How do we find out whether our building is inside one of the districts?

Schedule S §2.0 publishes boundaries and they are worth reading, but the City is the authority on where a parcel sits — not us, and not a map on a listing site. It is worth knowing before an estimate rather than after, because inside the districts the code changes the method and, on historic masonry, the occasion too.

We want the masonry on a standing schedule. Can you do that?

Inside the districts, on historic masonry, the code points the other way. Schedule S has that masonry cleaned only when necessary to halt deterioration or remove heavy soiling — a limit on the occasion — and a contract that books the same wall every year, whether or not it needs it, is written the other way round. So the first step is a look at the wall. The estimate is free, in person or by text, and you hear back within four hours.

Our building is outside the historic districts. Does any of this apply?

Section 11.0 says what it applies to — historic landmarks and property inside the established districts — so unless the building is itself a designated landmark, outside those lines that ordinance is not the rule you work to. The other half does not move with the address: how a brick, block or stucco wall should be washed is published by the trade association for each of those materials, and it reads the same on Sanford Avenue as on a warehouse wall out by the highway.

Commercial pressure washing in Sanford

Sanford wrote surface cleaning into its Land Development Regulations. Inside the four local historic districts, Schedule S sets a standard for how a structure may be cleaned and, on historic masonry, a limit on the occasion for cleaning it at all. That second one changes what a commercial property should be buying.

Where a district description mentions the alley, the back of the building may be inside it too

Schedule S publishes its boundaries in the definitions section, and some of them are drawn on alleys. The National Register Commercial District, listed in 1976, is "generally bound by Commercial Street on the north, Oak Avenue on the west, the alley between Palmetto Avenue and Sanford Avenue on the east, and Second Street on the south". The Sanford Avenue Historic District, created in 2023 by Ordinance 4729, is "generally described as both sides of Sanford Avenue from 2nd Street to Celery Avenue including all properties facing Sanford Avenue and extending from the alleys". On a commercial parcel that last phrase may do real work: read plainly, it suggests the district runs back to the alley, which would put the rear elevation, the service yard and any block enclosure by the alley under the same rules as the storefront. The ordinance does not define the phrase, so that is a reading, not a finding — and if that enclosure is block, the trade association publishes a different limit for it than for a brick wall out front. So the back of the property is worth showing us when you ask for an estimate, not only the front. Two cautions on all of it. "Generally" is the ordinance's own word in both descriptions. And a National Register listing and a local district designation are not the same instrument: the local Downtown Commercial district has a boundary of its own in the same section, with Sanford Avenue as its east edge, so whether a particular parcel sits inside a local district is the City's answer and not ours.

The code limits when the masonry may be cleaned, not only how

Section 11.0 B.6 is written as a duty rather than a suggestion: it is "prohibited and unlawful to fail to use the following techniques when maintaining historic structures", and the first of them is that "masonry shall be cleaned only when necessary to halt deterioration or remove heavy soiling". Cleaning historic masonry is "a special consideration", the paragraph before it says, because it is susceptible to damage from improper maintenance and from abrasive methods. That is an awkward sentence for a property manager who wants a schedule: same walls, same months, every year, on a purchase order nobody has to raise again. Inside the districts, on historic masonry, that is not the product the code describes. So on those elevations the first step is a look at the wall, not a date on a calendar. One boundary on all of it: §11.0 sets minimum standards for landmarks and for property inside the established districts, and B.6 speaks of "historic structures", so this is a district sentence, not a citywide one — and whether a given building counts as historic is the City's answer, not ours.

One facade, two published methods, and a code that breaks the tie

Section 11.0 B.1 opens with the standard — "the surface cleaning of structures shall be undertaken with the gentlest means practicable". That formula is not Sanford's invention, and Schedule S does not pretend it is: §9.0, item 7 carries the Secretary of the Interior's Standards word for word, and they ask for "the gentlest means possible" too. What is attached to it here is the difference. In this ordinance damaging methods are not merely discouraged: sandblasting and other abrasive, corrosive or damaging techniques are "prohibited and unlawful", and on historic structures so is failing to use the listed techniques, the gentlest method possible on masonry among them. That is stronger than a design guideline. It matters most when the material is uncertain. The published methods for brick and for stucco, both of which downtown Sanford buildings are recorded as wearing, do not agree — a pressure figure, a fan tip and a standoff from the brick association; a garden hose and a wash direction from the stucco manufacturers' association — and they do not reconcile into one setting on one machine. Where the material is not obvious from the sidewalk, this code has chosen which way to err, and it is the gentler way. You can read that for yourself; a contractor's preference you cannot.

Common questions

How do we find out whether our building is inside one of the districts?: Schedule S §2.0 publishes boundaries and they are worth reading, but the City is the authority on where a parcel sits — not us, and not a map on a listing site. It is worth knowing before an estimate rather than after, because inside the districts the code changes the method and, on historic masonry, the occasion too.
We want the masonry on a standing schedule. Can you do that?: Inside the districts, on historic masonry, the code points the other way. Schedule S has that masonry cleaned only when necessary to halt deterioration or remove heavy soiling — a limit on the occasion — and a contract that books the same wall every year, whether or not it needs it, is written the other way round. So the first step is a look at the wall. The estimate is free, in person or by text, and you hear back within four hours.
Our building is outside the historic districts. Does any of this apply?: Section 11.0 says what it applies to — historic landmarks and property inside the established districts — so unless the building is itself a designated landmark, outside those lines that ordinance is not the rule you work to. The other half does not move with the address: how a brick, block or stucco wall should be washed is published by the trade association for each of those materials, and it reads the same on Sanford Avenue as on a warehouse wall out by the highway.

Get a free estimate

Tell us what needs doing. We will come out and look, or quote from photos if that is easier.

Step 3 of 4

When suits you?

Send it over and we get back to you within 4 hours.

Estimates are free, with no obligation and no pressure. We can quote in person or straight over text — whichever is easier for you. Send a photo and we can often price it from there. Send it over and we get back to you within 4 hours.