Pressure washing in Orange, Connecticut.

Local conditions

Inland, so it is shade rather than salt.

Orange is landlocked. It separated from Milford in 1822 and sits between Milford, West Haven, Woodbridge and Derby, with the Indian, Oyster and Cove rivers rising here and reaching the Sound through the towns to the south. The salt film that drives so much of the shoreline work does not reach this far in.

What Orange has instead is timing. The town stayed rural through the nineteenth century and suburbanized quickly after the Second World War, so much of the housing went up in the 1950s and 60s. The trees planted around those houses are now sixty and seventy years old and full grown over the roofline.

That produces a specific pattern. Asphalt shingle that sits in shade most of the day grows algae and moss, particularly on north-facing slopes. Gutters under mature hardwoods fill every autumn without fail. And the vinyl siding that went on those houses holds mildew on the shaded elevations while the sunny side still looks fine.