SWLSclean – by Harry Jackaman-Pegg and Faye Mayern
An army veteran is waging war against dirty road signs by scrubbing them clean in his own time.
Jake Tredgett, 26, can often be spotted on the side of the road with a scrubbing brush ensuring Norfolk’s signposts are filth-free.
Although Jake, from Mile Cross, Norfolk, owns his own cleaning company he has taken up sign washing as a personal quest.
Jake, a former trooper in the British Army, said: “I spend a lot of time driving from house to house in my job.
“Some signs are so dirty you can barely read them, especially in rural areas and on rural backroads.
“It’s quite dangerous, especially if a weak bridge or something is coming up. They don’t reflect at all at night.”
Now Jake’s sign-cleaning saga has amassed more than four million views across TikTok and Instagram, where he posts under the name of his business External Solutions Norfolk.
He says dirt only sticks to the outer layer of the signs, which is why they are easy and “very satisfying” to scrub clean.
Jake has to battle his way through “fluffy” green growth to make the signage sparkle – which he says makes the process all the more rewarding.
He added: “People love it on social media. I’ve done 20 altogether in the last two months.
“If I’ve got water on board the van I’ll just start cleaning signs.
“Cleaning them is as simple as opening the van door and grabbing a brush.
“Each sign takes literally three minutes to clean, including setting up the tripod to record.”
He joked: “The council can start paying me if they want.
Jake’s dirt-destroying dreams go far beyond keeping quiet and often neglected rural backroads spick and span.
He recently gave the “Welcome to Norwich” sign a good wash and in future Jake wants to take his scrubber to some of the county’s busiest roads.
