Ivy removal from front of house- hints and tips

[Abkbjbjb]

Hi we have an ivy display at the front of our new house which we want to get rid of! I have cut the roots and have started to take chunks away, think I will need to get a gardener in to remove the high parts of I’m likely to topple off the ladder!!
does anyone know how I get rid of the root marks on the house? We want to paint the whole house exterior a different colour so I need all the brown bits off somehow. Not even sure a power hose will take it off
thanks

It will probably be full of birds nests at the moment so please wait until September. It's actually illegal to disturb nesting birds according to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

Come the autumn, if you pull a section of ivy from the bottom, big chunks of it will fall down.

Ah right ok, I know there is definitely no birds nests in it but will hold off anyway. Thanks ☺️

When you say power hose do you mean pressure washer, if so just a warning my neighbour did that to clean the outside rendering of his property and large chunks of the rendering fell off. We recently had a firm to clean our driveway/ patio and in conversation the man mentioned ‘soft washing’. The outside walls are cleaned using special cleaning products but not high pressure hoses. Google soft washing it sounds just what you need, clean walls with no damage

You really don’t need to wait until September- just be mindful and check. I have never had birds nesting in ivy against a wall, and we have loads of it, but maybe it is a thing. We still trim our hedges when needed, we just in advance make sure no nests. Ivy removal is tough - power hose will not cut it. I would scrape it away, which might be a significant time investment

We've got ivy on the house and frequently have birds nesting in it, and coming to take the cobwebs off it for nesting material. Some of the nests are very well hidden. If you are planning removal, it's kinder to wait till after bird breeding season.

When its dried out in the autumn, it will be easier to remove.

Leave it for a good few months so it dries out and the sucker roots die back a bit. Removing ivy is not a rush job. You've cut the trunk so it'll slowly die now.

You can winkle a flat-bladed knife such as a butter knife or a spatula between the clinging ivy and the wall, and lever it off bit by bit.