Exterior cleaning in Alderholt
Roof moss, green render, blocked gutters and slippery block paving across Alderholt and the SP6 villages. Free site visit, free written itemised quote.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Almost every roof in Alderholt is concrete interlocking tile, and concrete tile is the one surface a pressure lance ruins fastest. So a roof clean here is a scrape and a soft wash, not a jet wash, and we will tell you which of your surfaces can take pressure before we quote any of them.
Three things get us called out to the village. A north pitch that has gone green from the road while the other side of the same roof still looks new. A pebbledash gable, or a painted masonry porch, with a dark bloom creeping up it from the shaded corner. And a block paving drive that has turned slippery underfoot and lost the sand out of its joints, usually noticed the first wet morning somebody nearly goes over on it.
None of those are emergencies and none of them fix themselves. What we do about them is the same each time. The site visit is free: we walk the whole property rather than the one elevation you rang about, put a small test area down where the surface is doubtful, and check what is in the gutters while we are there, because a roof full of moss and a downpipe running clear rarely happen together.
Then you get a written itemised quote with the method named for each surface, so you can see what is being washed, what is being treated and what we are leaving alone.
The work
What we are actually cleaning on Alderholt houses
The estate roofs. A third of Alderholt was built between 1983 and 2008 with the peak in the 1980s, so the common covering is concrete interlocking tile and that is where the moss is. It grows thickest at the lap, where two tiles overlap and water sits, then washes down and blocks the gutter outlet. We take the bulk off dry by hand and by scrape, working off a roof ladder or a tower rather than walking the tiles, then treat what is left with a biocide so the spore dies instead of being knocked off and coming straight back. No pressure goes on a concrete tile: the colour is a thin cement face and once it is stripped the tile takes up water and greens over faster than before. The village sits on a north facing slope, so the pitch that never gets direct sun is the one carrying the growth. Ridge tiles get looked at while we are up there, because moss cleared off a ridge bedded in soft mortar takes the mortar with it, and that is a repair rather than a clean.
Render, pebbledash and painted masonry. The older brick houses at the top of the village and out towards Daggons and Cripplestyle carry sand and cement render, a good deal of it pebbledash. That is loose stone held on by the mortar behind it, so it gets a soft wash: low pressure through a wide nozzle, or none at all, with the treatment doing the work. Push a lance at dashing and you hear the stone hitting the lawn.
Alderholt has pine and heath on its doorstep, so the gutters fill with needles and leaf litter as much as with moss. We clear by hand and by vacuum, flush each run to the outlet, and check the downpipe discharges into a gully rather than onto the drive. Where a roof has a valley, that is where debris collects first and the leaks start.
Block paving off the eighties and nineties estates is the common drive here: moss in the joints, weeds where the sand has gone, and a surface that turns slippery long before it looks dirty. That is a genuine pressure wash, followed by fresh kiln dried sand brushed back into the joints, because paving left unsanded loses its interlock and starts to rut. Slabs and Indian stone pick up black spot lichen, which wants treating and patience rather than blasting.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Nothing in Alderholt sits in a conservation area and there is not one entry on the national list inside the village, so a clean is maintenance and there is no permission to apply for. It only matters if you go further afterwards. Painting or coating a rendered elevation changes the outside of the house, and the Planning Portal page on external walls sets out where that line falls, with Dorset Council as the authority for this address. The quote itemises the method for each surface, the access, and where the water and residue go, so you can set it against anyone else's, and what comes off leaves with us.
Cost
What decides the price of a clean
Nobody can price a clean off a floor plan. What has grown on it decides the day. A single storey bungalow you can reach off a pole from the lawn, a two storey estate house with a conservatory blocking the back elevation, and a brick cottage on the village street with nowhere to park outside it are three different mornings before any water is turned on. Reach poles do much of it, a tower does the rest, and the work at height rules decide which. Ask what method goes on each surface, and whether treatment is included or only a rinse.
If there is a date
A viewing, a visit or a deadline
Ring rather than use the form. This is not emergency work, but it often has a date on it: a sale, a letting inspection or scaffolding coming down. Alderholt is out past Fordingbridge for us rather than round the corner, so village work gets batched into the same run and you get a day rather than a vague week. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Why the north side of your roof looks worse than the south
The ground around Alderholt faces north, and that decides more about how your property looks than the age of it does. A slope or an elevation that gets no direct sun stays damp for most of the year, and moss, algae and lichen need damp far more than they need dirt. It is why so many people here ring about half a roof.
The south pitch dries within an hour of the rain stopping and stays reasonably clean for years. The north pitch never really dries between October and April, so it greens over, holds water at the lap and fills the gutter below it while the sunny side of the same roof still looks fine.
What that should change for you is what you buy, not how hard somebody scrubs. Judge a quote on whether the treatment is included or whether you are only paying for a rinse, because on a shaded elevation the wash is the short lived part and the biocide is what buys you the years. Expect the north side to come back first and do not read that as a bad job.
Cut back anything overhanging that keeps the surface wet, keep the gutter under that pitch clear so it is not sitting in its own damp, and be wary of anyone offering to fix a shaded roof by turning the pressure up. On concrete tile that trades one green winter for a permanently porous surface.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Alderholt, Daggons and Cripplestyle, and the rest of the SP6 villages out to Sandleheath, Fordingbridge and Cranborne, with Dorset Council as the authority for this address. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.
Questions
Alderholt questions we get asked
Does anything here need consent before the house is washed?
No. There is no conservation area in Alderholt and nothing in the village is on the list, so washing a roof, render or drive is plain maintenance and Dorset Council has no say in it. That is not the case a few miles north at Cranborne. The only thing worth sorting first is whether a shared boundary or a neighbour's drain sits under the elevation we need to work from.
Why is the shaded slope always the worst one?
The prevailing local aspect in Alderholt is north, so the main slope on a great many houses gets no direct sun from one year to the next. Moss holds water on it right through winter, lifts the tail of the tile and drops broken lumps into the gutter below. We usually treat that slope and leave the sunny side, because a clean on the face that already dries buys you nothing.
What happens to the moss once it comes off?
It comes down into the gutter and onto the ground, so we sheet the beds first and clear it by hand before we leave. Heath and woodland edge close to Alderholt means the gutters are already carrying pine needle and leaf litter before any dead moss joins it, so the whole lot goes into bags and onto the van rather than into a border. Nothing goes near a surface drain.
What should I look at from the garden first?
Stand at the far end of the plot and look along the ridge and the verges rather than at the middle of the roof. Green sitting in the gutter line, a sagging length of guttering, or moss standing proud on the tile tails all point the same way. On the 1980s stock that makes up most of Alderholt the verge mortar is usually the first thing to let go.
Is there a wrong season for this work?
Late autumn is the worst time to book the treatment, because it needs a run of dry days to work down through the growth before rain moves it about. Frost is the other one, and we will not put a biocide on a roof that is going to freeze that night. Spring through to early September is the sensible window, and Thomas will say if the forecast means shifting your date.
Nearby, and next door
Exterior cleaning near Alderholt
Exterior cleaning nearby
Our other trades in Alderholt
Everything we do in Verwood Exterior cleaning, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get a price for cleaning it properly
Tell us what has gone green and we will come and look at it. Free site visit, free written itemised quote, and the method named for every surface.