How do you clean a wall?

I'm out in the pnw, working on cleaning some old routes up. What are some methods yall use to clean routes? I have a pretty good nylon brush and a wire bush which seems to work. Would it be stupid to carry a generator out there with a power brush to speed up the process?

Is your generator big enough to power a sandblaster? That should take care of it. 

Ask your local power company to go ahead and run some lines out to your crag so you can use electric tools, much better for the environment and then you can keep the beers cold in a mini fridge.

Wire brush and a broom. A battery powered leaf blower can be helpful as well. No generator. 

While a generator isn't necessarily the worst thing, I'd definitely ask a few questions before using one. Is it going to damage the rock? Annoy anyone in the area? Piss off landowners or folks who live nearby? Actually be any easier than hand tools?

I haven't cleaned that many routes, but a wire brush, gardening shears, small saw, broom, and leaf blower go a long ways.

The best wire brush

May not on sandstone or other soft rock.  But for granite etc that is the way to go.

Bring a small whisk broom, a nut tool you don’t mind destroying and you should be good to go.

a leaf blower is nice to finish the job.  

If you’re cleaning out crags you’ll need some sort of digging/scraping Implement.  Old ice axe or similar.

You can buy a grinding wheel attachment and put that on a power drill, it’s much faster than using a straight brush.

You don't need a power brush, elbow grease will work fine and the work goes fast. Motor driven wire wheels don't reach as well distance-wise or in corners and will erode soft rock leaving a manufactured feel. Using a battery drill to power the wheel all day is more taxing on the arm muscles than just brushing. That said, if the wheel feels better to you, then use it! Focus on cleaning the holds and not so much on the field. Here's my tool list when developing routes around Voyagers where lichen, moss, & duff cover all surfaces:

5-in-1 or small putty knife- attached to a short stick can be helpful

A couple standard wire brushes with 6ish inches of bristles, a curved tip can be useful- the front end wears out faster than the back and becomes ineffective so I bring backups 

Small wire brushes with 1-2" of bristles- I like the ones that have a separate tuft that kicks up at the end

<<< soft rock doesn't standup to wire so adjust accordingly with material & pressure>>>

3/8-1/2" stiff bottle/bolt hole brushes- excellent for cleaning cracks

Nut tool

Long skinny metal bar or flat tip screw diver- to clean out cracks

Small 8-10" pry bar or just commit to a 15" flat pry/nail bar

Hand/short handled whisk

Small battery powered leaf blower is invaluable for a beautifully cleaned wall- way, way better than a broom or whisk

High quality, sharp-ass, folding hand saw- Be extra careful not to cut you line or make any hull breaches on yourself, it takes nothing from one of these to ruin your climbing/cleaning day or bleed out

Dust mask, sometimes safety glasses, bandana, long pants & long sleeves- it's dirty work

A determined grin while you're working and some chilly ones to help soak up the satisfaction at the end of the day!

I'd recommend your typical battery operated hand drill with a sawed off new toilet brush before a generator (it actually works well for light cleaning) Past that I find a corse deck broom with a handle screwed onto it works wonders. 

For removing loose rock a geologists hammer is my go to.

 Take your time and enjoy the work!

Specialty tri-cam to get those clumps that're juuuust out of reach   

I think it’s important to consider the ecology where are you are trying to clean a wall. here in the Northeast things grow over really quickly if they are not climbed a lot. Sometimes even if they are climbed a lot.

Poco moonshine was a very popular cliff. And it fell into obscurity for a while due to access issues. These issues of still have since been resolved. There’s also a fairly intensive peregrine falcon closure. The peregrines I think really enjoyed the access issues. A few years ago I returned to the pilgrim wall, which had been one of the last walls to be developed. And it was horribly overgrown to the point of not being very inspiring anymore.

The best routes are probably established in areas that are not wet don’t have an excess of lichen growth on them. And aren’t extremely chossy. Obviously, there are exceptions to this.