us for most, and it is the one most crews get wrong.
Mineral scale does not come off with pressure. You can hold a 4,000 PSI tip against a stained brick wall
all afternoon and mostly succeed in eroding the mortar. Calcium deposits have to be dissolved, with the
right acid concentration for the substrate, dwelled for the right amount of time, and neutralized before
they can etch. Get the concentration wrong on limestone and you burn it.
We do this work on brick, on limestone, on garage doors, on glass and on the concrete apron under the
sprinkler zone that has been getting hit twice a week for six years. If the staining is severe we will
tell you honestly whether we can get all of it or most of it before you pay for it.
While we are there, it is worth asking us to look at the irrigation head that caused it. Fixing the arc is
cheaper than washing the wall again in two years.
A good deal of our Round Rock work starts with an envelope from a homeowners association. Teravista,
Forest Creek, Behrens Ranch, Paloma Lake, Mayfield Ranch and Siena all hold their exteriors to a standard,
and a mildewed north wall or a stained driveway is one of the more common things they write about.
If you have a letter with a deadline on it, tell us the date when you call. We schedule around compliance
dates and we will send you before-and-after photographs you can forward to your management company
without having to explain anything.
Where a job falls in those ranges depends on condition, access and how much of the work is stain removal
rather than washing. Larger homes and luxury properties may need a custom quote. We would rather look at
it and give you a firm number than guess low and revise on the day.
Spring, after the oak pollen drops. Washing in early February means doing it again in April. Late March
into April is the window.
Fall, before the holidays. October and early November are our busiest weeks in Round Rock, because a
clean roofline and a washed walkway are what people want before Christmas lights go up and family comes
in. If you want both done, book them together — our holiday lighting crews and our wash crews work off the
same schedule, and doing the wash first is the right order.
Round Rock has grown to more than 141,000 people, and Round Rock ISD now runs 56 schools for roughly
46,000 students. That growth brought a great many contractors to Williamson County, and not all of them
answer the phone in December.
Unicorn Property Services is part of a family of Austin companies that has been serving this area for more
than thirty years. The crews are ours, they are insured, and the person who quotes your job is the person
accountable for it. We clean up before we leave.
We run the same crews and the same methods in Austin and Cedar Park. If your property is outside
Round Rock, start there — or call and we will tell you plainly whether you are on a route.
Call (512) 865-4730 or request an estimate online. Tell us the surfaces, roughly the square footage,
and whether you are working against an HOA deadline. We will come back with a firm price and a date.
Why will you not quote my house over the phone?
Because the two things that move the price most — condition and access — are the two things nobody can describe accurately over the phone. A number given sight unseen either carries padding to cover the unknown or gets revised on the day. We would rather look once and give you a figure that holds.
Will washing take the white streaking off my brick and glass?
That is mineral, not dirt, and it comes off a different way. The water here is hard, and every irrigation arc that dries on a surface leaves calcium behind. It has to be dissolved at the right strength rather than driven off with pressure, and we quote it separately so you can see what that part costs.
My HOA sent a letter with a compliance date. How does that work?
Tell us the date when you call and we schedule to it. Ask for before-and-after photos and you will have something to forward to your management company without having to write an explanation.
Is soft washing just pressure washing turned down?
No, it is a different method. Low pressure carries a cleaning solution onto the surface, the solution does the work, and it gets rinsed. On siding, stucco, painted trim and roofing that is the only correct approach — high pressure drives water behind them and damages what it is supposed to be cleaning.
