Exterior hand wash, at your house.
Washed by hand in your driveway — two buckets, clean mitts, wheels and wells before anything touches the paint. Nothing abrasive goes near the car. Add a hand wax and the shine holds through the season.
Free quotes · No deposit · Pay on the day, once you have seen it
What’s
included.
The process is the point. Every step below exists to keep grit away from your paint.
Two buckets, clean mitts
One bucket of soap, one of plain water for rinsing the mitt. The grit that comes off the car goes into the rinse bucket instead of back onto the paint on the next pass. It is a different process to a tunnel wash, not a slower one.
Wheels and wells first, separate tools
Brake dust is metallic, and it is the last thing that should touch paintwork. Wheels, wheel wells and tires get done first with their own tools, before anything goes near a panel.
Tar and bugs as their own step
Both are bonded to the paint rather than sitting on it, so they come off chemically before anything is dragged across them. Dragging a mitt over bug residue is how you put fine scratches in a clear coat.
Hand-dried, tires dressed
Dried by hand with clean towels rather than left to air-dry. That matters more here than inland — salt air marks a panel as it dries, so a car left dripping ends up spotted.
Hand wax, if you want it
Optional, and worth most before winter. Wax gives road salt and airborne salt something to sit on that is not your clear coat, and makes the next wash pull it off far more easily. On the water it is the single most worthwhile thing you can do to the paint.
Road salt, pollen, bug season, or a quick refresh.
Winter is the main one. Brine coats the lower panels, sills and wheel wells and holds moisture against bare metal at the seams — that is a bodyshop problem, and it costs a great deal more than a wash. Commuter miles on 1 and 128 through Danvers and Peabody put highway film and brake dust on top of it.
Nearer the water — Beverly Farms and Manchester-by-the-Sea — there is salt in the air year-round, not just when the roads are treated. That is where a wax earns its money.
Under the trees in Wenham and Hamilton, sap is the one that catches people out — it needs taking off properly, not smearing into a wider film.
Questions people ask
Including what this service is not, which is usually the more useful half.
- How is this different from a $20 tunnel wash?
- A tunnel gets loose dirt off the paint and nothing else. It does not touch tar, bugs, sap, the wheel wells or the door shuts. Most tunnels also run hundreds of cars a day on the same brushes, so whatever the car in front brought in is what touches yours — that is where the fine circular scratches on older cars come from.
- Do you do ceramic coating or paint correction?
- No. This is a hand wash, with an optional hand wax. If a car needs paint correction it needs a shop with the right equipment, and there are good ones locally — we will say so rather than sell you something else.
- Can you wash a car in winter?
- Yes, given a day above freezing and a working outdoor tap. A lot of North Shore houses shut the spigot off in November, so mention it when you ask. Washing through the winter is worth more than waiting for spring — the January wash does more good than the April one.
- How long does it take?
- About an hour for the exterior on its own, longer with a wax or on a larger vehicle. Booked together with an interior detail it is most of a session.
- What do you need on site?
- An outdoor tap and a power outlet within reach of the car. Almost every driveway on the North Shore has both. If yours will not reach, or the car sits on the street or in a shared lot, say so when you ask for a quote.
- How often should I have it done?
- For most cars here, a wash every few weeks through winter to keep salt off, and a wax in late autumn before the salt starts. Under trees in Wenham or Hamilton, sap season tends to set the schedule instead.
Send a photo,
get a price.
Outside shot is enough. Tell us if there is sap, tar or a winter’s worth of salt on it.
Not on the list? Ask anyway — if you’re near the North Shore we can usually make it work.