Curb appeal

Merriam-Webster and Cambridge describe the same idea under two spellings. Merriam-Webster files it as curb appeal, the attractiveness of a house seen from the street. Cambridge files the idea under its British spelling, kerb appeal, and its curb appeal entry points there as the US spelling.

Cambridge's own sentence is a little longer: if a house has kerb appeal, it "looks attractive from the outside," in Cambridge's words, "so that people want to buy it." That second clause is the dictionary explaining how the word is used, and nothing more.

What the two entries share matters more than where they differ. Both describe a look, and the look of the whole house from outside. Neither sets a scale, a score or a figure, and neither comes from a roofing, paving, glass or appraisal body. The word is ordinary English about houses.

In 239 Exteriors' own printed wording, the phrase comes from its paver flyer: clean, sealed pavers boost curb appeal and help protect your investment. The paver surfaces the company names are driveways, patios, walkways and outdoor living spaces, and the pavers section of what 239 Exteriors cleans sets that line out in the company's own words.

The company's roof line uses different words for its result: roof cleaning removes organic buildup while "helping protect the look of your home."

The flyer line names sealing alongside cleaning, and ICPI's Tech Spec 5 describes what a sealer does to appearance: it says "Sealers are used for visual and functional reasons," and that they intensify paver colors, some adding a glossy sheen or wet look. The two sealer families and their finishes are set out under what a paver sealer does, and whether a sale calls for a sealed surface at all is the subject of sealing pavers before selling a house.

A word about the view from the street rewards whatever reads at that distance: color, contrast and stains. ARMA notes that algae discoloration on a roof is "most readily visible upon light-colored roofs" and not so visible on darker shades, so the same growth stands out more on a light roof than on a dark one. A camera records that contrast as well, which is why a clean roof photographs differently from a streaked one.

Pavers read the same way from the sidewalk. A figure caption in ICPI's Tech Spec 5 says pressurized cleaning equipment used by professional cleaning and sealing companies can bring out the look of pavers, and that look is what a passerby sees.

A look from the street is also all the word covers. It says nothing about the base under a driveway, the joints between the pavers or the condition of a roof, and a cleaner is not an inspector. Those findings belong to the trades that inspect and repair.

The dictionaries stop at appearance, and so does this entry. Whether cleaning moves a home's value is argued on does exterior cleaning add value, and whether it is worth doing ahead of a listing is weighed on exterior cleaning before selling a house.